From the Great Barrier Reef to Great Salt Lake: Inside USU’s marine ecology program

Cuttlefish eggs sit in tanks at Utah State University’s aquatic ecology lab, adjusting to different salinity levels — a climate change experiment happening in the mountains, 800 miles from any ocean. This is marine science in a landlocked state. 

USU launched its freshwater and marine ecology degree in August 2025, but 30 students enrolled before the program had even officially begun.  

Trisha Atwood, associate professor of watershed sciences at USU, didn’t plan to return to the Rocky Mountains for marine research after earning her degrees at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and University of British Columbia. She spent her postdoctoral work in Sydney studying the Great Barrier Reef mangrove systems and seagrasses. Then, two aquatic ecology positions opened up at USU.  

“I was living in Sydney, Australia,” Atwood said. “I hadn’t been back to this area in, like, 15 years.” 

Originally from Evanston, Wyoming, she applied alongside her husband Ed Hammill, also a marine researcher. Both got offers. Both accepted. 

“It reminded me very much of the universities that I went to in Hilo,” Atwood said. “It was smaller. A lot of the classrooms were more personal.” 

The freshwater and marine ecology program launched a full semester earlier than either Atwood or Hammill had expected. 

“We were actually unprepared for it to be launched,” Atwood said. “We got 30 students without really even knowing that the program was going to be there.” 

Some students transferred from other universities specifically for marine science. According to Atwood, many found the program through USU’s connection with the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium, which promoted it. 

Among the students who are enrolled in watershed sciences programs are Braxton Eames, an Ogden native with a childhood obsession with the ocean, and Mac Cutler, a Washington, D.C. transfer who switched her degree from applied mathematics and spent the summer researching coral reefs in Australia.  

Neither had originally planned to study marine science at a landlocked university hundreds of miles from the sea. Both, however, have fallen in love with their educational craft. 

Cutler started at USU in 2018 as an applied mathematics major. After a two-year break, she switched to management and restoration of aquatic ecosystems with a marine science minor. 

“I really liked the math, but this isn’t what I want to do for a career,” Cutler said. “I want to do things that are more applied.” 

She went on a study abroad last summer to Heron Island in Australia. For her final project, she and a partner researched and studied the relationships between fish species and coral shapes. They analyzed hours of footage they filmed with GoPros. 

“There were some predatory fish called wrasses. They look like a hot dog shape in the water,” Cutler said. “They were more present in the less branching areas. The compressed-body-shape fish really like the super branching corals.” 

She was able to discover symbiotic relationships between certain fish and coral during reproduction.  

Cutler officially added her minor after that trip. 

“A lot of people, once they go to Heron, they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I should add this minor’ because that experience is just so positive, and it ignited so much scientific curiosity for so many people,” Cutler said. 

Eames discovered the new freshwater and marine ecology degree through a Google search three days after the Salt Lake Tribune announced the program’s launch. He’d been studying biology at Weber State University, which doesn’t offer a general biology bachelor’s degree but rather botany, zoology and microbiology.  

“I just Googled, like, ‘Marine biology — how do I do this?’” Eames said. “Everything’s kind of just fallen into place since then.” 

He spent a year emailing with Atwood, planning out the transfer path. He did one year at Weber State and then transferred to USU. 

Eames now works in the bioenergetics lab under PhD candidate Lauren Head, monitoring migratory bird populations at Great Salt Lake wetlands. 

“There are a lot of the same principles in freshwater that can be applied to marine research,” Eames said. “That’s kind of why they grouped it into one thing.” 

According to Eames, his interest in the ocean started young and has only grown, despite growing up in Ogden. His favorite hobby, surfing, has only fueled his interest in oceanography, specifically in mapping the ocean floor. 

“The ocean’s so scary that it kind of comes back around,” Eames said. “It’s always so scary. Why is it scary?” 

Atwood’s research draws from work that doesn’t require constant ocean access. Her National Geographic-funded study researches the climate impacts of bottom trawling, where fishing nets scrape the seabed. 

“One of our biggest stores of carbon is actually the seabed,” she said. “When these trawlers go over the top, they rip up the seabed, and they resuspend all that sediment.” 

If left undisturbed, that carbon would stay buried for tens of thousands of years. Much of this research happens through satellite analysis and modeling. 

“I’ve worked with National Geographic for years now,” Atwood said. “I do all that through modeling. I go to the ocean for fun. My actual work is largely modeling.” 

Atwood’s current cuttlefish study through USU examines how ocean freshening affects the development and eventual survival rate of the fish. The eggs arrived at 35 parts per 1,000 salinities, normal for the ocean. Some will be adjusted to 27 parts per 1,000 to simulate freshening conditions. The eggs should hatch in about two weeks’ time. 

For students, class sizes in the USU program differ from coastal universities. According to Atwood, while some costal universities have more than 150 students in their marine biology classes, USU has about 20 and is better able to take its students on research boats. 

“They get more hands-on here,” Atwood said. “They also get more one-on-one with the faculty. What’s going to get you a job at the end of this is a solid written reference letter.” 

For Cutler, the marine science minor has reshaped her career vision. 

“I don’t think in the future I’m going to be doing fisheries management,” she said. “But I’ve learned so much about fisheries management, and I’ve learned more about my field from learning about marine fisheries.” 

The minor coursework focuses on and addresses conservation, restoration and cultural factors across international boundaries. 

“In the real world, it’s often more complicated,” Cutler said. “There’s often cultural factors that are different across international boundaries that you’re going to have to think about.” 

Cutler said within it all, Atwood’s mentorship stands out. 

“[Atwood and Hammill] are some of the most undergraduate-focused faculty I’ve ever met,” Cutler said. “They just really, really care about the students and getting you to where you want to be professionally.” 

For more information about the freshwater and marine ecology program, contact Trisha Atwood, faculty adviser, at trisha.atwood@usu.edu or Ed Hammill, department head, at edd.hammill@usu.edu. 

“If you have an interest, there are people here that are going to get you to where you want to be,” Cutler said. “Don’t be afraid to go after that. You will find out that there are actually really important things going on.”