After spending a couple of very hectic and stressful weeks back in Finland working on my thesis, I headed to a small town called Saint Andrews. Located on the East coast of Canada, Saint Andrews is home to the incredible Huntsman Marine Science Centre. My week there was once again full of incredible people, beautiful diving sites, and loads of learning.
I arrived to Saint Andrews on a Sunday, very tired, jet lagged. Nevertheless, I was extremely excited to meet new people and explore new diving sites in a completely new environment! During that first day I managed to meet some of the people I was to work with the following week. Everyone on the project was extremely welcoming and happy to show me around the beautiful town!
The objectives for the project were to film and document different underwater habitats and sites, and collect data about species diversity and habitat characteristics. This data would be integrated into the government archives and would be used to make predictions about what the future of the ocean will look like, as well as to monitor invasive species in the coastal area.
The days consisted of two monitoring dives per dive team, with the dives covering two to four different monitoring sites. The team were not only extremely welcoming, but knowledgeable too, with every member taking time to explain to me the different things we were supposed to do and look for during the dives, as well as new terminology for things that I was not familiar with. One of the teams strengths was the fact that it was multi disciplinary with each individual bringing their own expertise to the group! They also helped me out with species identification (especially seaweeds, yay!) as most of these species were completely new to me.
My experience in Saint Andrews was not supposed to be a diving course, but struggles with dive gear is always an opportunity to learn. Once again the pony tank got the best of me! And while balloon feet in theory do sound quite funny, they in fact are not. But finally I figured out how to adjust my gear so that I was no longer struggling, and that was super rewarding. Even when I was struggling on dives they were instantly made better by the supportive team and the incredibly beautiful sites that were full of animals and (to my excitement) tons of seaweed!
Thank you for the entire team for taking the time to share your expertise and knowledge, showing me all these beautiful sites, and most of all for inviting me to be a part of your incredibly important work and an amazing team for the week! An extra warm thank you to Dr. Claire Goodwin and Dave for hosting me in your beautiful home and to Maggie and Aidan for showing me around the town! And of course thank you to everyone on the team for assuring I had plenty of fun in and out of the water. You guys do truly amazing and meaningful work and I hope to see everyone again!
Thank you again so much to the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society for making this opportunity possible. Also an extra warm thank you to all of my amazing sponsors Fourth Element, DAN Europe, Halcyon, Backscatter and Suunto for helping me on my journey!
You can continue to follow my journey through blogs, or hop on my Instagram!
