Fiji's Number 1 Bag Lady, Me!

My last week volunteering at Barefoot Island was awesome. I was able to almost triple the number of dives I've done! I'm now up to 27! I feel so much more confident and at ease in the water now, like a real diver. Some days I felt like I could have just swam off into the deep with the Manta Rays and never come up!

Everything is A-OK

Me and my co-volunteer Justine formed the J-Team, Marine Warriors, and it was our mission to remove as many of the Crown of thorns starfish as possible. When you have a reef full of evil starfish, who are you gonna call... the J-TEAM!! I was usually the bagger, and Justine, or our divemaster, Al was usually the hooker (get your mind out of the gutter lol) because they were the ones to pry them off the reef with a metal hook and then I would come along and collect them in the bag.

J-Team!

I really feel like I accomplished a lot during my time at Barefoot Island. By the end of my two weeks, I had earned the title of best bag lady ever! I was not scared of those poisonous thorny bastards- I just wanted to get them in the bag as soon as possible so we could go find more! Poison, shmoison! I also broke the record of highest number of COTs removed from the reef by a volunteer EVER!!! YES, that's right!! But I think I also broke the record for most hungover volunteer ever... the morning after Fiji Day was not pretty... everyone told me I was turning green on our boat ride back to shore after our first dive, and they were right. But I powered through and got it done! Also an honourable mention goes out to Justine and Al who shared the prize as the best hookers ever! hehehe!

Our record breaking haul of COTs in the wheelbarrow... 5 bags, 98 nasty starfish off the reef

When I was done at Barefoot Island, I spent a few days on the main island checking it out. There were so many interesting people there. I met an awesome (arguably crazy?) Elvis impersonator from Atlantic City, who ended up being my neighbour at my hostel. Each morning I would wake up to the sweet Elvis voice coming from the room next door coaxing my eardrums to start a new day. And then there was the Canadian white rapper, who partied harder than anyone I've ever seen, I swear that kid didn't sleep, but he made up a totally awesome and hilarious half hour long rap about me and my friend Semi on the spot! We only wished we had captured it on video! Damn!

Me, Semi from Barefoot and Elvis went to the natural mud pools near Nadi

I spent my last day in Fiji at the Cloud 9 Bar. This is a sleek, modern, floating lounge / dance club right out in the middle of the ocean beside the world famous Cloudbreak reef. I have never dreamed that such a place existed. It was a perfect day of lounging in the sun, watching the surfers and chatting with them when they came in for a drink, snorkeling, and diving off the top deck (scary!). Needless to say it was a great relaxing day and the perfect wind down from all my volunteer activities. But then on the way back to town while we were riding in the boat, it started to rain. I thought it would be a kinda crappy way to end off the day, but the rain tapered down, and directly in front of us formed a big huge rainbow. We cruised for about 15 minutes straight towards it, a beautiful swatch of colours illuminating the sky. As I took in that moment, and breathed in the fresh clean sea air after the rain, it felt like the perfect ending to an incredible trip.

Cloud 9 Bar

My main activity of the day :)

Rainbow! Bye Fiji!

Manta Rays, Evil Starfish and Giant Clams

I was really excited to come to this island in Fiji since it is famous for the Manta Ray channel, a spot where the species regularly congregates from May - September each year. But for my first 5 days here, the Mantas decided to take a hike, and they weren't around. I was beginning to worry that I'd completely missed the season! But yesterday, I woke up to the staff banging a drum going around the resort yelling "MANTA RAY! MANTA RAY!" at the top of their lungs. They seemed almost as excited as me! I hopped into my bikini faster than ever, and literally ran down to the boat. The staff were looking at me a little weird and were like, you don't actually have to run, you know, haha :P It took a while to find the ray, but once we did, it was amazing. For a few minutes, I swam right above it as it effortlessly glided through the turquoise blue depths, not even noticing I was there. Here is a video taken by my fellow volunteer a few days ago. Enjoy!

