Accompanied by chaperones Deidre Savino and Elizabeth Milanovich, students spent several days recently exploring the central coast to gain an understanding of the fragile ecosystem that connects the farmlands, wetlands and ocean. They also learned how overuse or abuse in one area has negative effects on another. “The connection is interesting - the life in the ocean is really impacted by what happens in the sloughs,” explains Audrey Cox ’19. “The farms impact the water in the sloughs, which goes to the ocean and impacts the fish in the ocean - which we then eat. Everyone should care, because everyone is affected!” This central coast plunge immersion is one of several offered at Notre Dame.

Students participated in a kayak trip through Elkhorn Slough and out into the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary waters off moss landing. They harvested tulsi plants and helped clean up the Homeless Garden Project in Santa Cruz. During a visit to Natural Bridges, students watched the monarch butterflies as they undergo their annual migration to Mexico. seeing all the butterflies at Natural Bridges was absolutely my favorite part," shared Audrey Steinkamp ’18. "I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a monarch in my life. At first, I was trying to take a picture, and then I realized: that was one of those moments you can’t catch on film. Natural Bridges felt like an odd place -- it was filled with blackberry brambles and eucalyptus -- not native plants! And, still, the butterflies come, and it is gorgeous."

The students went on to tour the Seymour Marine Discovery Center where they learned about whales and dolphins, and then to interview fisherman Jim Moser about his more than 40 years of fishing in the Monterey Bay and beyond. On Sunday, after mass at Holy Cross RC Church, students were given a tour of the UC Santa Cruz organic farm.