Jennifer Sherbinski, a biology teacher at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris, will add real-world marine biology to her students’ curriculum when she returns from an Ecology Project International fellowship off the Baja peninsula in Mexico. She will study marine life in an environment comparable to the Galapagos Islands for two weeks in March. Submitted photo

PARIS — Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School biology teacher Jennifer Sherbinski has been waiting for three years to participate in the Ecology Project International fellowship for which she was chosen before the pandemic.

Now that her time has come, she will be involved with a marine mystery: the disappearance of whale sharks from winter feeding grounds in the Gulf of California off the Baja peninsula in Mexico.

Her eight-day fellowship starts in March. She will study small invertebrates such as anemones, mammals such as sea lions, fin and humpback whales, and thousands of organisms. In addition to the study of marine life, there will be coral reconstruction work, snorkeling and scuba diving.

“On a coral reef there are lots of different organisms that you’ll see in just a square meter area,” Sherbinski said. “I chose Baja because we will be sitting with a number of scientists and people from various universities who study the ecology of that particular area in the Sea of Cortez. Thirty-nine percent of the world’s marine organisms are located in the Sea of Cortez. It’s a great opportunity to work with scientists and researchers in the field, in an ecosystem similar to the Galapagos in its uniqueness. We will take that information and I will bring it back here to our kids.

“I want to get them excited about hands-on science, the globe and climate change,” she said. “They can impact it, it’s not just about me going on a trip doing science research. It’s also about connecting kids with their own learning and how they can make an impact in this area. That is a big part of what Ecology Project does.”

Jennifer Sherbinski, a biology teacher at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris, is participating in a fellowship program researching the disappearance of whale sharks along the Baja peninsula in Mexico. Ecology Project International photo

The issue of whale sharks looms large this year. Sherbinski recently learned that only four have been sighted in the area.

Instead of witnessing them move through their winter feeding grounds, she is more likely to be involved in research to determine what changed to cause the disappearance. The sharks are normally drawn to the Gulf of California from early winter to spring by the many types of plankton that make up their diet.

“The chance we’ll see some is very slim,” she said. “The scientists are concerned about why the dynamic is changing, so (the work) will be very different this year.”

Sudden changes in an ecology are troubling to researchers, but illustrate the importance of the organization’s educational mission.

Ecology Project International teaches science literacy, Sherbinski said. “They want to get kids connected to nature and they’re trying to get educators involved in nature in a way they can transfer that learning to their students. Students can look at nature and think about how an ecosystem has changed, is the change good or bad, and also how they can impact its future.

“The ecology around Baja is unique to the environment,” she said. “How it changes and evolves over time will be a big part of what I’ll learn while there.”

Sherbinski has worked with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute on invasive marine species and their effects on Maine’s coast. Research gathered from one ecological system can be considered for possible solutions to others, from helping an environment adjust to living with them to working to eradicate them, such as the presence of milfoil in western Maine lakes.

Sherbinski applied for the fellowship after participating in a professional development seminar at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay.

She expects to bring back scientific tools to help students apply what they learn about ecosystems in their backyard to other, far away environments and recognize the impact they can have on nature as a whole.

“I love marine science, my undergraduate studies were marine science and biology,” she said. “My goal for the Baja fellowship is to bring what I learn in the field back to the classroom to get my kids excited about hands-on science and interested in global ecologies.

“It would be really great if I could observe an octopus as well,” she said.