Imagine yourself, waking up at 2:00 am, putting on scuba gears, lighting a lamp, and going to the sea and scuba diving using flashlights! Sometimes in weathers that are not so friendly, for three straight years! Tough job!
Diving last Wednesday, brought back many memories. Many years back, in 1995, I was assigned in one of the islands in the central Philippines as a community worker by an environmental NGO. In 1995, I was young, idealistic, hard headed, and stupid. My task was to conserve, protect, and document one of the highly exploited species in the marine environment. Another task was to put up a marine sanctuary (popularly called marine protected area or MPA) as a refuge for these marine species.
To document these species, I had to dive three times a week to check how they are doing underwater, watch and record their behavior, watch their mating habits and reproduction, count them to determine their density, habitats choice among other unusual behavior. These species were nocturnal, thus diving was seldom undertaken during the day. We (mostly I) dive early in the morning starting at, believe it or not, 2:00 am until around 6:00 am.
Imagine yourself, waking up at 2:00 am, putting on scuba gears, lighting a lamp, and going to the sea and diving using flashlights! Sometimes in weathers that are not so friendly, three times a week for three straight years! Tough job!
After this job, sinabi ko sa sarili ko "hindi na ako mag-didive uli" sobra na yon! That is why; it took me 7 seven years bago ako nagdive muli. Mabuti alam ko pa, but how can I forget, after more than three horrible years of diving!
Syanga pala, the marine sanctuary for these species was established. And a local law was passed for such a purpose. Also, results on the documentation (more of a scientific study) were published in two international refereed science journals (one journal was based in HK, and the other in UK).