BAR HARBOR — There’s a lot of good conversation that can happen when you’re on a boat in the Antarctic.

Sean Todd, chairman of the marine studies program at the College of the Atlantic, was in the Antarctic serving as a tour guide and scientist for a boat tour that doubled as a research expedition when he began talking to Jacomien and Forrest Mars about his work. The Mars are the kind of people who could afford such a tour, as they were part of the company responsible for $30 billion in annual sales of candy bars. They also are influential philanthropists who found a kindred spirit in Todd.

“They have a keen interest in the environment and whales,” said Todd. “And they got very interested in what we were doing with experiential education.”

After two trips with Todd, the Mars family decided to help. The College of the Atlantic recently announced it has received a grant from the Mars for $425,000. The money will be used to upgrade the facilities of Mount Desert Rock, a field station for whale study housed in a lighthouse about 25 miles from Bar Harbor. 

The lighthouse is no ordinary classroom, and when Todd talks about it, his voice swells with pride. He says it is an ideal location to track whales; the rock is in the midst of some of the best feeding grounds off the coast. Minke, humpbacks and right whales all show up, as do many lobstermen in the summer. 

“It still remains an amazing biological engine,” Todd said.

But Todd values it just as much for how it helps students grow as people. They stay for days on the three-acre, treeless island and must work to provide for themselves as well study marine ecology. Students are divided up into shifts to take on tasks from field work to cooking to maintenance to waste management. Through it all, they learn how to work together as a team.

Students receive a one-of-a-kind education that uniquely qualifies them to do all the science and all the nitty-gritty tasks required to study marine life, Todd believes.

The grant will be used to upgrade the facilities on the rock. The lighthouse, donated to the school by the U.S. Coast Guard, has been battered by two major storms in recent memory, one that filled the lighthouse with water up to the top of the first floor, and another that took out all but one wall of the boathouse. With the funds, Todd envisions renovating the facilities to better withstand future storms and to improve access. 

“I really don’t want that program to be limited by infrastructure,” he said.