A crew of Nansemond-Suffolk Academy students manned the “Ocean Explorer” on area waters Friday to study water quality and biodiversity in the waterways.

Students from Laura George’s advanced placement environmental science class conducted water tests for salinity and temperature, examined mud grabbed from the bottom and investigated wildlife caught in a trawl, including a ray, blue crabs, snails and a variety of fish.

“We have been talking about water quality and biodiversity throughout the year, so it was a great way to culminate and review,” George said.

The 45-foot research vessel is owned by Virginia Wesleyan College in partnership with the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center. Biology students from many local schools, including King’s Fork High School, have manned the vessel this year as part of a variety of academic partnerships in the community.

Deirdre Gonsalves-Jackson, an associate professor of biology at Virginia Wesleyan, said the boat sailed from the Virginia Aquarium and stayed in the creek behind Rudee Inlet, since the seas were rough near the oceanfront.

“They got a chance to apply principles they’ve learned in class in a marine setting,” Gonsalves-Jackson said. “We’re looking at different parameters (from environmental science), but we’re using the same sort of practices — make sure you take proper data collection, using the scientific method.

“I think it’s always kind of neat when they pull these nets up and they see organisms they’ve never seen before.”

George said it was her first time taking students on the boat, and she hopes to be able to do so again.

“They got an opportunity to do some of the data collection that a scientist does,” she said. “They got to see how challenging it can be do to data collection when you’re on a boat, and things are wet and things can roll around.”

George said students were impressed with the variety of organisms, which would tend to suggest a healthy creek. However, she noted they didn’t test for bacteria that indicate pollution.

Virginia Wesleyan students Marlan Hare and Rosalind Ludovici were on board, and George said her students enjoyed talking to them about college in general.

“They got to really see you can do lots of things while you’re still in an undergraduate program,” George said. “It was overall a great experience, and we are so grateful to Virginia Wesleyan for working with us to make this happen.”