From Harbor School to Island School

The Bahamas Trip — an annual certification adventure for Harbor School’s student divers.

Each year, students from the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School undertake an ambitious diving trip to the Bahamas at The Island School. These trips offer more than a geographical shift from the challenging waters of the New York Harbor these high school divers experience; they’re deep “dives” into some unparalleled marine science education.

The Bahamas trip, a core element of the Harbor School's Professional Diving Career & Technical Education (CTE) program for over a decade, offers an opportunity for students to gain open and advanced open water PADI certifications. These certifications are required for the kinds of dives these students may pursue in their future careers and internships with Billion Oyster Project in the rough estuary waters of New York Harbor, like the two alumni (a PADI instructor and Divemaster) who joined the group this year as newly certified professional divers. 

Compensating for the hiatus caused by the pandemic, this year’s trip included a group of seniors instead of sophmores. The team's preparation and dedication were evident as 11 seniors, with guidance from alumni, successfully achieved their open water and advanced certifications, which include special dives like Fish Identification - a cool combination of skills vital for their future contributions to Billion Oyster Project and the ecological management of New York Harbor. Controlling your buoyancy enough to collect data while diving is no easy feat!

The students' daily schedule is equally as rigorous, starting at 6:30 AM to fit two dives in before lunch and another in the afternoon. These dives incorporate lessons in marine biology as much as they do dive texploration. After long days in the water, students attended evening lessons on current research at The Island School, covering topics such as coral reef ecology, shark biology, and (of course) getting hands-on with lionfish dissection. 

One of the most remarkable dives was at "The Cage”, a former cobia farming site with the infrastructure still intact at a depth of 80 feet below, located off “the wall” – the cliffs that line Eleuthera island. Students encountered Caribbean reef sharks and a scalloped hammerhead. Students also embarked on their navigation dive at Triangle Cut – a shallow dive offering a truly unique experience as students cruise over a blanket of cassiopeia jellies.

Beyond the dives, the trip was a profound exercise in community building and teamwork. As Zoë Greenberg, Billion Oyster Project’s Assistant Dive Safety Officer, observed “the students displayed exceptional collaboration, a skill as vital as their diving expertise”. The expedition was not all work, though. The crew managed to break away for a trip to The Glass Bridge (a “down-island trip” as they say at Island School) and a bite at the school’s former chef Sherryl’s restaurant.

The trip may be far away from New York Harbor, but there’s so much to learn from marine environments across the globe, from diving skills to what motivates future guardians of the marine environment. As they returned, these young minds brought back not just memories and certifications, but a renewed commitment to marine conservation and a strengthened bond with the aquatic world they are learning to protect. Wish them a great last semester at Harbor School!