My six months as a marine biologist intern with Marine Savers have finally come to an end. As time went by, I had the chance to meet lots of turtles and people from all over the world and so many walks of life. Adding the ocean related activities that we undertook every day and my diving and surfing sessions in paradise, I have come to the conclusion that I’ve spent one of my most memorable and enjoyable times of my life here.
As part of our Turtle Satellite Tracking programme, we tag some of our turtles before release, to understand and learn more of their habitat, oceanic travels and foraging grounds. According to our tagged sea turtle data, in their pelagic juvenile stage they appear to be nomadic, traveling through the Indian Ocean, several thousand kilometres from the Indian, Sri Lankan and Maldivian shorelines. During my final weeks, I have been looking into all the information related to the tracked sea turtles in our database, to document how best to attach the satellite tag on the turtle carapace, and how to access to the data provided by those tags.
I have also been helping my team to create awareness with groups of both local and guest children. In June, we introduced a new activity called Junior Marine Saver, where we offer the opportunity to experience life as a marine biologist working in the Maldives on sea turtle conservation and coral propagation programmes.
In collaboration with Manta Trust, we also visited the school on the local island, Bodu Huraa, where we talked with students about the importance of protecting the marine environment. It was so rewarding to see how interested and aware the students were.
Lately, I have been going ahead with my Advanced Open Water Diver course with the Dive Centre of the island. Through different adventure dives, I am building more confidence and expanding my scuba skills, like learning how to control my buoyancy. It is a real pleasure to dive along the Maldivian reefs, spotting the incredible and diverse Indian Ocean fauna. I am going to miss my weekly dives in these clear and blue waters.
But we not only dive for pleasure. Sometimes our team must dive to relocate some coral frames and keep them away from the high temperatures of the shallow areas. And occasionally, we go into the water to carry out clean ups in the bottom of our house reef, like the one we did during World Ocean Day on 8 June.
During the last few days, Kuda Huraa has witnessed the 2017 Four Seasons Maldives Annual Surfing Champions Trophy. This annual contest brings some of the most talented surfers around the world to surf our local wave, known as Sultans. The last day of the competition I had the chance to join the boat from Four Seasons and see the surfer legends getting ‘barrelled’. The cherry on the cake for me was meeting the Californian style guru, Rob Machado, one of my surfing idols. 😊
What is more, I think I have rediscovered my passion for photography. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the beauty of the place I have been surrounded by for the past 6 months, and I cannot help but wonder what the future will bring in this regard. I wish that wherever I go next, I will be able to keep my camera rolling.
To mark the end of my time here, I would like to thank my Marine Discovery Centre Team and all the staff of the resort for making my experience at Kuda Huraa so lovely and memorable. I will never forget my first island home and now I can say that I have a family on the other side of the world.
I hope you have enjoyed my chapters! Thank you all, and lots of love.
Hasta pronto,
Irene 😉
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