The first Marine Science seminar of the year was hosted earlier in October. The seminar was hosted by the Marine Science program and it was on the future of marshes. Erin Reilly who is from the Barnegat Bay Partnership was the presenter.

This seminar focused on problems facing marshes, particularly the Tuckerton and Cattus Island marshes. Reilly also explained the methods by which employees of the Barnegat Bay Partnership would collect data, like using quadrats and transects. After collection of this data, elevation maps were created and outlined the marshes according the elevation. The classification of elevation were referred to as zones. Zone 1 had the lowest elevation, and zone 5 had the highest elevation. The low elevation zones could be considered possible candidates for a new process called thin layer deposition.

Thin layer deposition is when dredge is put on top of marsh in places where the marsh is suffering, either through sinking or erosion. Based on the elevation maps and quartiles completed, the Tuckerton and Cattus Island marshes could be candidates for thin layer deposition, but more data is needed. If these marshes are deemed appropriate for this procedure, additional funding is needed, because thin layer deposition is a costly and labor intensive process.

The information learned from going to this seminar was incredibly valuable. It is interesting to learn about marshes whether you are a marine science student or not. Marshes are incredibly important assets, especially in New Jersey, and more information needs to spread about them.

On September 10^th the Noyes Museum of Art hosted a panel about climate change. On this panel were reporters, scientists, and artists. The artists here represented those who created the works being displayed in the exhibit Frozen Earth: Images from the Arctic Circle at the museum. Each panelist was given a ten minute time frame to talk about climate change, or his or her own experiences.

Jeff Niemitz began by giving a background on climate change. Niemitz explained how climate change is a continuous process of the Earth and water becoming warmer. Since the water is becoming warmer the snow and ice melts which limits the amount of radiation being reflected. This in turn makes the water absorb more radiation and become warmer which starts the process over again. The next speaker was Michael Lemonick, who was the editor at Time. He spoke about how he has been writing about the greenhouse effect and ozone hole since 1988.

Amy Lipton was the next panelist. As an artist she had a unique perspective on climate change and showed examples of her own work. Lipton explained how portraying climate change is sometimes difficult saying something along the lines of “climate change is hard for artists to deal with because it is an abstract concept.” Lipton was a participant in The Arctic Circle Foundation which Aaron O’Connor spoke about next. O’Connor explained that The Arctic Circle Foundation is a program that allows people of any profession to go to the Arctic Circle.

Overall, the climate change panel was extremely informative and entertaining. The panelists were from different professions which allowed for many perspectives to be heard concerning the complex issue of climate change.

On Friday October 2, 2015 at 7:30 p.m. the Performing Arts Center of Stockton University hosted The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The play was put on by the Aquila Theatre Company. The play covered three stories about Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. However, there was a twist; in this play Sherlock Holmes was reimagined as a woman.

Act I began with the story “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches.” This story was focused on a governess who took a position with a strange couple. The couple offered to pay her an extraordinary amount of money to take care of only one child, but she also had to do other strange tasks like sit with her back to the window and cut her hair. She goes to Holmes to find out why the couple is acting so strangely. It turns out the couple was pretending the governess was their daughter in order to stop the marriage between their daughter and a man, so the parents could keep the daughter’s money.

The other story in Act I was “The Adventure of the Yellow Face.” A man comes to Holmes needing her help to figure out why his wife asked for a large sum of money and was disappearing during the night to a cottage on his street. The man was also seeing a strange face in the window of the cottage his wife was going to. With the help of Holmes, the man discovers that his wife was hiding her child in the cottage. The man had thought the husband and child had died in America, but in reality the daughter had survived. Since the daughter was black the wife hid her out of fear. However, she had nothing to fear because the husband was accepting of her child.

After a short intermission, Act II began with “A Scandal in Bohemia.” The story starts with a man wearing a mask coming to Holmes for help. The man who is the King of Bohemia does not fool Holmes with his mask, and tears it off and tells his secret to Holmes and Watson. The King needs Holmes’s help to retrieve a picture of himself from a past lover, Irene Adler. This picture would be harmful to the King in regards to his engagement to the daughter of the King of Scandinavia. Holmes begins following Irene and is even the witness at her wedding. Holmes fails to retrieve the picture from her intellectual match, but Irene promises not to show the picture to anyone.

Despite the nor’easter and potential hurricane the theatre was nearly full of students and members of the community. Everyone who went to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes seemed to have enjoyed the play. There was laughter and drama throughout the play. The actors did a wonderful job, even though there were only five actors in the company so each actor had multiple roles to fill. It was a pleasure to see such versatile actors putting on an entertaining play.

On Sunday August 30^th, as a part of Welcome Week for new students, an event called Building Wars was hosted. The event was sponsored by the Resident Hall Association, and lasted from 12:30- 4:30 in the TRLC Quad. During this event, each building was given a color and was pitted against other buildings in various competitions.

To start the day each building could decorate a sign to put outside. Building D decided to create the tagline “Leaving the Dream” and decorated the sign with leaves and the names of the residents, RAs, and TALONS participating. The first event building D competed in was trivia. The topic of the day was Stockton trivia, and each building had someone sit in a seat and that person would then race to a table in front of the room to answer the question. Building D did not win this event, but the next activity was to play Ships and Sailors. This game requires participants to listen to instructions and do what is described, with the last person to do an activity being eliminated from the game. The game ended pretty quickly with a win for Building D.

In between events various ice breakers were being held, including favorites such as Ride That Pony, 1 2 3 Look, and Ninja. The next event was a watermelon eating contest, and the participant for building D quickly ate her way to victory over the other building, giving D another win. Then a tug-of-war took place, allowing each team to put eight of its strongest members on the rope. In a best of three games scenario building D was shown not to be as strong overall as the other building. Building D also participated in a water balloon toss, volleyball, and human foosball, with all ending not too well for the building.

The final event for building D was an inflatable obstacle course race. During this race three members of each building raced relay style to be the first building completely done. The other team proved too fast, and building D ended the day with another loss. Despite not winning, everyone who participated seemed to have a fun time and were able to bond as a building. Overall, Building Wars was a big success and a highlight of Welcome Week.

On Wednesday November 18^th the Marine Science program hosted its second seminar of the semester. David Golden from the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife gave a presentation of the potentially beneficial reuse of dredged materials. Golden compared traditional dredging which leads to a net loss of sediment to a new dredge process which could add ecological and economic benefits by restoring marshes. Eroding marshes deposit sediments in channels, which then need to be dredged. Traditionally, the dredge material would be put in an area secluded from the marsh and the marsh restoration would not be addressed. The new process would combine the restorative needs of the marsh and the dredging needs.

Two sites have already experienced the new marsh restoration processes Golden described. Stone Harbor did not react well to thin layer deposition because it was mostly sand at this site, but dredged sand was able to accumulate and make a habitat for the birds who nest there. The second project was more successful with thin layer deposition. The site was in Avalon, and contained mostly fine materials like silt and clay. Another project is in the works at Fortescue. This project will have various types of restoration happening, all requiring a specific type of dredge to be used. Marsh restoration, dune restoration, and beach replenishment will all be attempted at Fortescue.

The seminar was extremely informative to attend. Presentations like this are very helpful to students because it gives students opportunities to learn of various projects going on related to their majors.