Should you be a marine biologist?

Grab your swim trunks and flippie-floppies, and don’t forget your nautical-themed pashmina afghan. While IU doesn’t have a marine biology program, there are ways to get involved in underwater activities in Bloomington.

Southern Indiana Scuba, off IN- 37, offers a Discover Scuba class for $20 per session that gives you the chance to try out scuba equipment with a professional staff member’s help. Or, journey to the depths of the HPER building to the Office of Underwater Science and check out one of their projects — restoring a cannon from the legendary pirate Captain Kidd’s ship.

Every summer, the Office of Overseas Study runs a tropical ecology trip for biology majors to the Grand Cayman Islands. Trip participants spend a week and a half in paradise, exploring and researching coral reef habitats with Professor Bill Ruf.

“As we were diving or taking hikes through the jungle, we were learning,” says recent graduate Adam Cantor, who went on the trip last summer. “It’s one thing to learn about coral bleaching in a book. It’s another thing to see it firsthand.”

Take:
GEOL-G 341 Natural History of Coral Reefs
SPEA-E 360 Intro to Water Resources
HPER-E 270 Introduction to Scientific Scuba

Watch: Jaws, Finding Nemo, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

You’re going too far if ...
1. You like to swim in the Jordan River between classes.
2. You practice dolphin or whale speech.
3. You wear your scuba mask out to $2 Tuesdays.