Whale, hello there!

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