End of an Intern experience

Cliché as it is, they are right about how time flies. 
In a blink of an eye, I am at the end of my Intern experience.  Four months have passed. My time in TRACC has finally come to an end. 
Over the past four months, I have gone through the ups and the downs but I have learnt so much at the same time by taking up some leadership roles in TRACC. Leading dives, fish surveys, turtle walks, organizing fun day trips, turtle surveys and so much more. Although I will not miss the centipedes crawling around outside my tent or mosquitoes and sweaty humid weather, I will miss everything else. 

Intern Experience - too many. 

 Alone time on the jetty-the cool breeze from the jetty-the sunset that hits Bohey Dulang-turtles that popped up once in a while to breathe-dolphins that past by house reef-girls night with my favourite girls-naked dive-horror movie nights-Rasma’s and Neng’s cooking-Gon’s late night cooking snacks-the tiki bar-hammock talks with Christine-bottle scraping deep talks-creative bottle reef making with Sophia-crashing CBR’s place during the Olympics-peanut butter and kaya crackers-Community Coral day at Kalapuan-saving CBR’s big boat from sinking during a late night storm-errands in Semporna-juggling session with Chris-badminton session-the fireflies-the moon that shines over TRACC-the games of werewolf-the glitter-the 80s theme party-the tribal theme party-cooking sessions with party music with the girls-late night grilled cheese sandwich making with Alana-uno games-Joey’s constant whining-Monsoon’s weird sleeping patterns and howling-Black Jack’s overall craziness-coming up from every dive to discover new species of nudibranch-seeing an eagle ray breaching from underwater-discovering a translucent nudibranch that curls up into a ball when it got swept away by the current or even the late night heart-to-heart talk at the jetty. 

Ultimately, what I will miss the most is the friendship that was formed. 
The people that I met, that come and go and the company of them. Cheesy as it sounds, I will miss all the TRACC staff members, the volunteers and our dear friend Erik Hagestad. Now, I close this chapter in my life and look back with no regrets, knowing that I will one day return to this beautiful island call Pom Pom. 

(This blog is written by Natalie Chai)

If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please check our website http://tracc.org or email info@tracc-borneo.org

For more updates on TRACC check out our Facebook, Twitter or Google+

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow our projects on facebook

Chinese School Group at TRACC

TRACC were host to a large Chinese FSXH school group in summer 2016 who came to visit for the first time. There were a total of 16 high school students from China and 4 teachers. Most came to learn how to dive, learn about what TRACC does and be involved in marine conservation. These students had no knowledge of what marine conservation is all about and what TRACC does and so many of the TRACC staff including myself had the opportunity to teach them about the life under the sea.

While most of the dive masters were assisting the instructors with the students’ open water and advanced open water, I had the opportunity to help Tom (the science officer) out with the science education. We gave short classes on coral identification, fish identification and artificial reef. I found teaching and educating these students really exciting. Not only was I learning as I teach, the students were really enthusiastic and wanted to learn more about the marine life. They are constantly asking questions and giving out burst of amazement about the uniqueness of every single species of marine creatures. As soon as we finished our classroom section, we hit the water for some snorkelling and started identifying the types of family fishes. Even though many of the students barely know how to swim and some are terrified of the water, they are still really excited to explore and discover the fishes or corals that they just learned. 

Natalie and Evelyn.

 Thinking back on the memories with the students, I personally felt really inspired by them. One of my favourite memories was teaching a student how to swim. Right from the start, before we head into the water, I could tell Evelyn was scared of drowning but yet she was determined to learn how to swim. In no time, she was swimming like a professional athlete. The best part of this particular experience was not only does Evelyn feel accomplished, I felt equally accomplished as she was.  We constantly high five and hugged each other and there was no other way to describe that feeling of achieving the same goal with another person. It’s amazing how much I have seen her grow from a non-swimmer to an excellent swimmer and diver. This was definitely a one-time experience I would never replace it for the world. The challenges and accomplishment that were faced are those memories I will look back now and appreciate the opportunities that TRACC has given me.

