I've always had a passion for sharks. They're the apex predator of the ocean, and their grace and beauty underwater is unsurpassed. There's a little island off the coast of Malaysia called Sipadan, and it's Jacques Cousteau's favourite dive site. The coral reef will take your breath away. There's a vertical wall that goes straight down for 600m and the biomass is absolutely off the planet.
Another dive spot I love is in the central Philippines on Malapascua Island. There's a seamount called Monad Shoal and it's the only place in the world where you can dive with thresher sharks on an almost daily basis. Head out just on dawn, when it's still dark, and at first light thresher sharks visit the cleaning stations. On coral reefs, this is where you'll find cleaner wrasse. They're about three to four inches long, and they go inside the mouths of bigger fish to pick the parasites out from between the gills and teeth. If you can find a cleaner station, you can see everything on a reef without going very far.
I work for a conservation organisation called Wild Mob. We believe, to do good sustainable conservation work you need to get your host community engaged and to respect the culture of that community. We also need to provide economic gains if a project is going to work long term. The vast majority of conservation measures don't work because people come, they do a few years work then they leave and the thing breaks down whereas we take a more holistic approach.
Many people are concerned about the environment but they don't have a pathway to involving themselves, so we take volunteers to amazing places and they do conservation work for us. We work hard in the morning, and in the afternoon the volunteers have the opportunity to explore the destination and engage with the local people. It's a hybrid of tourism and conservation.
We currently work on Great Barrier Reef, Norfolk Island and last year we moved into the Hauraki Gulf, on the Noises, Rakino and Motutapu. I spend about three months of each year on Norfolk Island. It's a speck in the ocean that locals call The Rock, and at just three and a half thousand hectares, it's a biodiversity hotspot. There are more endemic species and ecosystems than you can poke a stick at and there's the most amazing culture.
Pitcairn people are descended from the mutiny of the Bounty, a mixture of English and Tahitian with a distinct language and the people are gorgeous.
I want to continue to explore and develop new models for conservation, to engage with people and explain that conservation is incredibly worthwhile.
Further information: see wildmob.org
