Morgan Sherburne

ALPENA, Michigan—Ken McQuarrie grew up two blocks from Thunder Bay, in Alpena, where his dad and uncles were divers. One uncle explored shipwrecks in the bay. But McQuarrie never learned to dive, and began attending Alpena Community College after he graduated high school. He started working to make ends meet after having his first child at 17 and second at 22. One day, when his youngest son was in high school, McQuarrie attended a career fair. One of the displays was striking: an underwater remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, set up in a big fish tank. By its side was David Cummins, an instructor at ACC and adviser for the college’s Marine Technology Pathways program. “I picked up the remote and David was like, ‘You’re pretty good at this. You ever think about doing anything with underwater robots?'” McQuarrie said. McQuarrie enrolled in the two-year course. One day in 2015, after training in the harbor, he met @UMich archeologist John O’Shea, who was returning to the marina after a research trip on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge, an underwater ridge that runs from Alpena to Amberley, Ontario. He was investigating potential ancient caribou hunting sites, locate on what would have been dry land between 8,000 and 11,000 years ago. “I volunteered to work with him,” McQuarrie said. “I didn’t ever need my name involved in any research or anything like that. I just wanted to be part of it.” McQuarrie spent his first day with O’Shea’s team drawing on his internship experience on research vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, deploying the ROV and managing its tether. The tether, a cord that includes both power to the ROV and telecommunications between the robot and boat, is the most important part of the job. After that day, O’Shea offered McQuarrie a contractor position. “I remember getting that first paycheck with the University of Michigan all over it. I’ve grown up as a U-M fan my whole life. The opportunity to work with the University of Michigan, the opportunity to work with Dr. O’Shea—that was a dream come true.” Since the work began in 2008, O’Shea’s team has identified 72 probable sites. Twelve of these have been confirmed to date, and include caribou hunting sites, camps and stone caches. The discoveries have led to a sustained underwater archaeology research project, one that involves community volunteers, college and high school teachers and students, and which has even changed the way people of this remote, northern Michigan region think about their own history. Learn more: myumi.ch/JP9Ge

.@UMKines professor of sport management @RichardJPaulsen comments on Juan Soto's monster 15-year, $765M deal with the NY Mets: "Sports economists, myself included, have found evidence that the job security that comes with long-term contracts disincentivizes effort. As Soto will be 41 and likely to retire at the end of the contract, he has little financial incentive to perform at a high level." Visit news.umich.edu for more expert analysis.