(This blog is written by Natalie Chai)

If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please check our website http://tracc.org or email info@tracc-borneo.org

For more updates on TRACC check out our Facebook, Twitter or Google+

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow our projects on facebook

Fun Dive at North Tip

The diversity at North Tip

The biodiversity at North tip has changed dramatically since May. Bluespotted ribbontail ray, nudibranch, bumphead parrotfish at the size of approximately one meter, humphead wrasse and the redtooth triggerfishes definitely grabbed my attention throughout this dive. Evidently, the photo above shows the diversity of fishes at approximately 30 meters. The redtooth triggerfishes are seen gracefully swimming about in the open blue water.

Redtooth triggerfish are one of the most diverse fish at North Tip.

Blue spotted ribbon tail ray at North Tip.

Furthermore, humphead wrasses have not been seen for more than five months. However, they were recently seen again in mid-August. During this fun dive, an adult humphead wrasse was just swimming peacefully past us. It was definitely a sight to see as I have never seen a humphead wrasse swimming in the ocean but rather I will always see these wrasses in Chinese restaurants, cramped up in small tanks ready to be slaughtered.  TRACC has so far bought and released 15 juveniles :-)

Humphead wrasses and Bluefin Trevally at North Tip.

(This blog is written by Natalie Chai)

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If you want to visit and volunteer to help with any marine conservation activity, please check our website http://tracc.org or email info@tracc-borneo.org

For more updates on TRACC check out our Facebook, Twitter or Google+

If visits to Tracc are not possible then like us and share our projects on Social media.

Donations to community projects, or support / sponsor an Intern or Marine science student are always welcome.

Sabah Shark Protection Association (SSPA) Proposal

As part of my intern experiences, on the 16^th of July, I was given a chance to take a further step deeper into my learning and be part of a proposal meeting by representing both TRACC and Shark Stewards.
 
The proposal meeting was held in Kota Kinabalu and the proposal was on protecting sharks and rays in Sabah. I am so grateful that I was given such a great opportunity by both Dr David McGuire, the founder of Shark Stewards and Prof. Steve Oakley of TRACC to participate and be involved in this pre-proposal meeting.
 
I was able to meet people from different organisation including WWF Malaysia, Scuba Zoo, LEAP, Scuba Junkie, MNS and MCS. Including TRACC and Shark Stewards, these eight non-profit organisations forms an association call Sabah Sharks Protection Association (SSPA) where they work together to protect sharks and rays in Sabah. I personally found my first experience of a pre-proposal meeting intense but by the end of the meeting, I felt thankful that I was able to be part of this proposal meeting. Not only did I get to meet different organisations that share the same goal and passion to protect sharks and rays in Sabah, I was involved in a proposal that we all hopes will have sharks and rays protected in Sabah. That in itself fills my hearts knowing that we are all trying to make a difference not just for the sharks or rays but for the whole world. 


All my intern experiences

 

(This blog is written by Natalie Chai)

If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please check our website http://tracc.org or email info@tracc-borneo.org

For more updates on TRACC check out our Facebook, Twitter or Google+

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow our projects on facebook

Funday at Matabuan

A healthy coral reef at Matabuan.

On Sundays, we normally take a day off from conservation work and go FUNdiving :-) I remember when we went to Matabuan as our fun day trip. The ride to Matabuan was rather rough as a storm has just hit. Thus, when we went down for a dive, the visibility was not as great. However, undeniably, the coral reef is so much more diverse and healthier compared to Pom Pom Island. Good job done by Sabah Parks (Mantabuan is in Tun Sakaran Park, and has a marine police presence.)

A green turtle swimming into the blue.

Divers showing off their flying kicks and back flips.

Other than admiring the beauty of the coral reef, one of the most memorial part of the dive in Matabuan was 

when we found a patch of sand at depth about 8 meters. What is more fun than to take off our fins and do flips and flying kicks? We spent a good time defying gravity and although we consumed a lot of our air, it was still unforgettable.

Lunch at Matabuan Island.

