An Aquatic Education

Photograph courtesy of Seacamp Association

Summer camp often means long hikes through the woods, but at the Seacamp Association, in the Florida Keys, young people spend much of their time underwater learning about the beauty — and fragility — of tropical coral reefs and other aquatic life.

Since its founding in 1966, Seacamp has brought about 200,000 youths, age 12 to 17, to its facility on Big Pine Key.

Preferring a “hands-on, interactive education” to a classroom, Seacamp’s participants take field trips in the camp’s eight pontoon cruisers to the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico to explore the cornucopia of marine life located in those bodies of water.

Under the guidance of Seacamp’s instructors, including biologists, geologists, and oceanographers, the campers take science courses in, among other things, marine botany, invertebrates, vertebrates, and how to set up a saltwater aquarium.

But Seacamp isn’t just about studying. It also includes scuba diving, sailing, windsurfing, and photography.

Seacamp, with an annual budget of roughly $3.5-million, wants to expand its foreign-exchange programs. Currently the camp has about 30 students from outside the United States.

The camp also wants to expand its international trips. In the past, the charity has provided sailing trips to the Bahamas, as well as an “eco-venture” to Russia, which included a two-week cruise on the Volga River.

Here, two Seacamp students go scuba diving off Looe Key in search of a group of yellowtail snapper and butterfly fish.