What is NaGISA?
International
Our team has over a decade of experience with international trips and collegiate scientific collections. We strive to maintain a high-quality collection protocol and analysis while still at the highschool level. Our collection and analysis protocol is very cost effective, and is easy to deploy in developing countries.
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Multi-disciplinary
NaGISA is more than a bi-annual scientific collection. The program is entirely student led, and allows many students first hand experience with international affairs, advanced college programs, and professional-level scientific equipment. These opportunities spark interest in marine science that will shape students' futures and careers.
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Impact based
Our mission is to better understand the waters that are impacted by humans the most; coastal areas. By analyzing water conditions, marine life populations, and tracking the change in these values over a large time frame, NaGISA is an important program that will continue to be valuable for generations to come.
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Behind the NaGISA Project
Natural Geography In-Shore Areas (NaGISA) is a global marine diversity study of the world's coastline. The NaGISA project was one of fourteen current field projects of the Census of Marine Life (CoML). It is a collaborative effort aimed at inventorying and monitoring the biodiversity in the narrow inshore zone of the world's oceans at depths of less than 20 meters, the area people know best and impact most. This is reflected in the Japanese word "Nagisa" (渚), referring to the narrow coastal zone where land meets the sea. NaGISA held a unique position in the Census of Marine Life as an ambassador project, linking CoML to local interests. It is an exercise in international cooperation and capacity building.
NaGISA's goal is to complete an equatorial longitudinal gradient from the east coast of Africa to the Palmyra Atoll, and a pole-to-pole latitudinal transect from the northern coast of Alaska to Antarctica's McMurdo Sound. NaGISA employs a simple, cost-efficient and intentionally low-tech sampling protocol that can be adopted by many research groups and countries, and encourage local community involvement. The ultimate goal is a series of well-distributed standard transects from the high inter-tidal zone to 20 meters water depth around the world, which can be repeated over a 50-year or even greater time frame. Professor Yoshihisa Shirayama of Kyoto University established this program in the year 2000.
Our high school, Niceville High School (NHS), joined NaGISA in 2003. Since then, our involvement began when the Teacher of the Gifted at NHS, Mr. Richard Hernandez, traveled to Japan for the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Master Teacher program. Since then we have not been able to operate at maximum efficiency due to insufficient funds. We hope to continue our collaboration with other Florida communities, and communities world wide.
NaGISA's goal is to complete an equatorial longitudinal gradient from the east coast of Africa to the Palmyra Atoll, and a pole-to-pole latitudinal transect from the northern coast of Alaska to Antarctica's McMurdo Sound. NaGISA employs a simple, cost-efficient and intentionally low-tech sampling protocol that can be adopted by many research groups and countries, and encourage local community involvement. The ultimate goal is a series of well-distributed standard transects from the high inter-tidal zone to 20 meters water depth around the world, which can be repeated over a 50-year or even greater time frame. Professor Yoshihisa Shirayama of Kyoto University established this program in the year 2000.
Our high school, Niceville High School (NHS), joined NaGISA in 2003. Since then, our involvement began when the Teacher of the Gifted at NHS, Mr. Richard Hernandez, traveled to Japan for the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Master Teacher program. Since then we have not been able to operate at maximum efficiency due to insufficient funds. We hope to continue our collaboration with other Florida communities, and communities world wide.
