Five students at La Jolla High School submerged themselves in knowledge of the ocean and swept away the competition to capture fourth place at the National Ocean Science Bowl held April 23 to 25 in Saint Petersburg, Fla.

Three hundred teams from across the country competed for 25 spots at the nationals. Marshfield High School in Wisconsin snagged first place.

La Jolla High students Ian Fong, Nicole Jarvis, Varun Rau, Leslie Timms and Tim Trahan spent the past year meeting twice weekly at 6:30 a.m. to study marine science. They met with researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and scoured textbooks, websites and magazines for information. They scrimmaged with other teams throughout San Diego.

“They’re like ambassadors for the ocean,” said coach and marine science teacher Dave James. “They’re really good at talking to other students and informing them about what’s happening.”

At the National Ocean Science Bowl, students buzzed in to answer questions such as, “Which ocean current moves the largest volume of water?”

Before arriving at La Jolla High two years ago, James worked as a marine biologist for 20 years for various organizations including Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

James said some of the questions even stumped him.

“They asked some questions that are pretty obscure,” James said. “Some of the questions were graduate-school difficulty … It sorts out the good teams from the average teams.”