I had bid goodbye to one of the most exciting chapters of my life, my experience at Island school, just two years prior. I was dying to get back to the water and be face-to-face with the sharks I learned to love and respect during my semester at Island School and summers interning with CEI. An e-mail arrived from an ocean conservation foundation inviting me to join a scholars program exploring the Cayman Islands. The leaders, Georgienne Bradley and Jay Ireland, promised a combination learning experience including science, conservation and underwater videography. I jumped at the opportunity and they delivered in spades.
My experience with Sea Save Foundation during this program synergized with the passion I had brought away from Island School. The direction of my life path had been changed forever. My relationship with Sea Save has continued and flourished over the years. I have learned about national and international public policy and watched their leaders play critical roles at CITES as well as in local political ocean campaigns such as shark finning regulations with AB 376 and plastic bans in California.
I was reunited with the team last fall when I joined them on an expedition to Cocos Island, a World Heritage Site known for its remote locale and proliferation of megafauna. Because Sea Save leaders assisted with the development of the UNESCO petition of admission, we were afforded excellent access. My dives were punctuated by visits from whales, turtles, schools of jacks, tiger sharks, hammerheads, eagle rays, whale sharks and many other mesmerizing species.
Sea Save is currently planning an intimate excursion to Cat Island in our loved Bahama-land from May 9 – 15, 2016. This fundraiser is open to ten participants and will place SCUBA and free divers face to face with oceanic white tips in the open ocean. This high adrenaline encounter is a perfect opportunity to capture still photographs and video that will be used to promote ocean conservation.
This is a great group of people, they are accomplishing much and they create a fun environment within which we can enjoy the ocean and support conservation. Learn more by going here.
Or send an e-mail to: expeditions@seasave.org