Jula diving in Palau
Name: Juliana Corrales Sánchez
Nickname
Jula (like hula hoop: in Spanish the ‘j’ sounds like an ‘h’)
Where are you from?
I’m from Costa Rica and I proudly call it my home.
What are you best known for?
Often people say that I am a positive person and that I tend to bring people together. It feels strange to talk about myself that way! But having a positive attitude and having the people I love close by is quite important for me so it makes sense.
What’s your background?
I do have an odd background when it comes to a ‘regular’ career in marine conservation. I graduated with a degree in Graphic Design and Visual Communications. While I was a student, I saw the potential for using the skills we were learning to bring about a change in the world surrounding us. After working as a consultant for a few years, I convinced myself that the next step to achieve my lifelong dream of bringing people closer to the ocean was to continue my studies. I graduated with a Masters in Environment, Development and Peace, with a focus on Natural Resource Management. I was constantly questioned about the link between my past experience, as a designer, and my current studies because it was not ‘the norm’. But I didn’t want to follow the normal route; I wanted to innovate and was keen on reaching that goal.
As part of my Masters programme, I had to do an internship to graduate and fortunately, after a lot of online research, I found Reef-World. I had the opportunity to start this new chapter of my career as a creative in the field of marine conservation as part of the Reef-World team in the Philippines back in 2015. Since then I’ve been able to work uniting creativity with ocean conservation on a daily basis.
Jula in her first fieldwork experience back in 2015 in Panglao, the Philippines
What inspired you to get into marine conservation?
I was lucky to have been born in Costa Rica – a small but a very biodiverse country – so I’ve inevitably been in very close interaction with the ocean and nature in general. This has deeply influenced my personal and professional life. I have always felt a need to communicate our relationship and interactions with the ocean through a visual outlet.
What brought you to Reef-World & why do you care about the work we do?
As I mentioned before, my Masters was what brought me to Reef-World. But it was also the dream of combining my passion for the ocean, diving, creativity and design with my ideal job. The team and I have gone through a lot together: last year I made the decision to leave the Philippines and the core team to start working as a freelance Creative Consultant. What made me stay involved was the work we do (and, of course, the beautiful people I get to work with). Reef-World is a small powerhouse of conservation in action: we get to reach and inspire so many people and, at the same time, they inspire us to do our work even better. Also, coral reefs are unbelievable ecosystems that keep our oceans balanced: they are definitely worth fighting for!
Jula helping to promote the Green Fins message about sustainable diving
What’s your role at Reef-World and what does that look like?
Currently, I work as a freelance Creative Consultant. That means I support Reef-World’s Comms team in developing new (or updating and improving existing) materials for the Green Fins initiative which we run globally in partnership with the UN Environment Programme. Together, we’re creating new innovative ways of communicating with the dive industry to achieve Reef-World’s mission of making sustainable diving the social norm.
What do you enjoy the most about your role?
I enjoy having the space to analyse what we have been doing as an organisation in terms of material production and communications. Working as a consultant gives you a freedom and perspective that’s sometimes difficult to achieve otherwise. I enjoy having creative freedom and to be able to use my skills to help protect our oceans and, working together with our partners and supporters, achieve something bigger and better for all of us.
What one piece of advice would you give to someone wanting to get into the marine conservation sector?
I don’t think there is particularly one way in but the constant in my experience has been to follow my instincts and be true to that inner voice inside me that always told me it could be done. Also, I found it very valuable to get myself in experiences that pushed me out of my comfort zone. From studying something completely new to living in a different country on the other side of the world and working with people that have different perspectives and cultures… the list goes on and on! By doing so, I have gained a newfound perspective on our place on this planet and our role in marine conservation. It’s helped me shift my point of view from ‘me’ more towards ‘us’.
Outside work, what are your hobbies?
I love my yoga practice; it brings me back to that centre and helps me align mentally and physically. Unfortunately, I do spend a lot of my time in front of a computer so I need to align my back and neck mainly! Of course, any ocean related activity too; I wish I could dive more often. But any excuse to visit the ocean, I’m in! Also, I love using my hands either painting or making jewellery.
What’s your favourite marine animal and why?
This is a tough question! It tends to change quite often. But I do have a soft spot for humpback whales because they are such humongous creatures that seem so different but are, at the same time, so similar to us. They visit Costa Rica very often; we have this crazy national park that, on low tide, looks like the tale of a whale and it is exactly in this place where humpbacks come to have their babies! Once I was there and a small calf breached around 15 times for us, I was completely mindblown. Also, on one of my first dives while I was getting my Open Water licence, I was lucky to hear them singing far away.
Marino Ballena National Park: one of the beautiful landscapes which Jula is passionate about protecting.
What marine animal are you most like and why?
I’ve never thought of this before so I asked around and people said a dolphin: energetic, likes to play with the waves and very social.
When and where did you qualify as a diver? What made you want to try scuba?
Diving in Costa Rica
I’ve always loved to be by the ocean and enjoy trying different ways of interacting with it, from surfing (definitely not very successfully), surf photography, stand up paddling and, of course, diving. What better way of interacting with the ocean than being IN IT like a fish!
So back in 2012, I gathered some of my best friends from university and together we organised it. We did our Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses in the North Pacific coast of Costa Rica off of Flamingo beach where we have these wonderful pinnacles called Catalina Islands. Me and my friends got so hooked with diving that, together with our dive instructor, we started organising diving trips and sort of started our own diving agency/ shop for a while. Those were good times…
Tell us about your most memorable dive…
Usually my most memorable dives are the ones where I’ve seen a creature or a landscape for the first time. So, the dives in Malapascua island with the thresher sharks, in Apo island where I first saw a coral reef and in Palau where I saw the biggest corals. I was also fortunate to visit Galapagos islands earlier this year and finally got to see a hammerhead! Those are definitely the moments that stay with me and give me that feeling of wanting to stay down there forever.
& one diving destination still on your bucket list?
Raja Ampat!
Star sign and how you express it
I’m a Leo, which is a Fire sign. Although I love my time in the water, I think it reflects how I like to keep a good balance in all aspects of my life.
If you could have one superpower, what would you choose and why?
Teleportation: I would be able to move all over the world visiting places and people with no carbon footprint and in no time!
What’s the strangest injury you’ve ever had?
I haven’t had many injuries (knocking on wood)! I recently got a large, strange cyst removed from my wrist. Maybe that counts?
Tell us something most people wouldn’t know about you?
I’ve always had a thing about chickens: I was extremely scared of them when I was a little girl and as I grew up it turned into a phobia. However, living in the Philippines forced me to face my fears and bear it better!
Anything else you’d like to share?
As part of my previous advice about challenging yourself, I was recently involved in an amazing experience that was the epitome of getting out of my comfort zone! I had the honour of being selected out of 10,000 candidates to be the first Costa Rican joining the seventh leg of eXXpedition’s first ever Round the World Voyage, from Galápagos to Easter Island. eXXpedition is an NGO that runs pioneering all-female sailing research expeditions to investigate the causes of and solutions to ocean plastic pollution. I knew, from the moment I accepted the offer, that this experience was going to change my life and challenge me in many ways. And, actually, that was the most valuable aspect of the experience: to be challenged every step of the way. I also added another amazing interaction with the ocean to my list: sailing!
Jula on eXXpedition’s first ever Round the World Voyage, from Galápagos to Easter Island