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Returning home from Orkney, after what I would describe as an extreme ferry ride in the choppy North Sea, I had a week at home. A week at home perhaps sounds like down-time, but it turned out to be one of the busiest weeks of my scholarship so far.

During my week at home I met with Kelvin Murray of Silvertip Expedition and Dive Management in Edinburgh to discuss Polar diving opportunities. Kelvin is a very experienced polar diver with hundreds of polar dives to his name – which he has accumulated through both expeditionary work and time spent with the British Antarctic Survey. Getting to dive in a polar region would be an unbelievable opportunity for me, and it is one of my ultimate dreams for this year. Kelvin has been a great help so far with ideas, contacts, insight and knowledge. He has been an incredible help. We are currently working together on possible opportunities - fingers crossed we can make something work.

The following day I was back in Edinburgh, which has to be one of the prettiest cities in the world. I was in Edinburgh to do a one-day photography course with a company called GoingDigital Scotland. A few months back I had noticed they were running deals on one day introductory photography courses and I snapped it up as I knew it would be beneficial for me. I decided I needed to get to grips with the camera on land before I could really appreciate what it could do underwater. The course was great as it solidified all the previous knowledge I had picked up along the way from Doug Allan and Rene Lipmann, as well as what I had been studying myself. By taking this course I have also found myself seeing photo opportunities here, there and everywhere. I have started to take a camera with me everywhere I go – even I am just out walking the dog.

While at home I also gave a short video interview for a recruitment website - Recruitwork. Niall Grant, a young Scottish entrepreneur and Business student, is in the process of creating Recruitwork. It currently features video interviews by some of Scotland’s leading business people with the ethos beind the site being to help young school leavers and graduates find work. Like many places in the world, the job market in the UK is tough. Many young people are out of work despite having great qualifications and experience. My interview will feature in the “young stars” section, which is designed to show young people there are opportunities out there for the taking. I hope I was able to convey that scholarships such as the OWUSS Rolex Scholarship are attainable with hard work, passion and initiative. Being modest and reserved are Scottish traits, and although they often prove advantageous, sometimes you need to put yourself out there to be noticed.     

Towards the end of my week at home I gave a short talk at a local primary school. My friend’s mum, who works at the school, approached me back in June and asked if I would be able to speak to the kids about diving and the scholarship. Having a week at home meant I could finally get around to giving the talk. It turned out to be one of the highlights of my year so far. You never know how kids are going to react but as soon as I started talking about diving, underwater creatures, and my cool experiences they were hooked. When standing in front of hundreds of kids it was not only reassuring to see them excited by the topic, it was also quite heartwarming. I think a lot of people see marine biology, scuba diving and exploration as things other people do - something you follow on TV, or read about in the newspapers. As I told them about diving with sharks and whales, and showed them my video of diving in Scotland, I could see many of them were realising they could do this too. And of course they all thought sharks were scary and dangerous creatures. By showing them my shark diving pictures, and explaining to them why they should not fear sharks, comments started rolling in such as “well if a shark isn’t going to eat me then I’m going scuba diving”, and “but if I dive naked will a shark eat me then.” It turned out to be a very amusing morning as they questions got crazier and crazier! When I am next home I plan to give more talks as the kids are clearly keen to hear about scuba diving – there may be a few future scholars in there somewhere…

The rest of the week was spent sorting out admin, packing for my next trip, and catching up with all the family and friends I haven’t managed to properly catch up with. Packing as a scholar has to be one of the most difficult tasks you ever face. I always dread it, and I dread the check in desk at the airport even more. No matter how “light” you think you can get your bags - you can’t. And making a 15kg carry-on appear weightless is a true skill.

Florida

Much to my relief my two checked bags were accepted without issue and I boarded my flight to Atlanta, Georgia. I was headed to Atlanta to meet with Anthea and Christian, where the three of us would begin our “Scholar Roadtrip”. The week that followed was excellent. A lot of that was thanks to Christian’s great planning and contacts, which together meant we all had a busy and very worthwhile trip.

