In the heart of Southwest Florida, amid coastal environments, FGCU is often known for its marine science program. For these students, the road leading to Bonita Beach doesn’t mean leisure time. It is where hands-on research and learning take place.
FGCU’s Vester Marine Field Station opened in 2007 and is located off Little Hickory Island. It serves as a space for students to conduct their research on water quality, red tide and blue-green algae through four locations in Estero Bay that can be observed in real time on Vester’s website.
Unfortunately, Hurricanes Ian, Milton and Helene wiped out most of the facility’s first floor. The rebuilding process took months. On Feb. 16, it reopened its space for student research.
“We’ve built resiliency in the system. So anything that’s really of value, we can remove and get out of harm’s way, and also, with some of the rebuilding that’s been done, we can recover, clean up better, dry out faster, so we should be able to rebound a lot faster,” said Mike Parsons, the director of Vester Field Station.
Story continues below advertisement
The reopening was made possible by the Collier Community Foundation (CCF), which provided a $150,000 grant to FGCU to help Vester purchase all necessary new equipment to make it fully operational.
“This grant represents confidence and it represents our shared belief that protecting our environment and educating our future leaders is essential to protecting our community,” CCF President and CEO Eileen Connoly said.
The mission of CCF is to invest in the people and organizations that strengthen and sustain the community and more recently, a concern among that group has been the environment.
“We want to make sure that whatever money we are putting into the community that we’re actually trying to fix a problem,” Connolly said. “They actually have put a lot of thought into it here at Vester, and have really helped prepare themselves for the next storm because there will be one.”
Vester houses a fleet of boats that frequently take students out to collect samples and measure the flow of water at the nearby artificial reef called Kimberly’s Reef, a wet lab with aquariums, a dry lab equipped with microscopes and test tubes, classrooms and a spawning room with more high tech equipment.
In anticipation of storms, much of the larger equipment is placed on wheels or is at least easy to disassemble and load into trucks to transport faster back to the main campus. The walls were also rebuilt with pop out plastic panels instead of replacing all the drywall.
“So before the hurricanes end up coming through here, basically what we need to do is just pop all these panels out and then that lets the water flow through. Because there’s going to be storm surge in here, and then once it’s gone, we can dry it up and then pop these back in,” postdoctoral research associate Nicholas Culligan said.
Through Vester’s mission and the renovation, students gain the hands-on research needed to explore coastal waters, monitor ecosystems and investigate environmental challenges.
“Vester is my bread and butter at this point. I work here part-time and this has been the start of my research,” research assistant Jenna Knutson said. “Now that everything is right here, not only does it save so much time, but it’s a lot more efficient and having this hands-on research is something you won’t get at any other university, in my opinion.”
For the past few years, Vester has served as only a jumping-off point for research without having to go back to campus. Last year, only one class was taught there, but with all new equipment and the entire building up and running again, it is more active, with classes being taught three days a week.
“We want it to be relatively self-sustaining,” Culligan said. “We want to be able for people to come here and do their research here.”
Vester Field Station serves as a resource not only for FGCU students, but also for those in the Collier County Public Schools district.
Student researchers like Knutson spend time educating the younger generation every other week through field trips and over the summer during their marine science summer camps. Both programs involve taking campers on boats and giving them experience in water quality research to help them become more interested in marine science.
“There is no substitute for doing science to learn science,” Dean of the Water School Greg Tolley said. “This place has a certain field, a certain culture to it. You can’t help but love what’s going on here.”