Floating Classroom with UM Oceans Debate

On April 10th, 2026, The International SeaKeepers Society hosted 9 students and 4 educators from the University of Miami Oceans Debate program for a Floating Classroom experience aboard our DISCOVERY Vessel River Queen. These students traveled from all the way from the University of Mississippi to participate in UM’s yearly ocean debate surrounding a vast range of topics including climate change and ecotourism. After departing from FIU’s Biscayne Bay campus our students listened to a quick safety briefing before diving into several South Florida ecosystems, including seagrass meadows, mangrove forests, coral reefs, and The Everglades. Through brief encounters with dolphins our group delved into questions on marine mammal regulations, threats to coral species, and even harmful sunscreen additives. Using our Earth Echo Challenge kits, we segued into our next activity introducing the water quality concepts we would be testing for- temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen level, and turbidity. Our team was delighted to see continuous trends of high dissolved oxygen levels amongst stormy conditions in the past few days. To wrap up our day, we completed a short island cleanup at Sandspur Island where in just twenty minutes our students managed to collect 91 pounds of trash, a new floating classroom record for 2026. We wanted to give a huge thank you to UM Oceans Debate for a stimulating afternoon and for their continued collaboration with our team!