The first two days were spent in the High Springs area of Northern Florida. Here we went Cavern Diving, and it is safe to say I have never experienced diving like it. The colours and visibility are incredible – and I never knew you could get fresh water turtles! The blues, greens and browns are different from that which you see in the ocean – they are more vibrant. The visibility was gin-clear at many of the caverns and this meant you could look up and make out the forest above. However, when it came to diving Orange Grove Cavern, the top was completely covered in Duck Weed. The cavern remained surprisingly light, and the duck week made for some hilarious pictures. We are still finding pieces of duck week in our dive gear…

Christian had done a cave course with Jill Heinrith in the area a few weeks ago and we were all lucky enough to have Jill join us for dinner one night. When you get to sit down with someone such as Jill - who has seen, done and achieved so much in the diving world - you can’t help but keep asking questions. I just sat in awe as Jill replied with answers incorporating stories and experiences that are almost unbelievable.   

While in the High Springs area we payed a visit to Halcyon. Ken Charlesworth gave us all a guided tour of the factory and for me this was really interesting. Since receiving the scholarship I have been made aware of Halcyon and its high-standing reputation for making robust and well designed dive gear. What’s more, having been sponsored with a Halcyon wing, which I am currently using for the majorty of my diving, I have a big appreciation for Halcyon gear. To see where the equipment is manufactured was super, and somewhat surprising – you don’t think of a small-town factory when you think of the Halcyon factory. Yet this is exactly what it is. Nestled in a small industrial estate, it employs a few dozen local people who design, construct, test, organise and ship the Halcyon gear.

From High Springs we made our way to Gainsville with Christian at the wheel of our mega-monster vehicle. I’ve never seen a “car” as big in my life! In Gainsville  we visited the University of Florida courtesy of Christian’s friend Yannis. Robert Robins, Senior Biologist and Ichthyology Collection Manager, gave us a tour of the Ichthyology department. Imagine rows and rows of fish bottled in glass jars and you have a good summation of what we saw. It was fascinating to see so many different species from all corers of the globe preserved under one roof. Even more fascinating was hearing about how these thousands of specimens are organised. Put it this way - it is a complex and labour intensive process. 

Yannis then took us down to the lake, where we tried to spot Alligators. I am not a fan. I am happy to report we only saw small ones. Coming from a country where there are no dangerous creatures – meaning you can basically trek through woods and jump into any body of water without fear of being either eaten or poisoned – it is strange and disconcerting to have to consider death as a possible consequence of an afternoon jaunt into the countryside. Seeing alligators chilling out in a lake, which is in the middle of town and surrounded by people going about their daily business, is weird. It makes for a cool experience though. I wonder how the people of Edinburgh would react to a few Alligators in their ponds… 

That evening we made our way down to Fort Lauderdale and the following morning we visited Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanography department. Again, this visit was thanks to one of Christian’s friends – Jeremy Kerr. Jeremy gave us a very thorough and insightful tour of the department. We met a number of graduate students and their advisors, who were all working on their own projects. Mapping marine protected areas; shark geneogolgy; coral dating and ichthyology are just some of the projects we heard about. Seeing such an array of marine scientists was wonderful. Although I am a little lost now: there seems to be so much interesting work being done I don’t know where to take my own studies after this year. 

The next day we travelled onto Miami. Yet again Christian’s amazing contact network meant we got to see the Golden Shadow – part of the Living Oceans Foundation’s fleet. Christian had spent time on the Golden Shadow previously while assisting with one of the Living Oceans Foundation’s research projects. Andy Breach, First Mate on the Golden Shadow, gave us our tour. For a research ship it is extremely impressive. It resembles more of a cruise ship – equipped with a huge galley, a gym, an extra boat that can drive on-land and a recompression chamber amongst an array of other impressive features. Considering the ship was berthed in the heart of Miami, surrounded by skyscrapers and Ferraris, made it all the more awe inspiring. 

Our second day in Miami was spent exploring the Everglades. It was amazing to go from a busy and bustling city to a huge expanse of green green green. Although we only got to see what must be a tiny fraction of the Everglades, it was wonderful. Again I was in close proximity to Alligators, which I was still not best pleased about. The rather precarious looking spiders dotted along the path did nothing to help my feeling of unease. I am of course over exaggerating, but my love for the safety of Scotland was heightened yet again.

