Fight or flight?

When I am working in the Philippines office, whenever I get the chance to go for a snorkel on the nearby beach, I jump at the chance. Nowadays I am mostly behind the laptop so these chances are getting fewer and far between, but I still try and make the effort to go for an evening swim after work to blow off the office cobwebs. #Yesterday, following the same route that I always swim running parallel to the shore for a mile I came across a familiar sight, a cuttlefish staying very still as I mash away overhead in my usual ungainly way. Where we are based, we are very blessed to have all sorts out there including Hairy and Painted Frogfish, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Ornate Ghost Pipefish, Cockatoo Waspfish, Mimic Octopus and many other species that I don’t recognise including numerous Nudibrach species.  I stopped to have a closer look at this large common cuttlefish and ducked down to check it out. I was barely a metre down, about 3 meters from it, when it did something I have never witnessed. It zipped away like the UFO’s they are often referred to and vanished into the distance more than 30 odd metres away out of sight. That’s a long way to go and a lot of energy to spend, and something that doesn’t add up to the threat in my opinion. They normally allow you to come within a good metre of it and calmly stare back at you equally as intrigued. I laughed and swam on but it did made me think. Why……why run away?

As I came closer to my usual turnaround point to head back, I thought about it more and more and related to it in that, in life it is much easier to run away. When something doesn’t appeal or go the way you want it to, or at times if you get scared the easy thing to do is…run away. I work with people, from all countries, religious beliefs and backgrounds who are all involved in the environmental sector be it an NGO, a national government department or simply a local stakeholder and they all share the ability to demonstrate similar responses, as mankind usually does. For too many years, people have been running, running away from the obvious truth that we as a species are harming the environment we so critically depend on. Off the back of the latest IPCC report, I believe that something has change, in my lifetime.

There are always choices in life, and you can see this throughout the animal kingdom in the well document fight or flight response. A classic example of flight is if you sneak up on a cat and make a loud noise it is likely you won’t see if for the rest of the day. Similarly if the same cat is confronted by a dog, it is likely to arch its back and make itself big and scary and stand it’s ground – fight. I believe that to take flight is easier than to stand and fight. For too long politicians, the general public and many others in a position to act have been zipping away from the problem just like the mad cuttlefish I witnessed. I have been put in many positions in my life where it is easier to run but I know that this will not change anything and we NEED to start to make changes. Corals are disappearing, seas are rising in height and our weather systems are getting all out of whack. Time to arch our backs people and stand our ground. Put it like this, if we all stood our ground we probably wouldn’t be in the precarious environmental situation we are in today! I am not saying we need to all be anarchists, just that we need to talk about these issues such as fossil fuel use, the way we fish our oceans and the constant threat from pollution and litter and stop pretending they are not an issue anymore. Let’s not be scared Cuttlefish.

See you out on the reef!

JJ

Tropical Tioman...the Green Fins way

I write this instalment of my blog from the stunning island of Tioman.  Seven weeks into my internship I had settled well into life in the Philippines when to my surprise and delight I was asked to assist Chloe on a Green Fins Capacity Development program on Pulau Tioman; an island off the East coast of Malaysia.  A brilliant opportunity to experience and work on the Green Fins project from another angle and gain a wealth of experience and skills in a country I had never been to before.  As if carrying out this internship in the Philippines wasn’t amazing enough… how could I say no!

Travelling to Tioman was a bit of a trek involving trikes, taxis, boats, buses and a plane ride - not in that order.  The journey took two days with stop over’s in Kuala Lumpur and Mersing as there were no flights running to the island.  On the plus side the 6 hour bus ride from KL to Mersing allowed me to see more of Malaysia…with its many palm oil plantations that stretch on as far as the eye can see; but also some lush, green rainforests.  A bumpy ferry crossing from Mersing to Tioman and we were here.  We have very kindly been housed in grounds of the Department of Marine Park Malaysia (DMPM) whom we are working with on the island.   Within the first day we met some of our very interesting neighbours - some very bold long-tailed macaques that live in the rainforest behind us (they don’t get the name ‘cheeky monkey’ for no reason!), monitor lizards and LOTS of cats!  The cats seem to love people who are not so keen on them…namely Chloe and I, who seem to have unwillingly  ‘adopted’ a couple that reside around DMPM.

So far we have had the chance to have some inspiring and eye-opening conversations with some amazing guys from Reef Check Malaysia who we are collaborating with and who will be helping to continue the Green Fins work here on the island along with some great guys from DMPM.  It is brilliant to see the positive influence Green Fins has had from when it was first implemented on the island in 2009 by Chloe and JJ.  Of course there is still work to be done but the dive centres have welcomed Green Fins back with open arms and have been incredibly helpful and accommodating.  Most of those assessed in 2009 have maintained the positive changes they made as a result of their Green Fins Assessment last time around which is a true testament to the benefits and success of the project.

