Student Spotlight: Elise Foot Puchalski
We are proud to announce Elise Foot Puchalski was recently named a Women Divers Hall of Fame (WDHOF) Training Grant Recipient! To learn more about WDHOF and all the recipients read the press release.
Elise learned to dive with our team when she was 12 years old. She has always loved the ocean, but diving took her interest to a whole new level. Since earning her first PADI Open Water certification, Elise has earned her PADI Master Scuba Diver. At 15, she is a Rescue Diver with many specialties including Dry Suit, Boat Diver, Project AWARE Specialty, Enriched Air Nitrox, Reef Fish ID, and Underwater Photographer. This grant will help support Elise through our team’s unique scientific diving specialty for teens interested in pursuing marine science. With the assistance of the WDHOF training grant, she will also purchase her own dry suit from Underwater Sports. When we own our own equipment divers take on a higher level of responsibility and commitment to the ocean. In the near future, Elise hopes to become a research diver so she can conduct scientific work underwater. Studying animals in their natural habitat is important to understand their behavior, which is what Elise ultimately hopes to pursue. Specifically, Elise would like to study the behavior of megafauna such as manta rays and sharks who produce young from eggs which hatch inside the bodies of adults also known as ovoviviparous animals.
Using her STEM-based education, Elise created her own multi-month studies on plankton here in Puget Sound. She is always asking questions to learn more about her environment. She contributed photos and identification research for the Edmonds Underwater Park species identification page created for Our Underwater Backyard project. You can read her blog about symbiosis which was also featured in the Dive Team’s column with My Edmonds News. Whether she is researching scientific animals or observing life off the side of a dock, Elise’s curiosity for the ocean world transpires through all her work.
Our Dive Team understands that the ocean is essential to human life. The ocean provides us with the air we breathe, food we eat, it regulates temperature, and provides so many other services. Therefore, every decision we make ultimately impacts the ocean—through our carbon footprint, dietary choices, and consumer waste. Having grown up around the water, Elise understands that our community relies heavily on the services the ocean provides us, and we need to protect it. She sees the intersection between her human community and the underwater community and strives to unite the two. In 2018, Elise helped organize an underwater clean up for our Dive Team. Divers extracted trash from the bottom of the Port of Edmonds, a local marina. During a single clean up, the Team pulled out over 600 square feet of trash! Our Dive Team conducts these clean ups multiple times throughout the year.
Along with research, Elise plans to bring ocean education to countries across the world. Elise studies the ocean with the eyes of both a scientist and a photographer. By documenting life under the surface, she hopes to inspire people about the amazing world that needs protecting—just as Annie’s work inspires Elise. While living in China a few years ago, Elise visited live fish markets in Hong Kong and mainland China and talked with the fisherpeople there about the health of the South China Sea. They were heavily dependent on the fish they sold to make a living but they said that the fisheries were collapsing. Elise says, “Those experiences helped motivate me to strive to become an ocean researcher with a cross cultural perspective.”
Our team is special because we have so many wonderful, motivated individuals like Elise—but each diver brings something unique to our Dive Team! Whether you love photography, science, leadership, or just diving with friends, all our divers are united by their love for the ocean. Elise shares her love for the ocean through photography and art projects. She loves to paint, draw, and express her creativity in new ways.
In addition to her skillful diving and curiosity underwater, Elise is always a pleasure to have around the dive site. From baking our Dive Team cookies (yum!) to lending a hand wherever is needed, Elise is always looking out for her community. Scuba diving is a challenging sport, and our Dive Team supports each other through our challenges and our greatest successes.
As many young scientists will learn, it is rare to receive a grant or award on your first time. The recognition and reward requires patience, persistence, perseverance, and passion—four words we live by. These awards are highly competitive with many qualified applicants. The best thing you can do is put yourself out there and apply! If you aren’t successful at first, continue advancing your skills and applying again in the future. Elise applied for multiple grants before receiving this training grant. In between applications, Elise was determined to learn more about marine biology and teach her community about our amazing underwater backyard.
There are many training grants offered for young divers, scientists, and explorers. The Women Divers Hall of Fame (WDOF), which Annie was inducted into in 2010, offers many opportunities to applicants of all ages. These grants help support traning and gear, and provide a great networking opportunity to meet many other inspiring explorers. Look out for these grants every year in late Fall.
Congratulations Elise. We are so proud of you and happy you are part of our team. You have earned this training grant, and we know you will continue to inspire many throughout your career. Let’s celebrate our young people who are already doing amazing things, and are the face of the future! You don’t need to be a scuba diver to join our team. All you need to do is sign up and agree to be the voice of our ocean! Without us, our ocean has no voice.
Elise is featured in the new book Planet Ocean: Why We All Need A Healthy Ocean, purchase your copy today!
