Photo from Pixabay, Edited by me
Welcome to my blog! I’m Natasha, a Year 1 student doing Environmental Studies in NUS. Growing up, my interests were always changing, but there was one thing that stood the test of time, and that was my interest in what covers 70% of our Earth’s surface – the ocean. I remember spending hours watching BBC’s Blue Planet, and I ended up watching so much of it that I was able to memorize and recite the late Sir David Attenborough’s entire script. Even until now, I can still remember bits and bops of it when I revisit the clips on YouTube. Of course, my childhood wasn’t so mundane, and I loved movies like Finding Nemo and The Little Mermaid too, which sparked my interest even further as to what could be living under the sea.
I suppose it will come as a surprise that I used to be terrified of the sea and the sand, until my mum decided to kick me off the jetty at the age of 6. In other words, she threw me into deep water. I panicked, of course, shattering the peacefulness of Tioman Island with my screaming, but all it took to calm me down was my dad pointing out that Nemo was swimming right below me. Thankfully, he wasn’t lying, and that was where everything truly begun. 7 years later, I learnt to scuba dive (though I did use the phrase “over my dead body” when I was asked to learn it), and that was when I discovered what my definition of paradise was – being surrounded by colourful and interesting creatures, be it coral or fish, in crystal clear waters, and just the sound of my own breathing.
A picture of me diving in Bali, Indonesia, 2015
It’s been 5 years since I last went on a diving trip, but my interest never died off, and I seized the opportunity to learn more about the deep blue by taking up an elective on Marine Conservation and Ecology in Republic Polytechnic. It wasn’t easy, but I learnt so much during that short 13 weeks. Until now, it still baffles me that we only know less than 20% about our oceans and less than 10% of what’s living in it (which served as the main inspiration for the name of this blog, it was not the movie). Yet, we don’t seem to be helping ourselves either, with recent studies saying that we might end up seeing more plastic than fish, which is both a scary and saddening thought.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
However, as much as we think that we’re on a runaway train towards our own demise, I believe there is still hope, and through this blog, I hope to provide a personalised experience to shed light on what’s being done in an attempt to save our natural underwater world, and what we can do to play our part, both above and underwater.
Photo from Pixabay, Edited by me
Hi Natasha, your blog topic really caught my eye! Exploring deeper areas of the ocean was something I’ve always wanted to do but never had the chance to. I look forward to seeing more of your posts! The moving aquatic background is a great addition to your blog.
Hi Sarah! Thank you for your comment, and I’m happy to know that there’s growing traction where the marine environment is concerned. I’m also happy to note that you’re not the only one who shares this sentiment, as observed with the poll I did for our cohort, with 35 mentioning that they would love to try scuba diving, or are even considering it. I’m not a sporty person by any chance, and am actually more of a homebody, but this is one thing that I’ve loved for a long time, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to share it with you all (and may it serve as an inspiration to try it out too). Oh, and I’m glad you love the theme. With this, I do hope that I’ll be able to provide with what you’re looking for and I hope to see you in future posts!
Hi Natasha, great blog and personal recount. Just curious, do you encounter a lot of plastic pollution during your dive (to the same extent as seen in some of the documentaries)? And have you done scuba diving in SG’s water?
Hi Benjamin! Thanks for your comment too and I’m glad you enjoyed the personal recount. It is a little embarrassing to put it in such a public space, but like Jack London once said, “The most beautiful stories always start with wreckage”.
With regards to your first question, I’ve actually been very lucky not to have encountered much plastic pollution, and I think it’s mostly because of the fact that there’s simply no plastics around. For example, the dive resorts never pack their food or snacks with plastic bags, which reduces the risk of it getting into the ocean (i.e. since it is one way in which plastic ends up in the ocean in the first place). Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, because I’ve seen plastics on the beaches when I do shore dives, and it definitely is a matter of time before it ends up where it’s not supposed to be. When I do see them though, rest assured that I do pick them up when I can – it’s just one of the little things we can do.
