Baa Atoll Marine Biology Internship – last year
The Baa Atoll Marine Biology Internship was started in 2023, to inspire local school students to consider careers in marine biology, conservation, and sustainability. During May 2023, we hosted 12 grade-9 students from each island across Baa Atoll. This intensive 3-day programme saw students participate in presentations and practical workshops given by our resident team of marine biologists. The programme was a great success, thanks to the continued collaboration between Four Seasons Resort Landaa Giraavaru, Baa Atoll Council, Baa Atoll Biosphere Reserve, and Maldives Manta Conservation Programme.
Internship Course 2024
From 5th to 8th June, Landaa Giraavaru played host to 24 academically driven grade-9 students from 11 local islands around Baa Atoll. The 15 boys and 9 girls were selected from a pool of over 50 applicants based on a written assessment of their interest in marine biology as a career and their level of understanding and drive towards environmental issues. Over the intensive three day course, these eager students were given the opportunity to learn about the underwater world and gain an understanding of what life is like as a marine biologist within the hospitality industry.
🗓️ Day 1 – The students received a warm welcome to Landaa and were greeted with boduberu, flower garlands and a huge reception of staff and managers. After settling in, the students took part in an evening of team games to help introduce them to each other and build interpersonal bonds.
🗓️ Day 2 – Following an introductory presentation on the importance of oceans to the planet and how we can protect them, the interns spent their morning exploring our Centre to meet the turtles, visit the Fish Lab residents, and learn about our conservation projects. The students were then given a sustainability tour of the gardens, recycling facilities, and the other back-of-house energy saving projects.
After lunch, the students participated in a fish survey on the house reef, working in snorkel teams to spot target species of fish and other animals to collect points and compete for the winning score. All of the students enjoyed this activity and were excited to spot eagle rays and reef sharks. One student particularly impressed us despite never having snorkelled before.
In the evening, we played a variety of sports including football (apprentices v students) dodgeball (staff v students), and an impromptu volleyball game.
Some of our turtle rehabilitation pools
VR experience: swimming with mantas
🗓️ Day 3 – Friday was magafauna day! We started with an informative presentation of manta ray biology and conservation, followed by manta anatomy drawing, VR mantas, and a hologram experience in our Centre.
After lunch, the interns were given a presentation on dolphin biology, and played a puzzle game to match ID photos with dolphin fins (our Dolphin ID work on local dolphin residents). Following this, we conducted a dolphin cruise for the students to take their own ID photos on a dolphin cruise; they were very excited to spot both spinner dolphins and manta rays on the trip.
To celebrate the final evening of the course, the students were treated to a special Maldivian-style beach barbeque, complete with a colourful instagrammable back drop.
🗓️ Day 4 – we had scheduled a couple of special events to celebrate World Oceans Day. After learning about coral biology, bleaching, conservation, and island formation, the students built their very own 100-fragment coral frame. This was followed by the release of turtle rescue patient Gina back into the wild.
After lunch we held the closing ceremony, when Mr Ibrahim Abdul Rahman (VP of Baa Atoll Council) met with staff and enjoyed anecdotes from the students, before presenting certificates. The interns departed in high spirits, having made many new friends amongst themselves and the Resort staff.
Student Feedback from the Course
After the conclusion of the program the students were asked to share their feedback of their experiences. Each intern answered a short questionnaire asking them to highlight their favourite activity, subject they learned about, any suggestions they might have for improving next years course, and why they wished to be considered for the advanced program next year.
For the majority of students, the highlights of the course were the practical activities (snorkelling and dolphin watching). Some students particularly enjoyed the evening activities (games and BBQ), and the opportunity to connect with like-minded young people. Despite not having a practical element, manta rays were the joint top favourite subject, alongside corals. Here, enjoyable activities and games were used to engage the students and help with learning retention (eg: using tennis balls to replicate coral spawning, and matching manta photos using spot patterns).
Around half the students only wished the course was longer, with one student commenting “the internship was perfect”. Suggestions for improvement included increasing the in-water time, and visiting a marine protected area to snorkel with mantas. All comments will be taken into consideration when designing next year’s programme.
It was very pleasing that all 24 students reported being very interested in participating in the advanced programme next year. Most were also keen to continue learning about conservation of the marine environment, and some expressed interest in becoming marine biologists.
🗨️ “This programme has inspired me to go further in the sector of marine biology, and give a hand in saving our ecosystems”.
🗨️ “Chances like these are rare, so I want to learn as much as I can to fulfill my dream of becoming a marine biologist.”
🗨️ “To research more about how to preserve marine life and learn how to do this practically and teach others from my island about it”.
