Twenty-five Marine Biology and AP Biology students will study the wildlife at the Catalina Island Marine Institute during a three-day field trip from Jan. 16-18. This is the first year the school has offered the trip to the island 65 miles off the coast near Los Angeles, though Los Gatos High School has been offering it for many years.

AP Biology teacher Cheryl Lenz went on Los Gatos’s trip this fall and was impressed with the Institute's facilities.

“It was such a great experience I thought it would be great to let our students have that opportunity,” Lenz said.

The trip will be especially beneficial because the school offers a Marine Biology class that Los Gatos does not offer.

Los Gatos’s trip often includes more than 100 students. However, Lenz decided to keep the trip smaller this year because there are many logistics to be worked out.

“To get there, we’re taking a plane to L.A., a bus from the plane to the ferry and a ferry to the island,” Lenz said. “We have to coordinate all of that and all the payments.”

Despite the extensive transportation the trip requires, students who attend will “actually be out there, snorkeling and [seeing] all the beautiful diversity of marine life.”