As for diving in Singapore’s waters, I have unfortunately never had the chance to do it, and given the supposed arm’s length visibility, I’m not actually sure if I’m considered “brave” enough to do it. Nevertheless, when I was working at the National Parks Board, I happened to stumble across dive trails organised by the marine parks, and if I have the time to, perhaps it’s time I give it a go. Even I’m curious to see for myself on what Singapore’s natural sea aquarium has to offer!
Hey Natasha!
I love your blog aesthetic and theme! I’ve gone snorkelling around tioman island before and saw a sea turtle once. It was definitely the highlight of my trip! Looking forward to reading more from your blog!
Hi Joseph! Thank you for your kind words with regards to the whole appearance and theme of the blog, and it sure is encouraging that you like it too. Regarding your personal experience, that’s actually really cool, because when I was in Tioman, I couldn’t actually remember seeing them around, and it didn’t help that the water in my area was relatively murky too. Nevertheless, I managed to see things other fishes too such as the batfish and the parrotfish, as well as an array of black-tip and white-tip sharks at night (which I viewed from the jetty), and that was really interesting too. Thank you for sharing your personal experience with me and I do look forward to seeing you around in future posts too!
Hi Natasha,
Mind if I share an experience ?
For some reason, sea turtles (and some other wild animals and dogs) seem to often approach me. It’s quite strange. I have many stories like this. But…
In 2012, I was snorkeling in the Maldives and this sea turtle came and started swimming directly beneath me. I couldn’t really tell how close it was cos of the magnifying effect of the water, but my husband (bf then) said it was 10 cm or less from me. He said it was the weirdest thing – it was like the turtle was deliberately seeking me out, and it swam with me for a long while. The guide who was with us said he never saw anything like that before.
For me, it was magical.
Hi Dr Coleman! That must have been such a surreal and beautiful experience and I’d love to experience that at least once too. I’ve had experiences with sea turtles as well, who were huge, given that their shells stretched beyond the length of my arm, but instead of feeling calm and intrigued, I didn’t actually notice it until my dive master pointed it out. When I did take notice of it, it decided to swim right above me (I came face to face with its belly) and to say that I was shell-shocked was probably an understatement.
Thinking back to my own diving experiences, most of them happen to be close shaves, as I’ve seen the dangerous blue-ringed octopus up close in open waters, and my Dad told me if there were two, we’d probably be dead by now as we were pretty close to it, which could be mistaken for an uninvited disturbance. I had also spent so much time being intrigued by a fish that I had no idea I was this close to landing on a group of fire urchins (thank goodness for good buoyancy control), and I almost swam right into a “sea” of jellyfish as I was taking up my advanced certification. In other words, I guess I’ve been living life quite dangerously under water, and yet, I still love the sport so much for some reason.
Thank you for sharing, Dr Coleman, and I’m looking forward to hearing more of your diving adventures, especially since I’ve always wanted to dive in the Maldives after hearing so much about it! And hopefully, I’d be able to have one of those calm dives soon too.
I TOTALLY know what you mean – being in Nature, especially in the water, you can get so wrapped up looking at one particular thing that you fail to notice something else, potentially dangerous. It would REALLY hurt to accidentally bash into a sea urchin.
It’s interesting because from what I’ve read, blue-ringed octopi, though highly venomous, are quite docile, and I think the only envenomations occur when people accidentally step on them or deliberately disturb them.
So I think, with experience, you also come to develop some understanding of context that allows you to accurately estimate the level of risk.
I think many times, conflicts arise because people don’t have the natural history / animal behaviour knowledge to interpret the situation.
I guess that could happen out of sheer failure to be aware of our surroundings too, like when people inadvertently swim within the territory of a nesting triggerfish and the fish darts up and bites them, or people grab onto a dead piece of coral to get a closer look at something on the reef and don’t notice a moray eel in a nearby crevice and get a life threatening bite.
One time, not on water, I was working on a rattlesnake project related to road mortality. We were capturing snakes to implant PIT tags in them to track them over time. And I spotted one inside a hole in the ground. So without thinking, I reached down with my snake grabber and jammed my arm in the whole. Afterwards, I realised that I had punched right through a black widow spider web and the female was right there. Thankfully, nothing happened. But this goes to show that PhDs can be idiots too.
🙂