51����

Journey to Belize

One night last January, a group of 51���� students donning snorkels and masks plunged into waters off the coast of Belize, curious to see creatures that emerge when darkness falls.

Suddenly, a student shouted: “Octopus!” Even better, this cephalopod was on the hunt, stretching out its arms like a net to bag its prey.

“There was a ton of oohing and ahhing through the snorkels that evening,” said Brian Silliman, Rachel Carson Distinguished Professor of Marine Conservation Biology. “We spent 25 minutes with that one creature.”

The nocturnal swim was just one of myriad excursions that Silliman and postdoctoral researcher Joe Morton led through tropical ecosystems as part of the 51���� Marine Lab’s spring semester Belize travel course. The month-long course combines two weeks of instruction at the Marine Lab in Beaufort with a two-week immersion in Belize that blends field trips with classroom lectures and hands-on research experiences.

After learning about more than a thousand species found in the region, students pick one to study. They develop a research question, design and implement methods to address it, and analyze their results. For some students, it’s the first time they’ve engaged in scientific research. 

“I felt so empowered with all the different scientific skills that we’re learning how to do here,” said Tate Oliva, T’27, a marine science and conservation major. “You were the one building trials, you’re the one writing it up, doing the statistics, doing the graphing. That’s super cool to feel, ‘Oh, I can do all that.’”

The following videos from the 2025 Belize trip offer a glimpse into the kinds of research opportunities that are available to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in our travel courses.

Being able to just touch it, see it, get up close and personal with it, brought a lot more life to the information that we were learning, and it brought more confidence to myself."

— Cherryia White, T’26, African & African American Studies Major, Marine Science & Conservation Minor

Voices From the Field

Students encountered many species discussed during classroom lectures while adventuring through marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Independent research projects enabled them to further study organisms that piqued their interest. These short videos capture a few of their many memorable experiences.

Please submit questions to dukenvironment@nicholas.duke.edu.