Meet Ocean Explorer Zachary Garmoe

OET proudly welcomes Zachary Garmoe to the Corps of Exploration as part of the Science & Engineering Internship Program. This internship program supports community college, undergraduate, and graduate students in building professional workforce experience and exploring STEAM-related careers that connect to research themes like robotics, ocean science, education, and exploration. Alec is joining E/V Nautilus for our NA164 expedition as a video engineering intern.

We sat with Zachary to learn more about his experience at sea and the path that led him to Nautilus.

Describe your role with OET.

I am currently aboard the E/V Nautilus as a Video Engineer Intern for the Ocean Exploration Trust, which means I help to operate and maintain all of the video systems found on the E/V Nautilus used for the live streams. In other words, I work with an awesome team to maintain the live streams and film the deployments and recoveries of Mesobot and the Deep Autonomous Profiler. We do so not only to share this incredible research with the world but also to make sure the crew is safe when they are working on the deck. 

Can you tell us a little about your background? What influenced you as a child?

Prior to attending graduate school, I worked as a estuarine scientist in the mid-Atlantic region, researching nearshore forage fish and managing a continuous water quality monitoring program. But I have always been drawn to sharing the data we collected with the community. Too often I would see my colleagues learning (or even casually mentioning!) remarkable scientific facts that deserve to be shared with the world writ large. I feel as though that is the dual beauty of knowledge, it’s not just about discovery, but also about sharing the information with the broader world. Even as a child I loved to share knowledge with my friends and (often begrudging) brothers. It is this mentality which drew me so strongly to OET, originally as a supporter and now as an intern.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Like many kids, my dreams often shifted on an almost weekly basis. I wanted to be a fighter pilot, astronaut, marine scientist, zookeeper, neuropsychologist, lego engineer, or baseball player, just to name a few. But I think I was always drawn to the intersections of adventure and knowledge. I remember reading E.O. Wilson’s Letter to a Young Scientist or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne and being enraptured by scientific explorers, both fictive and historical. I think childhood me would be ecstatic to know that I was on the E/V Nautilus. 

What would you consider to be your greatest challenge entering this field?

I really struggled with mathematics in college, which almost pushed me into another career path entirely. But my struggles with calculus were very much an analogue for a broader feeling of inadequacy. I knew coastal and marine science was what I wanted to pursue professionally, but often felt as though it were a dream made for others. But I had a number of incredibly kind and supportive advisors in school and without their compassion and patience, I wouldn’t be half of who I am today. 

Do you have any advice for someone looking to follow a similar path?

At my first ever internship around 10) years ago, I had a supervisor who, immediately after graduating high school, spent ten years touring in a punk band. After a decade of playing music, she went and got her degree in biology and became a scientist at a small non-profit studying water chemistry in Baltimore City. It is easy to let pressure and anxiety convince you that you could never follow your goals or interests. Never in my wildest dreams would even my undergraduate self believe that I would be doing this today. But it’s people like my old supervisor who remind me that there are many different paths to reach your goal. 

What's next for your ocean studies and career?  

Once we finish this expedition, I head straight back to Bozeman for my second year of graduate school. I have a number of films in development surrounding ocean topics, such as Horseshoe Crabs and coral research at MSU. But more than that I am excited to take what I have learned here at the Ocean Exploration Trust and apply it into the future!