Hunger took over after that dive and so we had lunch on the island. We found a good spot with lots of shade, placed a tarp on the sand and settled down. We had some good discussion about what we saw during the dive and played a game of charades. After much laughter, it was time to head back to Pom Pom. Fun day to Matabuan was definitely a day we would never trade for any other days. The dive site, the company of these volunteers, the food, the view and everything else on top of that.

If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please check our website http://tracc.org or email info@tracc-borneo.org

For more updates on TRACC check out our Facebook, Twitter or Google+

More Marine conservation projects

Reef conservation would not be possible without generous financial support from

GEF /SGP for Malaysia who are helping our community activities and coralreefcare.com who generously provided materials to build the new reefs.

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow their projects on Facebook.

Eric - tribute to a friend

Eric Hagestad - Our great friend, dive buddy and nice guy passed away very unexpectedly and we will miss him.

 Always willing and happy, Eric made the most out of life.  He came to TRACC as a divemaster intern and soon became the go to guy for any work or pleasure dive.  Eric loved diving and extended his stay to help the instructors and other dive masters with courses and leading dives.

Eric had a funeral and burial at sea.
His wife describes it perfectly.

... the sky was beautifully clear, the water perfectly blue, and the sun was shining on us as your body was carried in a casket onto the boat. i knelt down for a moment of prayer before we set sail at 8:30 with david, the captain, his crew, and glenn, the funeral director, and his partner, tony. the seagulls flew overhead showing us the way while people waved at us. even the dolphins made an appearance then went under to alert everyone in the ocean what was to come. i sang that song to you over and over like a broken record until we arrived at our destination one hour later. bells were rung and then a changing of the guard ceremony before your body was gently lowered into the ocean. i threw roses to mark the spot and then envisioned the fish tugging at the strings of the shroud to free your body. i saw you slowly, tentatively kick a few times to get rid of the stiffness before diving deeper, faster than you'd ever done before, without oxygen, fins, mask or wetsuit. there was a long parade of sealife trailing behind so happy to welcome your body back.

To help remember Eric at the dive location he loved so much we have built him a TRACC reef.  The Giant E memorial.

All round nice guy, we will miss you.

Eric Hagestad Memorial reef

To our friend Erik, who spent the last half a year on a tiny island called Pom Pom with most of us. He was doing what he loved, building artificial reefs, doing reef conservation and finishing his Divemaster. To honor him we built and installed the biggest and heaviest reef we`ve made to date at Tracc.

With your reef Erik, you will still be providing habitat for fishes and a stable area for corals to grow. Thank you for keeping the north current to a minimum and allowing us to install the E reef safely.
This reef is just for you, we all miss and love you.

Thank you to everybody who made this possible, also thanks a lot to the volunteers who never had the pleasure of meeting Erik, but contributed to the building of Eriks reef.

Lots of Love and best wishes.

 Obituary to Eric.

Turtles galore

Turtle nesting at TRACC is commonplace,  with a nest almost every week through the year, there is a great spectacle of National Geographic proportions happening all the time. This year 2016, we have had nesting turtles since January and yesterday (22-09-2016) in a stroke of good fortune, we had two females emerge to nest within a few metres and a few minutes of each other.

Moving 100+kg across the sand on your belly is hard work.

  Standing within metres of a nesting female as she scrabbles through the bushes puts wild life and wild places into perspective.  For me, its amazing that all TRACC staff and volunteers can get up close to real endangered species that have been on the planet for millions of years.  These are real experiences of life on the planet - upclose and personal, rather than images carried by the internet to millions of people.


A short distance down the beach from the TRACC camp and it is easy to imagine that Sir David Attenborough is also on the beach - talking to the cameras that will carry the images of prehistoric reptiles across the world.

Chambering involves digging with the back flippers.

Volunteers and students who are seeing these amazing creatures for the first few times are always suitably impressed but the excitement for the staff varies in intensity depending on how much sand the turtle throws.  It is always a balance, shower at the end of a diving  day, or wait to shower after being covered in sand and turtle mucus.  There is still a great sense of achievement as the new turtle nest is dug in the hatchery where the eggs will be safe until the hatchlings are released to run down the sand to the sea.