The reefs around Tioman that I have visited are pretty healthy and resilient but it is clear to see that these valuable ecosystems are under pressure from tourism and they need to be protected from the impact we as divers and snorkelers have on them as well as other human impacts such as pollution caused from rubbish/run off.  The number of snorkelers on the island is vast and although it is not yet high season here on Tioman there are a good number of divers around as well.   Seeing a fin kick destroy live coral that has been growing for hundreds of years is heart breaking.  Broken and dead coral is not what divers come here to see so any opportunity to create awareness about the importance of these reefs and how to mitigate the threats we bring to them as divers/snorkelers is a very good thing for all involved.  Green Fins has an important role to play here and with the help of the Department of Marine Park Malaysia and Reef Check I believe further successes will result.  DMPM have already installed and continue to maintain (with the help of the dive centres) numerous mooring buoys at the local dive sites and along the shore in the marine park so it is clear to see that those based on the island do have a sense of responsibility and appreciation of how special their marine environment is here.

I must admit that another reason I was excited to come to Malaysia was for the food.  Chloe and I have had local food wherever possible including roti canai for breakfast and dinner (not in the same day although I would have happily!) with very sweet pulled tea or very sweet coffee.  We have also had the opportunity to attend two Malay wedding celebrations with some very kind and hospitable locals.  You never know what surprises will arise when working with Green Fins!

We have been on Tioman for ten days now and sadly we are coming to the end of what has been a successful trip.  I am very thankful to have been given this opportunity to support the Green Fins project here in Malaysia.  Some of the working days have been long and tiring in the heat and humidity but the people you meet, things you learn and experience you get is incredibly rewarding and fun!  Farewell Tioman, until next time...

Life of an intern - the journey begins...

After three years working in the corporate environment of a Pharma company based in London, I felt it was time to get back out into the wonderful wide world and once again focus on my passion – conserving our amazingly beautiful and diverse planet.  After struggling to find relevant work after completing my Masters in Biological Diversity I felt it was time to be responsible (ish).  This meant finding a job that at least had some relevance to what I studied at university during my undergrad degree (Biology) whilst continuing the hunt for work in the field I was interested in.  As enjoyable and interesting as it was working in the Pharma industry I knew it wasn’t truly for me.  Following an “its now or never!” moment I decided that I really had to go for it and put everything into chasing my dreams, it's never too late!  And so the journey begins, starting in the beautiful island of Mindoro, Philippines carrying out an internship with The Reef-World Foundation… My long-lived passion for the environment started as a young child when watching awe-inspiring documentaries.  The weird and wonderful life in our vast and largely unstudied oceans, orang-utans in Borneo, lions and cheetahs in the Serengeti, birds of paradise in New Guinea had me hooked!  I wanted to be the woman driving a Land Rover barefoot across the African bush looking and studying the multitudes of animals or spending days out at sea going on diving excursions to find a new species of fish or octopus, maybe not the part in front of the camera but definitely assisting with research/running of operations.  I was fascinated by the differences in ecosystems and life found within them and dreamt of a job travelling the world and protecting these amazing habitats that can be found both above and below the sea.

As a child most holidays were spent playing and exploring in some form of water mass.  Whether it was doing handstands with my sister in the sea or pool and seeing who could hold it the longest to taking every opportunity to go exploring and snorkelling in the ocean, making a mental note that the reef seemed to be far more beautiful last time we were in a regular holiday spot.  So it seemed natural that although I was interested in both terrestrial and marine conservation, I focused my MSc dissertation on the marine side of things.  In 2009 I spent a couple of months carrying out research on marine protected areas in Southern Leyte, Philippines for my final project.

To say I was excited to come back to the Philippines and carry out this internship would be an understatement.  I have thought about this country a lot over the last few years and dreamt about submerging myself in the beautiful water’s surrounding it.  To be back here working for such a brilliant organisation and with such passionate and determined people feels truly wonderful.

Five weeks in and I have already learnt a lot; I have been fortunate enough to attend a meeting with the Provincial Governmental in Batangas regarding further Green Fins activities in the local area; met inspiring people from various organisations and had my eyes opened to different ways of thinking by those around me.  I have always been very environmentally minded and was always keen to do ‘my bit’ no matter how small the outcome or impact and have encouraged others to do the same.  However my dedication and passion to educate others to play their part in protecting their environment, what ever scale this may be on; be it as a diver carrying out good ‘Green Fins’ diving practices, saying no to plastic bags, disposing of rubbish in the correct manner or choosing responsibly sourced fish has already increased massively.   I feel I am already walking around with a new set of eyes and picking up on things that I may not have done previously and looking at things in a more detailed way again.

I’d love for you to join me on this exciting journey over the next few months and hopefully I’ll be able to provide you with further insight into this field, some interesting snippets of information and a few laughs along the way.