It is strange yet great to see such an array of wildlife a few miles out of Miami. For every “scary” animal there were many “nice” ones –an abundance of birds, butterflies and fish made my Everglades experience a lot more pleasant. America is often conveyed as a country full of mega-cities, sprawling highways and fast food joints. I am so glad I have been able to experience and appreciate some of America’s incredible countryside – where cars and McDonalds are few and far between. 

Dominican Republic

From Miami the three of us boarded a flight to the Dominican Republic. During the OWUSS weekend in New York we were all introduced to Dr Charlie Beeker. Dr Beeker has a Living Museums of the Sea project in the Dominican. He was enthusiastic to have us all head out to the Dominican and help him with his project. Needless to say we needn’t be asked twice!

When you land in a Caribbean country there is no mistaking where you are. The colours, palm tress, sea, people and happiness are unmistakable. Dr Beeker was on the same flight as us and so we all traveled from the airport to our resort together, while Dr Beeker filled us in on the project and what we were going to be doing over the next few days. Dr Beeker is working on an array of projects in the Dominican and the main focus is to preserve and protect underwater an array of precious archaeological artefacts. To date Dr Beeker has been successful in creating underwater museums at specific sites throughout the Dominican. By declaring these sites as Living Museums of the Sea, Dr Beeker is enabling the threatened biodiversity of the Dominican to have a decent chance at surviving, and hopefully thriving. The union between history and biodiversity is novel and exciting.

There is a wealth of history in the Dominican spanning many centuries, which tourists and locals will naturally be intrigued by. Names such as Christopher Columbus and Captain Kidd carry a lot of meaning here. Three years ago the shipwreck of Captain Kidd’s abandoned Quedagh Merchant was discovered. Since then Dr Beeker and his team from Indiana University have been working to protect, preserve, analyse and document the incredible range of atrefacts found in the process. What’s more, Dr Beeker is working hrad to make these Living Museum of the Sea sites into educational, sustainable and protected dive sites so that these amazing insight into history are preserved for everyone to appreciate. Underwater plaques have been installed at the dive sites and museums such as The Children's Museum of Indianapolis and the British Museum of Docklands London have many of the ancient artifacts on display.

For 5 days we worked alongside an excellent team of people from the Peace Core - who are an amazing and valued help with the Living Museums of the Sea Project. To begin with we made check out dives to suss out the state of not only the Quedagh Merchant wreck site, but also two other sites which have been artificially created using canons and anchors from Dominican wrecks. The canons had a host of coral recruits, which was a very positive site. As we made more dives we had a better idea of what we were dealing with and we eventually decided we should focus our efforts on creating an educational dive site that can be monitored for years to come.

We focused on the biodiversity on one anchor. The anchor is located just a few hundred yards off shore in front of the Viva Resort, where we were staying.As such snorkelers and kayakers as well as divers frequently visit it. We created a template of the anchor to which we added the location and size of the main colonizing species. These species included hard corals, soft corals, tube-worms, sponges and anemones. By creating such a template this anchor can now be monitored for new recruits, lost species, species growth, disease etc. In addition, it can be used as an educational tool – divers can learn to identify the species present at the site using the template we created. The hope is that these sites will be viewed as a valuable eco-tourist tool, worth more than the fish that live around them. It was very encouraging to see a group of kayakers approach us as we were moored over the site and ask what we were doing. When they understood the history behind the sites - and the fact that there were ancient canons and anchors below with an array of marine life on them - they were extremely keen to see for themselves. They also took it upon themselves to chase away the local spear-fishermen who turned up a few minutes later!

Dr Beeker was an extremely generous, enthusiastic and inspiring host. His work in the Dominican is well regarded and rightly so. I rarely meet someone who works as tirelessly and devotedly on a project. It is great that Dr Beeker integrates scholars, university students and the Peace Core volunteers into his projects. His porjects are already making headline news around the world, and from the sounds of things it will continue to do so for many years to come.