Beginning in Fall 2013, Dalhousie University will offer Canada’s first undergraduate degree program in ocean sciences.

While there are other Canadian universities which offer environmental courses, there are none that focus entirely on the study of Earth’s oceans.

Dalhousie University will now offer an undergraduate degree in ocean sciences. Here, researchers take aerial landscape measurements using the ‘DAL Blimp.’. Dalhousie University

“All other universities…have undergraduate programs that have something to do with ocean sciences, and we’ve had some as well. But these are programs that are combined with other programs,” said Anna Metaxas, a professor of biological oceanography at Dalhousie. “What is different about our program is that it is actually an independent, stand-alone program through ocean sciences. And that means a student can come in and not have to go through marine biology and…do a double-major, but they can actually come in as an ocean sciences major. And that is what is unique about our university now.”

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There are 25 spots in the program. Students can expect to study climate change and learn about new marine technologies.

“What we’re trying to do is give students a lot of breadth rather than have them focus on a particular discipline,” said Metaxas. “In addition to that, we’re looking at current problems that the oceans are facing and how owe can manage them.”

“The oceans do a lot of things for humanity and we don’t even think about them,” said Metaxas. “A lot of the food we eat, a lot of the protein…comes from the ocean. A lot of the oxygen we breathe has been produced by single-celled organisms; the oceans absorb a lot of our C02 waste…and they’re used for transport. So they are a major, major source of life and services for humans.”

About 71 per cent of the Earth is covered in water — 97 per cent of that lies in our oceans.