Before his arrival at the University of Rhode Island, Owen Fleischer wondered how he’d apply his love for the outdoors to his studies.

“I’ve always been fascinated with the outdoors,” said Fleischer, who grew up in Durham, New Hampshire. “I’ve always been fishing, diving, spending all my time in the woods, learning all the animals and plants as best I could, and really focused on the outdoors.”

Today, the URI senior, who is double majoring in aquaculture and fisheries science and biology, wonders no more. His time is filled with running for the URI track team, freediving and spearfishing, and doing the kind of research that will land him in grad school to continue studying sharks.

Associate professor of biological sciences Brad Wetherbee puts it this way: “Owen is a good example of a student who takes advantage of the many opportunities available for students at URI and takes part in a range of activities. The result is that Owen has experienced many things and learned in many ways besides sitting in class listening to someone talk. A lot of that learning are things that he’s taught himself.”

A lucky coincidence

It was a coincidental meeting with a friend’s cousin that helped lead him to URI and the aquaculture and fisheries program. “She had just gotten back from professor Michael Rice’s J-Term class in the Philippines,” he says. “She told me about how amazing the trip was and how she was able to spend so much time on boats and in the water while at URI. This was the best thing a kid who’s obsessed with the ocean could’ve heard.”

Soon after, Fleischer, a four-time All-State track and field athlete in New Hampshire, was recruited to run track at URI—setting him up to not only participate in an ideal academic program but also compete for a Division I track program that consistently wins conference and regional championships.

In Kingston, he’s excelled both on the track and in the classroom, including landing on the Dean’s List every semester. He’s also earned a prestigious Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with numerous other awards, such as the Wayne King and Bernice Anderson Durfee Aquaculture Merit Fund Scholarship, RISAA Continuing Education Scholarship, KJRMF Memorial Fund Scholarship, and the URI Strauss Scholarship, among others.

On the track team, Fleischer, who was named a team captain in the fall, has contributed to three Atlantic 10 Conference Championships, three New England Championships and an IC4A Championship. He holds the school record in the 4×800 meter relay, is in the top 10 all-time in the 1,000 meters, and finished fourth in the 1,000 meters at the 2024 Indoor A-10 Conference Championship.

“Like all student-athletes, my days during the week are very full. But I find that it helps me budget my time,” says Fleischer, who is also an undergraduate teaching assistant for the BIO 360 lab. “My teammates are all academically motivated and our coaches put an emphasis on excellence in the classroom. We’ve got a great team culture of working hard and getting good grades. It’s easy to buy in.”

Another outlet is freediving, which involves swimming to great depths without scuba gear. “I’m a freediver and a spear fisherman. Those are my favorite things to do outside—my passions,” he says.

A broader worldview

Fleischer was interested in going abroad to train in freediving, but the demands of track made the prospect unlikely. Undaunted, he began searching for freediving programs that offered the experience of living in another country along with training.

He searched for training centers around the world and eventually settled on a destination in Egypt. Dahab, a small town in the southeast coast of the Sinai Peninsula, is a freediving mecca, he says. “Jim McGwin, my mentor at the URI Launch Lab, helped me find the money for my trip to Egypt. I wouldn’t have been able to get there without him.”

Fleischer eventually received special permission from his track coach to make the journey. The trip was well worth the effort. Before Egypt, his record depth was about 13.6 meters (55 feet). By the time he returned home, he was freediving to 45 meters (150 feet).

After two months in Egypt, Fleischer boarded a plane to South Africa to take part in one of the numerous research projects he’s worked on during his time at URI. In Mossel Bay, South Africa, he met up with Wetherbee and a group of students to study the morphology of the area’s catshark species, comparing them the shortfin mako sharks that they had captured off Rhode Island.

“Not only were we very successful with capturing catsharks, I was also able to get in the water and dive with them,” Fleischer says.

Last summer, he also worked at a NOAA fisheries lab in Florida conducting the first analysis on the adult lemon shark diet as part a research internship awarded him through the Hollings scholarship. He presented his results in a poster session at the NOAA Research Symposium in Washington, D.C., and is working with Wetherbee and NOAA research scientist John Carlson to publish a paper on the work.

While in Florida, Fleischer assisted with the Gulf of Mexico Shark Pupping and Nursery Survey and Sawfish Population Assessment Fieldwork, which took place in the Florida Keys and Everglades.

At the end of the summer, he joined other undergraduates in the URI Shark Research Program aboard Wetherbee’s boat, R/V Hope Hudner, to hunt for sharks—whites, shortfin makos, sandbars. “We’re like a well-oiled machine,” he says. “We catch the shark, bring it on board for tagging and measurements, then release it back into the ocean.”

Looking ahead

With the breadth of experience he’s had, Fleischer has his future planned out.

“After finishing my undergraduate degree, I hope to go to grad school and earn a Ph.D.,” he says. “Then I will return to academia and research, hopefully as a NOAA research scientist working in the Highly Migratory Species Branch. But no matter where the future takes me, I’ll still be spending as much time in the water as possible.”

Wetherbee has his own prediction.

“In five years, Owen will be a Ph.D. student working on some extremely unique research project, traveling to international destinations and meeting people from all over the world,” he says. “He will be an ambassador for researchers in the U.S., just as he’s an ambassador for the College of the Environment and Life Sciences now.”

—Anthony LaRoche