I have always loved the ocean; I can’t remember a time that I didn’t. I spent my childhood researching sharks and tide pools, reading scientific reports that were vastly out of my comprehension, soaking up as much knowledge as I could, seeming to never get enough.
I was extremely lucky growing up, I got to travel and see a lot of the world. My mum is from Australia so every few years we would travel to see family, often making stops in new countries along the way. Each person in my family had something they always added to the itinerary. My sister's was
shopping, my dad’s was food, my mum’s was seeing tourist destinations, and mine was the ocean or an aquarium. Over the years the luster of aquariums dulled and my excitement to see and support them died. From Ocean Park in Hong Kong, SeaWorld in Florida and MarineLand in Canada, the more I learned about the creatures I loved, the less I supported their captivity.
I learned from a young age that you can’t completely understand something until you immerse yourself in it. It wasn’t enough to learn about the ocean, I wanted to experience it, be a part of it and see it all for myself. That’s when I decided to try scuba diving.
I got my open water scuba certification in Australia when I was 15. Pushing through all my anxieties about the foreign concept of breathing underwater, I found a new way to see my favourite place. I remember seeing seahorses there for the first time and lots of colourful fish that I had only seen in books or aquariums. Diving became my new obsession, a tool for learning that woke me up to the horrible reality that our environment is enduring.
One of my hero’s Sylvia Earle said this, “Why is it that scuba divers and surfers are some of the strongest advocates of ocean conservation? Because they've spent time in and around the ocean, and they've personally seen the beauty, the fragility, and even the degradation of our planet's blue heart.” Seeing the mass amounts of pollution in our oceans, the oil spills, the micro plastics, the overfishing, shark finning, bycatch and the countless other ways our oceans are paying the price for our lifestyles, makes me angry. More than that, it motivates me to want to create change.
I have studied and travelled extensively to learn as much as I possibly can. I am a certified PADI Divemaster, with 108 dives under my belt. I have a bachelor’s degree from York University in Environmental Management with a certificate in GIS and Remote Sensing; and have been accepted to James Cook University in Australia for a Master’s in Marine Biology. I have experience in environmental outreach and field work – such as data collection, monitoring and have run an independent study on Bonnethead sharks as part of my directed study in my final year of my bachelor’s degree. I have worked hard to gain as much experience as I can, having worked with organizations and Government groups including; the Bedford Institute of Oceanography and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada in shark research, the City of Toronto- Live Green Toronto in environmental outreach, and the Bahamas National Trust (BNT), Atlantic Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA), and Greenforce doing coral reef monitoring and education.
Most recently I began an internship with the Gili EcoTrust in Indonesia, where I worked on coral restoration and monitoring. During this I maintained the artificial reef systems (BioRock’s) around Gili Trawangan. This included cleaning and securing corals onto the artificial reef structure, as well as conducting Reef Check Surveys and Coral Watch Survey’s to monitor the health of the island’s reefs. I received training and certifications in BioRock technology and Reef Check surveying techniques. I also aided the organization with garbage collection and management on the island. This was a great experience that was unfortunately cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat as I met tons of people who shared my passion for marine conservation and got to experience once in a lifetime research and training.
However different the places I’ve travelled have been, they are all connected in seemingly random and extraordinarily unexpected ways. Like how one of the instructors at the dive center where I did my divemaster course in Indonesia grew up 45 minutes from where I did in Toronto.
Or that my Costa Rican friend that I met on my semester abroad did an exchange in the same city my mum was born in in Australia. Or that my nana- who lives in Boddington, Western Australia- and my friends dad- who lives in Timmins, Canada- both worked for the same mining company.
The world may seem small, but it is filled with immense and diverse connections all around us; and however unimportant an event or decision feels, it has an impact on the environment and world around us. Making mindful choices and changes every day, no matter how small, to make the world a better place is more important than you know. That piece of plastic you threw out your car window could be a birds last meal, that makeup company you’re supporting could still be profiting off illegally caught whale and shark liver oils, or that environmental NGO you’re donating to may have stocks in the fossil fuel industry. My point being, pay attention to the connections around you, because you never know how those connections line up.
My hope for myself in the next few years is to learn more about my favourite place, the science of how it works and how it functions. The ocean is such a vast, diverse ecosystem that deserves our respect and care; and I want to make sure I’m able to understand that enough so that I can teach people how to care about it as much as I do.
Written By: Christina Nardini
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