Ocean EXPEDiTION Student Interest Form
Dates: February 14 - February 22, 2026
This Ocean Expedition has been scheduled for the Castro Valley High School mid-winter break. All current CVHS and recently graduated students are eligible to apply. There is a tuition assistance option for students with a financial need. It is not an official school trip, and is operating through the nonprofit, WHALEFALL. This expedition has been organized by CVHS teacher and trip chaperone, Ms. Emily Bittner. Trip details will be available in the summer of 2025. Please complete the form below if you are interested in learning more about this exciting opportunity. There is no commitment by completing the interest form below, and no experience necessary.
THE MISSION: Deploy and test emerging remote sensing technology to monitor and protect marine protected areas (MPAs)
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Deploying Marine Technology
Students will deploy and update remote sensing data buoys and their payloads
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Artificial Intelligence
Students will be training machine learning models to monitor MPAs and co-validating data
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Underwater Surveys
Students will be trained in research diving techniques and complete underwater ecological surveys
Two Possible Locations
Over the next few weeks a final trip destination for this project will be selected. The location choice is based on availability during the mid-winter break, cost, and the status of the project.
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Azores, Portugal
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Apo Island, Philippines
Training & Certifications
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Open Water Diver Track
Students who are not yet scuba certified divers will be on the Open Water Diver track. Open Water Certification will be issued as a pre-requisite to the research dive training.
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Advanced Diver Track
Previously scuba certified students will be on the Advanced Diver track. These students will complete additional training in night diving, nitrox, and deep diving.
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Above Water Track
Non diving students will take the lead as data captains, engineers working with ROVs & drones, and a micro-documentary.
Networked Open Science
Students on this expedition will be trained as research divers, completing multiple surveys during the trip. One of these surveys will be at a smart data buoy deployed to advance ocean sampling. Students will assist with the updates to the hardware, and pair indicator species data to the site.
