Center for Marine Resource Studies

Marine Fauna

Turks and Caicos Islands
Summer Session 2
4 Weeks
4 Credits
Summer 2025
Jul 7 - Aug 5
Open
Program Costs
  • Tuition$6,400
  • Room & Board$2,550
  • Total$8,950
Application Deadlines
Summer 2025
April 15, 2025
Summer Session 2 Program

Marine Fauna

South Caicos Island,
Turks and Caicos Islands

Spend your summer studying turtles, octopus, rays, and iguanas in the waters surrounding the remote island of South Caicos. In this specialized course, you’ll learn all about the ecology and conservation of marine fauna through classroom lectures, snorkel or dive sessions, and species identification exercises.

  • Swim, dive, or snorkel nearly every day in the tropical western Atlantic – learn marine species identification and population assessment techniques while visiting coral reefs, sea grass beds, mangrove nurseries, sand bars, and small uninhabited cays. 
  • Focus on diverse marine fauna of economic, cultural, touristic, and environmental importance –sharks and rays, land crabs, turtles, octopus and more. 
  • Advance your diving skills in the Advanced Open Water SCUBA certification course. Learn more here

Academics

This academically rigorous program follows a six-day/week schedule. Each program combines theory learned during classroom sessions with field-based applications. The interdisciplinary curriculum is designed to help students actively discover and understand the complexities of environmental, social, and economic issues in the Turks & Caicos Islands.

Major academic themes include:

  • Marine ecology and conservation
  • Climate change and ocean acidification
  • Marine species population health
  • Large fauna behavior and tracking
  • Marine protected areas

Courses

On the Marine Fauna program, you will take one 4-credit course. This course is participatory in nature and is designed to foster inquiry and active learning combining lectures, field exercises, assignments, and tests. This course is taught in English.

Click on the
to view a description and download the syllabus.
SFS 3131
Marine Fauna Ecology and Conservation
4 credits

Core Skills

You will gain practical skills in the field such as: GIS use and applications, tag/recapture, marine population monitoring, habitat and biodiversity assessment, underwater video surveys, use of the I3S suite of programs to identify individual animals based on their natural markings, snorkel and scuba skills, quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, and PADI Open Water Diver certification (offered at an additional cost, upon request).

Field Sites

You will visit different ecosystems and communities which may include coral reefs, mangrove islands, seagrass beds, fishing communities, carbonate platform flats, coastal ecosystems, beaches, marine protected areas, and numerous shallow-water snorkeling sites.


Other Turks and Caicos Islands Programs

Semester

Marine Resource Studies

15 Weeks
16 Credits
Fall 2024
Sep 4 - Dec 15
In the Field
Spring 2025
Jan 27 - May 9
Waitlist

More Information

Program Costs
  • Tuition$22,600
  • Room & Board$7,200
  • Total$29,800
Summer Session 1

Fundamentals of Marine Conservation

4 Weeks
4 Credits
Summer 2025
Jun 2 - Jul 1
Open

More Information

Program Costs
  • Tuition$6,400
  • Room & Board$2,550
  • Total$8,950
Summer Session 2

Marine Fauna

4 Weeks
4 Credits
Summer 2025
Jul 7 - Aug 5
Open

More Information

Program Costs
  • Tuition$6,400
  • Room & Board$2,550
  • Total$8,950

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