In September of1996, the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre started something that would prove to be quite special, The Fall Program in Marine Sciences. Each year, a cohort of 24 students comes to Bamfield for a full semester of immersive and hands-on courses. From September to mid-December this group lives and breathes marine and coastal sciences.
Students spend their 4 months here in lectures, in the lab, out in the field, working on statistics, and diving into the literature. The semester is made up of three core courses – Ecological Adaptations of Seaweeds, Marine Population Ecology & Dynamics, and Structure & Function in Marine Animals – as well as data analysis and a directed studies research project course.
30 years ago, Andy Spencer – the BMSC Director at the time – dreamed up the fall program and asked Dr. Rich Palmer to co-teach a course with him. Rich has been a part of the fall program ever since. He is still giving guest lectures for the Structure and Function of Marine Animals course.
Since the beginning, the program has stayed relatively consistent – something that Rich says is for good reason, “One of the reasons it hasn’t changed much over 30 years is that it’s a really good program… It’s the perfect mix of lecture and lab courses with hands-on experience and field experience in the natural environment.” Though the course material is updated through the years as science uncovers new knowledge, and the data analysis course has since replaced a previous literature review course, the program has stayed quite true to the original vision.
Rarely do university students get the chance to immerse themselves completely in one subject, especially in situ, steps from the ocean. Rich said it is so impactful as, “[students are] focused just on one course at a time, bonded with a group of 24 other students in a captive environment, and like most learning settings, you learn as much from your fellow students as you do from your instructors.”
The research projects that students carry out from start to finish also build invaluable skills that can be applied to academia and/or industry. As Rich put it “… it helps build self confidence in terms of being able to deal with novel questions. Research is a lot about thinking and planning, so those are generally useful skills.” He also says that the research component “gives them more respect for people that do it well, but also a little bit more cynicism, maybe about claims in the scientific literature – about what people have actually done – because they realize just how hard it is.”
This program, but also Bamfield, clearly leaves its impression on students. Many go on to successful careers in academia and industry, and quite a few past participants fell hopelessly in love with this incredible place, continuing to come back for teaching and research.
Some past students simply never left. Before we talked, Rich had spent some time looking through old class lists. He said,” I wondered how many students have come through the fall program that went on to do wonderful things or that worked in Bamfield or are still working in Bamfield… and it’s quite a remarkable list – it’s not even exhaustive. For example, last summer, two of the courses offered at the same time were taught by past fall program students, Jenn Sunday and Amanda Bates.” Dr. Amanda Bates taught Experimental Climate Change Ecology and Dr. Jenn Sunday taught Ecological Data synthesis for the BMSC 2026 summer.
He joked that Amanda was “one of the poor souls that endured the “torture” of the first year of the fall program” as the instructors had been a bit over-enthusiastic with what could be done in those four months. Despite the intensity of the program, it was clearly still inspirational, as Amanda often tells people that she decided here at BMSC that she would like to be a professor one day.
Continuing down his list, Rich also mentioned Cameron Jefferies, who now brings his Ocean Law and Policy class here every year, and various others who have gone on to some great places. In addition to this, many of our neighbors here in Bamfield also came through the Fall Program at some point. A quick look through old class lists revealed various community members “… [there are] people that are still here in Bamfield: Amy McConnell, Angela Fortune, Alex Niese, Dan Zayonc, Olivia Walker, Alessandra Gentile, and Tao Eastham, those are all Fall Program [alumni]…” He notes that there are very likely some more that he missed. Other folks like Taylor Ford-Sahibzada, Carter Burtlake, and more have also stayed in Bamfield after taking the Fall Program.
For 30 years, students have come to the BMSC for the Fall Program to study the incredible ecosystems and biodiversity found here. Many finish the program with their lives changed forever, largely thanks to the community around us. Knowing this, the BMSC strives to continue making great waves in the lives of those who come to study here. The education and training of future ocean leaders is just one piece of our mission of inspiring transformational relationships with the ocean, and we look forward to many more years of just that.
