Addison Shea, 18, is fascinated by how changing Earth systems affect the creatures living in them. So when she came across an article about a puzzling change in an Arctic ocean current, it caught her attention. Curious how Arctic species were responding to it, Addison looked at bowhead whales.
The Beaufort Gyre is a current off the coast of northern Canada and Alaska. It used to change direction every five to seven years. But it hasn’t switched in the past 21 years.
When she mapped bowhead sightings from a public dataset, Addison found a change in the whales’ migration patterns. The animals’ average locations suggested that they may have started migrating earlier in the fall. Or they might have started spending their summers farther west.
Addison is currently a senior at Lakewood Ranch High School. That’s in Bradenton, Fla. Her research earned her a finalist spot in the 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search. (That contest is run by Society for Science, which also publishes Science News Explores.) In this interview, Addison shares her research experiences and advice.
What was your favorite part of this project?
“I really loved the challenge of it,” Addison says. “And then the idea that I was discovering something.” The whales’ prey, such as plankton, are also affected by the Beaufort Gyre. So changes in whale movements might hint at changes in their prey’s movements, too.
The gyre “could be having this really resounding impact on the ecosystem,” Addison says. “I just love taking those connections and understanding the how’s and the why’s.”
What was the most challenging part?
“I actually came to a minor roadblock early on,” Addison says. “I wanted to do a statistical analysis.” But it turned out the teen didn’t have the right data to perform the type of analysis she’d planned. So she had to revamp her methods. “Having to pivot and look at [the scientific] literature and find out what exactly works for this data … was a challenge.”
What were your most important resources?
“Probably my AP Research teacher,” Addison says. “When I started the project, I knew nothing about the Beaufort Gyre, bowhead whales or anything. I was really this amateur.” Trying to figure out what she could add to the research being done by professional scientists “was really daunting,” Addison says. Fortunately, her teacher “gave me a lot of confidence.”
Any advice for research newbies?
Reading past studies to find out what was already known about her topic was super helpful. But Addison didn’t start by reading long, complex research papers. “I started just reading articles to familiarize myself with the topic,” she says. Watching videos and looking at diagrams helped, too.
When she was ready to dive into scientific studies, “I would always start with the abstract,” Addison says. Then she’d focus on the sections she was most interested in, rather than trying to read the whole thing. “Often times I would go to the methods,” she says. “Especially when I was designing my own method.”
