Key points
- The Collaborative Australian Postgraduate Sea Training Alliance Network (CAPSTAN) provides university students with hands-on experience with the multidisciplinary science delivered onboard research vessel (RV) Investigator.
- The program offers a unique opportunity for skill set development, professional networking, personal growth and intergenerational knowledge transfer.
- CAPSTAN is supported by a network of university, research and industry partners and gives students a more holistic understanding of the entire ocean system and research operations.
The ocean is full of mysteries, and for a group of university students, it’s also the ultimate classroom. The Collaborative Australian Postgraduate Sea Training Alliance Network (CAPSTAN) program brings together early career marine scientists from all walks of life. They receive hands-on experience at sea and a deeper understanding of the marine world – along with the skills to help protect it.
Before they departed, Meg Whitfield from ABC's Tasmanian Country Hour spoke with students about what motivated them to step aboard our research vessel for 10 days of training on the high seas.
Meet some of the seagoing students from our inspiring CAPSTAN class of 2025.
Ishtar Kenny, University of Adelaide
Ishtar completed an undergraduate degree in marine biology and is now doing a PhD in marine restoration. She is interested in the process of repairing and rebuilding marine ecosystems that have been damaged. This can involve restoring everything from coral reefs to seagrass meadows, as well as improving water quality and reintroducing key species to degraded habitats. Ishtar was attracted to CAPSTAN by the opportunity to increase her skill set.
“Most of my research so far has been around restoring marine ecosystems and some of the not only ecological but also social components that facilitate that,” Ishtar said.
“I haven't really had any experience with any of kind of the nitty gritty, technical oceanographic and geological marine stuff so I'm interested to see how it all works."
Lisa Walton, University of Sunshine Coast
Lisa Walton has completed an undergraduate degree in marine science and is now doing a PhD. She was interested to see the variety of equipment that would be used and deployed during the CAPSTAN voyage.
“For my PhD, I already have all the data that I'm using, and this is an opportunity for me to actually see the equipment go in and out of the water, and look at the data in real time,” Lisa said.
“I'm really excited about that.”
Rachel Wong, University of Tasmania
Rachel Wong is in the third year of a PhD and describes herself as a benthic ecologist in training. Her area of focus is organisms that live on or in the seafloor, known as the benthic zone. This includes everything from tiny microbes and invertebrates to larger creatures like crabs and sea stars.
“My research looks at the habitats of deep reef communities and specifically at the Tasman Fracture Marine Park, where the bulk of my work is,” Rachel said.
The area features sheer underwater cliffs, ancient coral reefs, and diverse marine life. Stretching from the continental shelf to depths of over 4,000 metres, it protects habitats rarely seen, including species found nowhere else in the world.
“When I first applied for CAPSTAN, I didn’t know that we were going down to the Tasman Fracture so I'm really excited to go down there."
“I've seen the images and what the seafloor looks like, but to be able to go there and to see it in real time, to understand some of the operational constraints that went into collecting my data, I would gain a much better appreciation the next time I write a research proposal."
“I can factor that in,” she said.
Rachel said it was like Christmas when she realised the voyage was going to fit perfectly with her research.
“It was better than Christmas.”
“I don’t just get to look at the habitats I examined but, this time around, we're actually going down deeper so it could be a whole new different world,” Rachel said.
Emily Hunt, University of Sydney
Emily has a research background in shark foraging ecology and is doing a PhD on the subject. Shark foraging ecology explores how sharks hunt, what they eat, and how their feeding habits shape marine ecosystems. By studying their movements, prey choices, and hunting strategies, researchers gain insights into shark behaviour and their role as top predators in the ocean. She was thrilled by the opportunity to get hands on experience with her work.
“I don't actually get to do any fieldwork so having the opportunity to get these multidisciplinary skills – and even just the operational skills of the boat – it's really important,” Emily said.
Tanya Dodgen, Queensland University of Technology
Tanya is in her last year of a PhD and has wide experience with marine fieldwork in the tropics. She expects the at-sea experience to be very different on this voyage.
“I have done quite a bit of marine fieldwork but it's up in the tropics so here, when they casually talk about three metre swells, it's a very different environment!” Tanya said.
“I feel like the reef environment is very welcoming and very colourful, and I'm quite excited to just see such a different marine space.”
“And the size of this research vessel is just orders of magnitude bigger than what I've ever been on,” she said.
Catherine Vally, University of Tasmania
Catherine is currently doing her Masters of Marine and Antarctic Science. She is particularly interested in the shipwreck search being conducted on the voyage, which is something outside her general field of research.
“We had somebody talk to us today about it and to just see how shipwrecks degrade over time and how they go about understanding what period they're from, that kind of thing is just so interesting to me,” Catherine said.
Joseph Cresswell, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
Joseph is doing a PhD and has a background in geology but is currently studying past climate change in the ocean. He said the opportunity to gain new experience drew him to the CAPSTAN program.
“I look at deep ocean mud,” Joseph said.
“However, I've not been on an ocean research voyage before so, from my own perspective, just having that experience is awesome.”
“On the voyage, we’ll do a lot of bathymetry surveys. Looking at what's on the seafloor, and having that understanding, is important for my research. That underpins any ocean research in my field."
“So, for future opportunities, I think it'll be really important for me,” Joseph said.
Despite the diversity in backgrounds and experience, one thing is clearly on display. All students are fiercely passionate about understanding and protecting our marine environment and, in the coming years, are poised to make an important contribution as the future stewards of our oceans.
Student interviews were originally recorded by ABC reporter Meg Whitfield for ABC Radio’s Tasmanian Country Hour.
CAPSTAN is a maritime education and training initiative of Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) and the Australian and New Zealand International Scientific Drilling Consortium (ANZIC).