For Hub City Times

WASHINGTON — Marshfield High School students Suhaas Bhat, David Gui, Muhammad Abidi, and Carter Chojnacki, who placed second along with teammate Emma Raasch in the 2017 National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB), and their coach, Paul Herder, took their award trip to coastal New Jersey in August.

While hosted by the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), the team traveled the Mullica River with scientists collecting measurements with the NERR systemwide monitoring program, toured the Rutgers University Marine Field Station, and visited Wharton State Forest and the birding loop at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.

Monmouth University provided a full-day boat tour of New York harbor, an urbanized coastal excursion discussing the impacts of Superstorm Sandy in 2012, and a visit to the J.J. Howard Sandy Hook Laboratory as well as discussions with a shark and sturgeon researcher and a live demonstration of the Mid-Atlantic Data Portal with the university’s Urban Coastal Institute.

Before heading home, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, a 2017 NOSB sponsor, provided the team with a tour of Ohmsett, the National Oil Spill Response Research and Renewable Energy Test Facility located on a secure Navy base. The tour included demonstrations of how oil spill responders use technology such as skimmers and dispersants during recovery operations and how the facility can generate various types of waves used during testing.