I've started working on a few of my volunteer projects this past week. One of the jobs is to remove the nasty Crown of Thorns Seastar from the reef. These creatures skulk around the coral, munching on it and devastate large tracts of reef in their path. I can't decide if they are ugly or beautiful, but either way, they are covered with long venomous spikes that would not feel good if they pricked you. We go diving and pry them off the reef with a hooked piece of rebar, and then collect them in a big nylon bag. My job is usually the bag carrier, since they can be tricky to spot, but that means that my partner is always pointing these spiky masses of venom at me underwater, and I have to manoeuver them into a bag with an opening roughly the same size as the creature without pricking myself or my partner. It is not easy!! But it is lots of fun.

Me with one Crown of Thorns

Our catch of the day

Alan digs them a grave behind the dive shop.  RIP evil starfish.

One of the reasons the Crown of Thorns is such a problem, even though it is native to Fijian waters, is that all of its natural predators have been overfished. Another part of the project here is to reintroduce one of the overfished predators called the Giant Clam. They can reach up to a meter in size when fully grown and weigh over 300kg! So we have an underwater nursery here where we are growing some baby Giant Clams to basically replant them on the reef when they are big enough. Then they will filter feed and remove the Crown of Thorns larvae from the water naturally.

The clams in the nursery tend to get a bit sandy, and we keep track of their growth, so we dive down and clean them off with a toothbrush and measure them.

One of the older clams, this guy is about a foot long!

Cleaning off the little clams in the cages (yep that's me in the back!)

Marlies showing you how it's done with a toothbrush

Fiji is Paradise

Hi everyone! For the next two weeks I'll be doing a marine conservation and diving volunteer program with Vinaka Fiji on the little island of Drawaqa in the Yasawas region of Fiji. I seriously can't believe I am here. I am pinching myself constantly to remind myself that this is real! My lifelong dream of studying the marine biology of coral reefs has finally come true!! Woo!

I arrived yesterday in a little boat and hopped off onto the white sandy beach at Barefoot Resort. My super cool volunteer coordinators (a retired couple from New Zealand) met me and explained a little about what I'm going to be doing. Basically this:

Manta Rays, happy dance!!!

Then they sent me to my hostel dorm room, which turned out to look like this:

The window on the right is where my bed is :)

With this view:

Mind blown.

Today I started learning some of my reef fish species in preparation for starting the official marine biodiversity surveys tomorrow. I have to memorize the 27 species of butterfly fish here in Fiji, so all morning I studied this card, and then went out snorkeling to find some in the wild. I saw 16 of the 27 species on 3 snorkel trips today.

The place I'm staying is also a hotel, so there is a ton of other fun stuff to do as well. Since it was Sunday here, and technically my day off, I tried to fit in as many fun things as possible too! Me and one of my new friends circumnavigated the island in a kayak, which took about 2 hours! Then we went snorkeling and then a bunch of us went rappelling on a cliff at sunset! It was a great day for sure.

Can't wait to see what the next two weeks will bring!

Life Philosophies from Punk Rock and Bill and Ted

So you all probably know by now that I'm a total biology and environment geek. So, it's no surprise that my project for my time at home in Toronto has been to read a lot of environmental books and watch a bunch of nature documentaries. It's been great leading the retirement life with my parents reading on the porch! But unfortunately, in all of these books and movies, the messages are scary. Seriously scary and fucked up, people! The ocean is becoming so warm and acidic from carbon emissions that all the coral reefs will most likely die by the year 2100. Sea ice is melting so fast that within our lifetime there may be no polar bear habitat left. Right now there is more plastic than plankton in some parts of the ocean. Aren't you already depressed?! OMG, me too!!


So what can we do? We ultimately have two choices... we either give up, or fight. I have been seriously considering giving up and just running away, living in a cave by myself to get away from our crazy capitalist society that is ruining everything. But it would probably get pretty damp and lonely in there. Instead, I choose to fight!

