Why are you here?

I stood in the hallway of an academic building at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Sunlight filled the cathedral-like hall and glistened on the waters of the Cape Cod Canal just outside the windows behind me. Like all academic buildings, this one held classrooms and labs behind numbered doors. But education at Mass Maritime goes beyond topics you can learn at a desk. Large glass doors to my left were labeled "Diesel Engine Lab." Students wearing zip-up, grease-stained jump suits and hard hats filed in for their class. They gathered around a giant, hulking piece of metal - a diesel engine, probably from a ship. I guess if you're going to fix them for your career, you have to learn on the real thing. 

Out in the hallway, I was wearing my standard work-casual outfit: leggings and a fleece. But over top, I had a full-body harness, work gloves, a hard hat, and protective eyewear. My feet were clad in steel-toe shoes. Twin lanyards with quick-release hooks dangled from my hips. I looked on as one of my classmates stepped up to a ladder in the hallway and prepared to climb. The ladders were mounted to the floor and ran through the high-ceilinged hall to a platform where the second floor should be. An instructor clipped the student's harness to a safety line, and they started climbing. 

As we waited for our turn, another classmate caught my eye. "So you're a marine biologist," he began. 

I nodded. "Yes, I'm a marine biologist." 

He furrowed his brow in an effort to properly phrase his next question. "So...why are you here?" 

I smiled. You know what, good question. Why am I here? 

Several months ago, I got approached by a local consulting company. They had received a contract to do an environmental impact assessment for offshore wind construction in Massachusetts, but they don't have a benthic ecologist on staff. They wanted to bring me in as an expert and partner with my lab for the analysis. It took some time to hammer out the details, but I agreed to work with them. 

The offshore wind company that is sponsoring the project has very clear priorities. Safety is priority #1, #2, and #3. They repeat safety messages in every single communication. Everything we do has to be by the book. And all of us have to be certified. 

That's how I ended up at Mass Maritime. The offshore wind company asked every field work participant to take the Global Wind Organization's basic safety training. They call it basic, but the class is intense. The in-person component was 3 days long and covered everything from CPR to ladder safety to fire fighting. We had to climb ladders in heavy harnesses and rescue someone who had fallen. We had to make our way through a smoke-filled room, locate and don safety gear, then navigate our way back out. We had to design a work plan to get a heavy object a long distance. We even had an exercise in stabilizing simulated injuries. We jumped off a platform, put out a fire, and climbed into a life raft at sea. Needless to say, it was a busy 3 days. 

Going into the class, I had no idea what to expect, but I'm really glad I did it. CPR and first aid are skills you can never review too much. Sea survival was a great module for me - there's a chance I might actually need those skills some day. The "basic" offshore wind class was the most comprehensive safety training I've done in years, but safety training is never wasted. Plus, it was a lot of fun.