They spend time visiting the San Francisco Bay, Duxbury Reef and Monterey. For another field seminar, students spend four days in Nantucket. There, they consider strategies to preserve the island, which faces severe tourist pressure and geologic stress. The final seminar is a 12-day voyage aboard a tall ship. The destinations include Caribbean waters, Georges Bank and the waters offshore of Florida.
Students learn what it is like to live at sea and they learn how to operate a large vessel.
They also collect and analyze scientific data. He believes that Williams-Mystic offers an important new perspective on many issues, including education as well as issues of the sea. Carlton gave the example of fish population. To explain the decline in fisheries, students need much more than a proficiency in one academic field. They need to know the history of fisheries and human behavior with regards to fishing.