stockton university

Garrett Testut is a rising junior at Stockton University, where he studies Marine Science with a concentration in Marine Biology, and a minor in Environmental Science. He is a part of our 2023 season internship team. Originally from Connecticut, Garrett has a passion for animal care and behavior and hopes to work in the animal…

8/12/2022 – Breaching Humpback Whale, CMWWRC Database. Photo by Mackenzie Briggs.   Friday, August 12th, 2022 had started like any normal day interning on the American Star for the Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center. I prepared the equipment for a day researching Cape May’s marine life. I had no idea that this day would…

You soak in your last glimpse of the horizon line, then you descend into the turquoise world, toying with your buoyancy until you weigh nothing: you are part of the sea now. Your feet propel you forward and there in front of you lies the silent city and boy is it bustling. Your curiosity mirrors…

    If you are anything like me, your social media feed may be flooded with the dire state of our oceans. While this fact is rather unsettling, all hope is not lost. In fact, there are three simple lifestyle changes you can make that would have an immediate positive impact on our oceans.  Switch to…

When interning on a whale watching boat, of course the main goal is to find and spot some whales and dolphins. For me, I was always secretly hoping that on our outing we would come across my favorite marine animal, sharks. My wish came true and my favorite day on the boat turned out to…

When I was invited to intern for the 24-hour pelagic trip that was planned for June 3-4, 2022, I knew it was an opportunity I could not refuse. The chance to be on a boat for an entire day searching for offshore marine mammals, pelagic birds and other organisms seemed too amazing to turn down,…

One of my most impactful experiences happened aboard the American Star on May 26, 2022. It was my third day as an intern at the Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center and Icould not wait to get out into the open waters. As we were leaving the inlet to enter the AtlanticOcean, that’s when…

The Atlantic Horseshoe Crab, also called by the scientific name Limulus polyphemus, are prehistoric animals that have been on Earth for millions of years. They are in the Phylum Arthropoda. The horseshoe crabs’ structure dates 245 million years ago in the Carboniferous Period and they are more closely related to spiders, ticks, and scorpions (Tanacredi, Bottom & Smith…

    The Cownose Ray, Rhinoptera bonasus, gets its name from the shape of its forehead, which resembles the nose of a cow. The top of the ray is a brown color, and the bottom is white. Females are 3 feet in width, and males are 2-and-a-half feet in width. They have long whip-like tails with…

Sphyrna mokarran, or the Great Hammerhead Shark, is an endangered species within our oceans. Like many other species, these large sharks can be caught and trapped within beach nets and even fishing nets. These beach nets are used as a guard between humans and sharks, to keep as many sharks away from humans as possible….