- Sarah Fangman
- National Marine Sanctuary Program
Born in Minnesota and raised by two Midwesterners that get seasick just looking at a boat, Sarah did not seem destined for a life in and on the ocean. Fortunately for her, the Fangman family escaped to the Caribbean one particularly frigid Minnesota winter and Sarah discovered her passion for the ocean (as well as her inherited tendency towards seasickness). While studying biology and environmental studies at Middlebury College (in Vermont), Sarah arranged to spend part of her junior year in the Virgin Islands taking courses on coral reef ecology. This experience solidified her desire to make a career of matters marine. After college, Sarah traveled to Seattle for graduate studies at the University of Washington. While in graduate school, Sarah began working for NOAA at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center. After graduating from UW in 1997, she transferred to NOAA's Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, where she served as Research Coordinator for eight years. She is now the Associate Science Coordinator for the National Marine Sanctuary Program’s Southeast and Gulf of Mexico Region (which includes Gray’s Reef, the Florida Keys and Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuaries). This is the third Aquarius mission in which Sarah has participated. She was a saturation diver in Mission 5 in 2002 and Mission 6 in 2005 (details of these missions can be found on the Aquarius web page). During “If Reefs Could Talk” Sarah will serve as a topside diver.
