By Julia
Wondering what your life at Gili Shark Conservation might look like? I will give you a glimpse in the day of a Sharkie.
Morning
We start our day with a yummy breakfast prepared by the HQ Team around 07:30-08:30AM. Some are starting early to have a slow morning, others prefer a quick breakfast just before the dive briefing. Either way, we are always welcomed in the kitchen by the HQ cat, “Pebbels.”
After breakfast, we have the dive briefing. It’s divided into two parts: The scientific briefing depending on the objective of the day, like Turtle-ID, Shark-ID, Coral-Restoration, Roving Survey, etc., and the PADI Dive briefing that covers general dive procedure and safety as well as dive-site specifications.
Around 9AM we walk down to the dive centre, prepare our gear and hop onto the boat. We love high tide mornings because that’s when we can access the boat directly from the beach. Otherwise, we do a short walk to the small dinghy, which brings us to the dive boat.
Most dive sites are just a short boat ride away, so we find ourselves soon gearing up and doing the pre-dive safety check, before rolling backwards into the blue to enjoy the beautiful underwater world of the Gili Islands – and, of course, work on the scientific objective of the dive.
Usually we spend the surface interval on the boat. So now it’s time for the snacks we brought along and to rest a bit or to practice jumping skills from the sun-deck of the boat into the water.
Afterwards, we are back in the water for our second dive. Even if we go to dive sites multiple times during the weeks, it’s never the same. On every dive, I got a new view due to different dive conditions and to the various research methods we used. That made me focus on different things every time – from looking for the big animals like turtles and sharks, to concentrating on the tiny world around one coral.
Afternoon
After washing all of the gear at the dive center, we go back to the HQ. Everyone will have a quick shower and lunch before starting freshly strengthened.
The afternoon is filled with presentations, data entries or photo identification. The presentations give us a deep-dive on various topics to learn more about marine science and conservation, and prepare us with knowledge for the upcoming scientific dives. For me, it was so interesting to learn about so many different species and research methods, and to be able to put this into practice in the next few days.
If we collected data of turtles, sharks, indicator species or corals during the morning dives, we enter the data into the database and identify the turtles and sharks we saw. It is exciting to figure out if the ones we saw are already in the database and how they are named, or if some are unknown so far.
Evening
We will be finished with presentations and data entry around 5PM. Afterwards, it’s free time and there are various options waiting on the island: exploring the island by bike or foot, souvenirs shopping, relaxing in the HQ garden or some might go to the gym. One of my favorite options was going down to the beach to watch the sunset. If the sky is clear, you can even see the volcano “Gunung Agung” rising above Bali in the orange sky.
For dinner you will always find some sharkies to go out and eat together in one of the local warungs or international restaurants. Usually, one night a week we all have a delicious family dinner together in the Head Quarter prepared by the amazing HQ Team.
After dinner, the evenings are open for conversations with your new friends, playing card games, singing karaoke, studying e-learnings or whatever you like.
You will have an incredible time!