But what does fighting mean to me? Well, I'm still figuring that out for the most part. Right now I'm super content exploring this amazing planet we call home and expanding my knowledge and experience of the world, working on conservation projects going on around the planet, and sharing my experiences with you. I feel like at the end of my journey I will be able to put it all together and do something to make a positive impact. I wish I was a super brilliant engineer who could find some amazing technology to solve the world's problems, but sadly my brain just doesn't work that way, dammit!!

Even though I think we are at the point where as a society we do have to fight in order to avoid a large scale catastrophe, I am also aware of the bigger picture. No matter what happens at this point in time, life will go on. After all, don't forget that there have been 5 great extinctions in the history of our planet where 95% of life forms died out. We wouldn't be here if those didn't happen. Many scientists believe that we are on the verge of the sixth great extinction right now. But even if life as we know it is going to hell, we are still here now in this great mysterious experiment we call life, and there's really nothing we can do about that. And in the big picture of the universe, do we really even matter? Probably not. We're really just an interesting fluke of evolution. As The Vandals point out in one of my favourite 90's punk songs, in 5 billion years the sun will explode and no one will know that we were ever here, it's a fact!

So, you know what, we might as well enjoy life and make the most of it! Happiness is the most important thing. Not money, not status, not collecting stuff, just doing something that makes you truly happy. Fuck what other people think and do something that makes YOU happy! No one wants to wake up when they are 80 and think back on your younger years and wish you had done tons of stuff you didn't do!

Right now I've been the happiest ever traveling and volunteering. This has been my dream for so long and I'm living it!! It is the best decision I ever made, to follow my heart and it's been totally amazing. But eventually I'll have to go back to work. We spend so much of our lives at work, that it better be something enjoyable. But why is this so hard in our society?! I'm going to go for it, and try to make a living doing something I love.

For me that means less desk (don't I look overjoyed?)...

...and more of this! (that's a baby tern!)

Awesome hobbies are also super important. I don't want to watch life happen on TV, I want to make a super interesting life happen in reality! For me it's mostly about adventure, nature and outdoors. Put me near the ocean or a snowy mountain and I'll be good. But of course my life needs a healthy dose of partying, dancing and rock concerts too!  

But probably the very best thing in life is surrounding yourself with people you love and who love you. Positive people who boost your soul are where it's at. For me, I am infinitely blessed to have my mom and dad and so many friends that I love.

My bff's since Grade 9!

For me it's really that simple. I don't want to make tons of money or have tons of stuff. I'd be way happier sharing a cool little eco-friendly house (Treehouse maybe? Solar powered definitely!) with cool people, my own veggie garden and a mountain or ocean in the backyard where I can go hiking or rock climbing or scuba diving or wildlife watching or whatever other adventure I dream up!

My dream house!

So that's it, I'm putting this out to the universe, now all there is left to do is continue living it and loving it, and making it happen. We can all create the uncaged life we dream of. Let go of conventions and expectations and go for it!

I watched this movie with my Dad when I was probably about 7 years old. The message has stuck with me for life, and Bill and Ted sum up my life philosophy quite nicely... 

Be excellent to each other, and party on dudes!

Flower Pots and Diving with Shipwrecks

Toronto is great, and I love it. It's my home! But it can feel a bit suffocating for me at times, with all the skyscrapers and highways and traffic and other such signs of civilization. I am a nature girl, and I need to get out of this concrete jungle whenever I can! Thankfully, here in my province, there is A LOT of beauty. In fact, just a few hours north of the city is a totally spectacular spot, the Bruce Peninsula National Park. The park is an amazing collection of limestone cliffs, caves and white rocky beaches contrasting with the stunning crystal clear turquoise waters of Georgian Bay. I had never been there before, so when I heard that my good friend Barb was going camping there, I totally invited myself on her trip, haha!

I don't think she is too mad I crashed her Bruce Peninsula party!

As soon as I arrived, Barb and I immediately set off on our first adventure on a glass bottomed boat to Flower Pot Island to see the famed giant "flower pots". These are are huge limestone towers formed by thousands of years of erosion. They were really dramatic along the shoreline of the island. We hiked around some of the trails and saw some really cool scenery.