🗨️ “This programme is very important to me because I want to become a diver in future”.
🗨️ “I have decided that I actually want to study marine biology and to work for the Resort in future. It was a magical experience, thank you”.
What’s Next for the Project?
This year, we will also be welcoming back some of the interns from last year to take part in a more advanced programme as ‘Stage 2’ (below). This course will expose the students to a variety of career paths and specialist subjects open to marine biologists. During the 5-day course, the interns will help perform marine-life surveys, monitor coral growth on Reefscapers frames, try scuba-diving, assist with a sandbank cleanup, and visit Hanifaru Bay with manta researchers. After completing this course, students who perform well will be invited to apply for the marine biology apprenticeship programme at Landaa.
We plan to run both stage 1 and stage 2 on the insternship programme again in 2025, to build a bank of experienced youngsters with knowledge and passion for marine conservation.
Stage 2 (1-5 July 2024)
‘Stage 2’ of our internship ran from 1st to 5th July, as we welcomed the return of five of last years’ students, now finishing grade 10.
🗓️ 1st July – students arrived on Landaa in the morning, having travelled from the islands of Goidhoo, Dhonfan, Eydafushi, Kudarikilu and Kamadhoo, via boats provided by Baa Council and Four Seasons. After settling-in, the internship started strongly with a coral class and presentation, before joining the biologists in the water to learn how to monitor coral growth on our restoration reefs. The students enjoyed the challenge of freediving to take photographs underwater, and encountering the resident marine life on the house reef. After an exciting first afternoon, the interns spent the evening in after-hours socialising and playing games.
🗓️ 2nd July – a morning tour of our Fish Lab covered plankton, fish and shrimp breeding tanks, groupers, sea urchins and more. Then it was hands-on, learning how to monitor the live plankton and jellyfish cultures, before feeding our resident marine fish. After lunch, the interns assisted in a marine life survey of nearby reef Nurafaru. By working in teams, the students looked for key marine species and recorded these on underwater slates. The challenge was made more exciting by the instructors awarding points for each species found. After totaling the points, it was found that the girls team had beaten the boys by a narrow margin. After some time to rest, the evening was spent playing football and badminton.
🗓️ 3rd July – After a very sound sleep, the students had another action-packed day, starting off with a beach clean at Landaa sandbank. With assistance from our Resort colleagues, the team were able to recover several large fishing nets from the sandbank, as well as plastics, which were sorted into Parley recycling bags. In the afternoon, the interns took part in a Discover Scuba Diving session (DSD) hosted by the Dive Centre. All 5 students successfully completed the session, which included key skills and a dive in the House Reef, and were very excited to have had such a special experience.
🗓️ 4th July – The fourth day of the internship was led jointly by Baa Atoll Biosphere Reserve and the manta team from Landaa. After receiving a safety briefing, the interns were taken to Hanifaru Bay to search for mantas. The trip was a huge success, and the group were able to observe around 15 individual mantas swimming and feeding in the bay. This was the first time that most of the students had seen a manta ray in person, and they were delighted to finally observe the animal they had learned so much about. The Biosphere Reserve team spent the afternoon with the class, discussing the importance of the Hanifaru Bay protected reserve. The marine learning continued in the evening with a special showing of the award-wining documentary ‘My Octopus Teacher’, which tells the story of the relationship that developed between a small octopus and a South African film-maker.
🗓️ 5th July – On the final day of the internship, the students were given a back-of-house tour to explore the sustainability practices underway at Landaa. After this, the students received the apprentice presentation, and enjoyed an online discussion on plastic pollution with Shaahina Ali (director of Parley Maldives). After a break for lunch, the students were presented with certificates of completion during the closing ceremony of the internship by Mr Ahmed Afrah (President of Baa Council) and Mr Armando Kraenzlin (Four Seasons Regional VP). The Resort also welcomed the leaders of several other atoll councils and local islands.
Our stage 2 marine internship programme was considered a great success by all who attended. The course strongly fulfilled its aim of introducing the students to the broad variety of opportunities available in the world of marine biology and conservation.
In 2025, we hope to welcome back some of these students for stage 3 of the course, which will run over a longer period and will continue to build on the themes addressed so far. After finishing A-levels, the students that have attended the programme will have the opportunity to join the apprentice class as marine biology students.
In exciting news, the Biosphere Reserve team has also confirmed that any students completing the course and apprenticeship will be eligible to receive a scholarship to complete a degree in marine biology and become fully fledged biologists. Our whole marine team are excited to continue with the internship for 2025, with the invaluable support from all of the people and departments that were involved with both courses this year. Without their support and hard work, the internships would not have been the success that they proved to be.