The last few months have been jam-packed with adventures and travels, so I’ll be doing an abridged recap series (Scenes from a Scholarship) in the next few blogs.
After my New York Inauguration I returned Westwards to California again and ascended to the mountains of Lassen National Volcanic Park.
Photo credits: Samuel Thomsen
To reflect on everything that had just happened, and to test out my newly acquired camera (kindly on loan from Reef Photo & Video), in an equally breathtaking but less pressured environment than the oceans, I turned my gaze skywards – for some astrophotography!
Looking up at the night sky, I wondered what awaited me in the coming year. Reflecting on all that had unfolded in the past few weeks, I began to contemplate how best to achieve my goals.
The next question I asked myself in my quest to find ‘Sam’s Solutions for Society and The Sea’ was “How do I best convey my thoughts and ideas for solutions?”.
Photo Credits: Rose Dalrymple
Fast forward a few days, and I found myself in Alameda at Sylvia Earle’s submarine factory, Deep Ocean Exploration and Research (DOER). There were all sorts of cool contraptions and devices throughout, though I was there to work on a much smaller submersible, setting up the camera in the dive casing for the first time with the kind help of Rose (the OWUSS 2023 Schutt Photography Intern) and Taylor.
The very next morning I went for my first ever dive on the continent, in Monterey Bay! My first trip to Monterey, a few weeks earlier, just before New York, was of a different nature.
Previously I visited Tiger Lily’s House of Fish to see how they cultivated coral for the ornamental trade and visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).
Taylor generously took me out for my first official dive of the scholarship out to the Metridium Fields. After navigating our way through the kelp, we descended onto the dive site, where the ocean floor was brimming with the site’s namesake, Metridium (Plumose) anemones, eerily emerging from the gloom.
During the dive, my thoughts returned to the key question: “How do I best convey my thoughts and ideas for solutions?”.
It wasn’t until I returned to shore, reviewing the footage from my dive in the Metridium Fields, that the answer started to come into focus. The vivid images of the eerie Plumose anemones emerging from the gloom were captivating. It hit me—visual storytelling would be essential for sharing my ideas and solutions. Through images and videos, I could bring to life the urgency and beauty of ocean conservation in a way that words alone couldn’t fully capture.
Moving forward, I understood that combining science with powerful visuals would help bridge the gap between society and the sea, by making complex ideas more accessible and engaging. My journey was now not only about finding solutions, but also about making sure they could be seen, felt and understood by others.
To illustrate the point here is a selection of images I captured during my dives in Monterey:
Other Californian highlights include visiting Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station, touring Light & Motion, exploring Big Sur and discussing storytelling with Rose, diving among sea lions with Anne, catching up with Greg (the 1989 OWUSS Scholar) in Sacramento, enjoying the seaside culture of San Francisco, and catching up with Taylor again in Los Angeles!
Photo Credits: Rose Dalrymple
Photo Credits: Rose Dalrymple
Photo Credits: Rose Dalrymple
Photo Credits: Rose Dalrymple
Once again, I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society, my sponsors, and hosts for their generous support: Rolex, as the patron of the Scholarship; gear sponsors Fourth Element, Halcyon, Suunto, Reef Photo & Video, Light & Motion, and Nauticam; as well as support from PADI, The Explorers Club, Divers Alert Network (DAN) and Deep Ocean Exploration and Research (DOER).
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In addition to these blogs, I’ll regularly be posting vlogs, sharing what I get up to on Instagram (feel free to follow me @samphibianthemarvellous) and posting StoryMaps (got to fit in a cheeky bit of GIS somehow wink wink).
P.S. If you still want to know more about me, check out my biography, have a stalk of my LinkedIn or, better yet, get in touch (samuel.thomsen[at]owuscholarship.org)!