It's a flower pot!

These things are huge!

The limestone formed some really interesting patterns along the shore

Adding to the inukshuk... mere minutes before accidentally knocking over the top half... oops!

Barb at a super cool section of trail

Inter-species snake cuddle time

Cave exploring

The glass bottom boat also took us over a few of the shipwrecks in a little cove (http://www.blueheronco.com/shipwrecks-of-tobermory.html).  There are a ton of shipwrecks in Georgian Bay from the 1800's and early 1900's mostly due to severe winter storms. Can you imagine trying to navigate a giant boat through tons of little rocky islands in a white-out? Nope me neither.

View of the wreck through the glass-bottom window

The wreck of the schooner The Sweepstakes from 1885

The wreck of the steamer The City of Grand Rapids from 1907,
so shallow it is literally popping right out of the water!

Back at our campsite later that evening, we hiked out to the Grotto, an incredibly beautiful spot. We watched the sunset and it was really romantic. We cuddled and it was a beautiful moment hehehe ;)

By the time we hiked back to camp, it was dark out. But it turned out to be a totally awesome night hike, full of wildlife! We spotted a Red-bellied snake, a salamander (the first one I've ever seen in the wild!) and a Northern leopard frog!

Red-bellied snake

Salamander.. which kind, I'm not sure... any ideas anyone?

Northern leopard frog

The next day, we set off on our snorkeling and diving trip in the Fathom Five National Marine Park in Tobermory, which is one of the top 10 diving spots in the WORLD!!! http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/amnc-nmca/on/fathomfive/activ/activ2.aspx. The water here is really clear and the wrecks are really well preserved. It was actually a pretty cool and windy day when we went, and the water was even colder! We donned two wetsuits each, and hoped for the best as we plunged into the water! The first dive was pretty shallow, and the wreck was preserved really well, even though it was from the 1800's. There were lots of round gobies (even though they're invasive... but that's a whole other blog post) and crayfish swimming around, and at one point I was swimming along at eye level with a few bass! The second dive was deeper, and man was it cold down there. Pretty much the only part of my body not covered by a wetsuit was my upper lip, and it felt like freezing cold icicles were forming on my lip at first! Thankfully the shipwreck was angled upwards along the sloping shore so we just got shallower as we went along checking out the old structures.

That's me with the stylish blue tank and yellow flippers

What a great getaway. It's a good reminder to remember to appreciate the beauty you can find in your own backyard. Thanks Barb for including me on the trip, and taking most of the amazing photos in this post, including all of the underwater shots!!

Caught on Film

So it turns out that many of my friends are great at making videos! Check out these super cool videos by some of my fellow travelers and new amazing friends from around the world...

Some highlights from Galapagos! Check out the swimming marine iguana and some little baby giant tortoises!



http://vimeo.com/72586827

This one shows some incredible scenes from Africa, watch out for the hippo right on the very edge of Victoria Falls!!!


http://vimeo.com/62321818

Here is a little clip of some leaf cutter ants in Costa Rica. We saw them one day, came back the next day and they were still at it 24 hours later. Ants are cool.

Stop Ruining Canada, Stephen Harper!

Dear Stephen Harper (Prime Minister of Canada),

The other day I was driving in my car, listening to my favourite radio station, and was surprised to hear an ad come on proclaiming to the Canadian masses all the good things your government has done for the environment. First of all I don't know why a government should have to have ads to promote itself, but that's a whole other issue. The ad said that the government is introducing tough new laws to strengthen the environment. My immediate reaction: WHAAAAT?! as I almost crashed while wanting to scream at the radio.

I couldn't believe my freaking ears. I was totally outraged at the blatant lies in the ad! I've spent 8 years working for your Environment department, I have seen first hand the changes you have made. And by 'changes' I mean total destruction!

