Unalaska, AK – Story Miller, an Unalaska middle school science teacher, departed today on the NOAA ship Oscar Dyson as part of the Teacher at Sea program. She will be spending the next 19 days assisting with NOAA's annual pollock survey. Miller was one of 35 teachers out of 250 applicants to be selected for a NOAA cruise.

Unlike some of the participants in Teachers at Sea, Miller isn't new to this sort of voyage. Before becoming a teacher, she served in the Coast Guard and she says she's been trying to find a way to get back out on the ocean since. This also isn't her first time out on the Oscar Dyson. In May, she brought her student aboard and they simulated the sort of pollock research that Miller will now be doing for real.

Miller plans on using the data collected while aboard in her lesson plans. The research team aboard the Oscar Dyson is now completing the third and final portion of the pollock survey, and its official report will be available in September.