What type of person would you picture if asked to envision someone who works on
a boat for a living?
You’d probably think of the cast of Deadliest Catch
or The Perfect Storm. While the cast of the Charleston District’s survey team
spends many of their days on the water, they don’t quite have that weathered
look.
Jennifer Kist and Sonja Tyson serve as survey technicians aboard
the Survey Vessel Evans, the District’s 42 foot long floating map maker. The
crew of the Evans cruises up and down Charleston Harbor, the Atlantic
Intracoastal Waterway, the coast of Folly Beach and many more places creating
sonar images of the conditions of the water’s floor below them. The District
looks to maintain safe passage for vessels in the federal channels of South
Carolina, and the survey crew provides the data that shows what is at the proper
depth and what needs to be dredged.
Out of 109 full-time survey
technicians in the entire Corps of Engineers, only seven are female and Kist is
one of them. After graduating from the College of Charleston, Kist briefly left
the Lowcountry to work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
in Virginia, but was drawn back to Charleston in 2015. She works to transform
the data outputs of the survey vessel’s sonar into something that people can
understand.
“Sand is always moving, so we always have to keep track of
where it’s going,” said Kist. “I love how everything we do changes every day,
from one minute analyzing statistical models in the office to surveying the
harbor entrance channel to riding up and down the beach with a laser scanner.
Knowing the depth of [everything] to centimeter-accuracy is very
important.”
Tyson is a part-time survey technician who came to the
District after stints with other organizations using sonar and surveys to
analyze fish habitats, topographic changes from oyster reef development and
methane leaks in different parts of the country. While she’s worked on a diverse
set of ecosystems, she enjoys the unique environment Charleston offers and wants
to be part of innovation.
“Survey work provides the opportunity to engage
in some of the most exciting realms of discovery and technological innovation,”
said Tyson. “Only seven percent of the world’s oceans have been mapped, so there
is plenty of room for new discoveries.”
Being females has no impact on
how they see themselves as being perceived amongst the survey team. Tyson says
that it’s expected that there are less females in the group because it is a STEM
field, which typically has more males, but that that is changing.
“Our
District understands that fostering an open and diverse community that draws
from an array of unique experiences and viewpoints is a necessary step to
achieving our mission,” said Tyson. “I don’t believe any of us in survey think
about the male/female ratio directly; we depend more on what skills each
individual can offer.”
“We’re a team, definitely,” echoed Kist. “Honestly
I don’t think about being a female at work until someone reminds me of it.
Unfortunately, the main issue standing in the way of females in STEM is the
attitude towards them as opposed to the opportunities presented to
them.”
The survey work done by Kist and Tyson is critical to keeping
commerce and recreation moving through the Lowcountry. Kist thinks the public
doesn’t realize how much “stuff” sits at the bottom of Charleston Harbor, such
as a sunken barge or ship, and it makes her realize that it’s probably there
because it hit something. That puts into perspective for her just how many
people’s livelihoods depend on knowing the conditions of the harbor.
Both
Kist and Tyson are doing an incredible job of helping the District monitor and
maintain our federal channels to create positive economic and social benefits
for the area. Their work identifies the problems before they become problems so
we can keep up with what people expect from our coast.