I worked for many years under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act as an EA coordinator, reviewing projects and helping them minimize their impacts to wildlife, birds and species at risk. When you 'strengthened' this Act last year, you made sure it only applied to mega-projects which appear on the 'list', with only certain factors to be assessed, and limited participation from the public. But sometimes even the small projects can have a big impact! For example, I remember one project which involved building a boardwalk on a beach where there were endangered Piping Plover nesting. With the changes you made to the Act last year, that type of small scale project and thousands more like it will be able to proceed with no assessment of effects at all.

Please don't build boardwalks over our nest!!

You also pushed through changes to the Fisheries Act, which used to be one of our strongest laws protecting the environment. It was so strong because it protected not only all fish, but also fish habitat. This forced anyone wanting to impact fish habitat to compensate for those intended changes, resulting in a no net loss of fish habitat. Doesn't that sound great, Canada should have maintained a healthy level of fish habitat in perpetuity. Not any more. Under the new Act, all mention of habitat has been removed, and the protection of actual fish species is limited to those of recreational and commercial importance. Thus totally ignoring the intrinsic ecological value of all other species and allowing habitats to be disturbed with no consequences. What a major step backwards in our environmental legislation in Canada, not to mention a huge blow for fish and rivers.

As if that wasn't disturbing enough, you also severly weakened the protection offered to rivers in the Navigable Waters Protection Act. This Act used to protect tens of thousands of waterbodies throughout our country. In typical Canadian fashion, any waterbody big enough to float a canoe in was protected. However, there is now a list of only 97 lakes, 62 rivers and the three oceans that the Act applies to. Thank you for making it that much easier to bulldoze, build bridges, pipelines and roads in our formerly clean waterways.

The future of our rivers

Last week I also read a news story that uncovered evidence that the changes you made to the Fisheries Act were directly linked to the wishes of industry. Not surprisingly, Harper's Natural Resources Minister made these comments: "Our natural resource industries — energy, mining and minerals processing and forest — account for more than 10 percent of our gross domestic product and provide close to 800,000 jobs in Canada. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that Canada has the right conditions in place to attract global investment in our provinces and territories. The time is now for Canada’s immense resources. Canada must compete with other resource-rich countries around the world for these job-creating investment dollars." Clearly when he speaks about the "right conditions" for investors, he means not worrying about the fish in that river you need to build a bridge across, and doing the minimum analysis of other potential effects to the environment. Because the environment doesn't matter when you have money!!?? Right?!

This sums up my thoughts on the issue quite nicely.

Another part of the radio ad said that you have increased environmental monitoring in the Alberta oil sands. While that is true, it has been at the expense of other environmental programs across the country! For example, the environmental emergencies staff you cut last year, who are the ones who would respond when an inevitable oil spill does happen!

The final straw for me happened when you enacted the Bridge to Strengthen Trade Act, exempting a major bridge project from Canada to the US from  requiring certain permits, approvals or authorizations under a number of federal laws. Basically giving the project an automatic green light in the name of economic development. I had worked on the species at risk and migratory bird issues of this project for 2 years, along with many others at my work. How demoralizing is it to be told at the last minute that all your work was pretty much worthless since the bridge would go ahead regardless. At least in this case the EA and species at risk work had largely already been done, but I fear for a future where this type of exemption from environmental legal requirements is normal. You have set a dangerous precedent!

To make the whole situation even worse, I've read reports that your ad campaign has cost tax payers over $100 million. Think about what good things we could do with that much money!!! What a total waste! At a minimum it should be used for salary or research dollars for the department of fisheries or environment that you have deeply cut, instead of brainwashing the masses into thinking you are environmentally friendly.

The bottom line is, globally we have reached the point where we can no longer go on exploiting the natural environment for the sake of economic gain. It's time to start working with nature instead of exploiting it.

Sincerely,
Someone who cares

Tree hugger and proud of it.

Come on Canada, we can't stand for this! Now is your chance to tell the government you want your tax dollars to support programs that protect nature. Sign the petition at this link:

http://action2.davidsuzuki.org/nature_and_democracy 

It takes literally 30 seconds. Do it!