Collecting the eggs into the bucket

We are so lucky to have these opportunities,  a few years ago getting to Pom Pom Island and turtle nesting beaches was a logistical nightmare.  Now transport and access is easy, our role is to balance the needs of the turtles so that tourism and development actually benefits these wonderful reptiles.

A job well done, eggs safely into the hatchery. 

 More

Turtle Hatching on Pom Pom | TRACC Borneo Volunteers

 

 

Turtle Nesting on Pom Pom Island | TRACC Borneo Volunteers

 

A typical day as a turtle volunteer | TRACC Borneo Volunteers

 

 

 

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If you want to help with any marine conservation activity please check out our website tracc.org or e-mail iinfo@tracc-borneo.org

For updates check out our facebook, twitter or Google +

Turtle, shark or Reef conservation would not be possible without the generous financial support. We thank GEF/SPG for Malaysia who are helping our community activities, and coralreefcare.com who generously provide materials to build more reefs.   

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow our projects on facebook

Community Coral Planting on Kalapuan

The Community Coral Team 

A bustle of activity and a flurry of hands helped to build 12 bottle reefs and 2 big turtle reefs during the Community Coral Planting day on Kalapuan Island.

Upon arrival to Kalapuan, TRACC staff and volunteers were greeted from the shores by the usual picturesque scene of blue water, green trees, and smiling faces and happy hands. As an added bonus Chief Ibno organized a pre Community Coral Day beach clean, greeting TRACC with clean beaches and a successfully collected and pile of

plastic bottles, wrappers and polystyrene.

Nat and Christine Talking Shark Fin Soup

Between reef making and lunch eating, Liam, Khairul, Nat and Christine gave a talk about the importance of coral reefs and the role of sharks in coral reef ecology. Highlighting the importance of conserving the reef and saying no to shark fin soup.

Waving a temporary goodbye to Kalapuan as the boat departed at the end of a productive day the event felt like a great success. But the works not over yet, TRACC will organize another Community Coral Planting Day in the near future to drop the completed and dried reefs.

Bottle Reef Making with Wellman and Liam

A big thanks to Mr. Yusof owner of the Kalapuan Island Resort for the use of the resort and providing a location to drop the reefs, the volunteers from TRACC and Kalapuan, the TRACC staff for the months of planning and to the GEF Small Grants Program (SGP) for providing the financial support to make the Community Coral Planting day such a success!

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If you want to help with any marine conservation activity please check out our website tracc.org or e-mail iinfo@tracc-borneo.org

For updates check out our facebook, twitter or Google +

Reef conservation would not be possible without the generous financial support from GEF/SPG for Malaysia who are helping our community activities, and coralreefcare.com who generously provide materials to build more reefs.   

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow our projects on facebook

Career prospects as a biologist

So, I was curious... I have 40 friends (old enough to have found their career but not yet career academics) who have degrees in biology in some form or other. Professionally, 21 of them don't have anything to do with biology at all. Of the 19 "biologists", 11 of them either do not make any money or are actually going into debt in order to do what they love. That's 27.5% of biology graduates who are still in the hole, digging, in the hope that they find a ladder.

The optimist says:-
An academic career in biology is a long slow process,  From my experience of knowing younger academics and dealing professionally with older ones, I would suggest that earnings snowball over time. It takes time for the investment of time to do a PhD to be paid back financially but I'm yet to know a Dr of anything that isn't well set by their 50s

 While the pessimist:
But you have to be a fool to do a PhD. Its is it not the 'marine' bit that is the problem rather than the 'biology' bit. I know people working for the NHS, Boots and GSK with biology degrees doing very well. Is it not the case that the 'marine biology' industry just doesn't have the financial clout of pharma/health/research?
There are some zoologists in here too but basically, there's no money (and consequently no jobs) in non-medical biology.

From the highest levels of the United Nations, politicians promote the Millenium goals, the Aichi decade for biodiversity but the money is always too little.   The reality of the planet as we approach 2020 is that regardless of the environmental issue of pollution, extinction and climate change, there are simply too few jobs to employ people who may be able to make a difference.