St. Mary's College of Maryland Expands Environmental Science Program With New Research Vessel

St. Mary's College of Maryland, the state's public honors college on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, has added a new 42-foot research vessel to its environmental science program, expanding the amount of hands-on fieldwork students can conduct studying bay water quality and aquatic ecosystems.

The vessel, funded through a combination of state capital funds and a private donation from a Southern Maryland foundation, replaces an aging boat that had been in service for more than two decades and increasingly required costly repairs. The new vessel includes updated water sampling equipment and expanded deck space for student research teams.

"Being on the water is not an add-on to what we teach here, it's the core of the program," said the chair of St. Mary's environmental studies department. "Every student in our program spends real time collecting their own data on the bay, and the old boat was becoming a genuine limitation on how much of that we could do."

The college's environmental science program has grown steadily in recent years as interest in Chesapeake Bay restoration work has increased among students pursuing careers in environmental policy and marine science. Faculty said the new vessel will allow the program to run two full research sections simultaneously rather than rotating single groups through limited boat time.

St. Mary's College, a small public liberal arts institution with an enrollment of roughly 1,600 students, has built a regional reputation for its marine and environmental science offerings, drawing partly on its location directly on the St. Mary's River near the bay.