Travel Destinations
Fiji
Fiji is located in the South Pacific. It is made of over 300 islands. We landed in Nadi on Fiji's largest island. Then we took a bus 3 hours to the south east area. Fiji is known for coral reefs and sharks.
Shark Dive
In the Projects Abroad Fiji Shark Program for 16–18 year-olds, teens complete a beginner dive certification or an advanced diver certification if they have their NAUI or PADI certification already. I completed the PADI Advanced Dive Certification by completing classwork and 6 dives. This included deep dives at about 100 ft, navigation focused dives, and marine species expertise dives. This prepared teens for the deep dive to observe the sharks with Beqa Dive Group.
During the Beqa Shark Dives, we saw tons of Bull Sharks, Black Tip, Silver Tip, Lemon Shark, and Nurse Sharks. On first dive teens were behind a small 1-foot-high wall and on second dive they were lying down below the sharks on the bottom observing them trying to get into the trashcan filled with tuna heads.
One diver had a wet suit that sharks could not bite through with metal built into it. He had a trash can on chains attached to him with chum in it. The sharks would bite and hit him, but he was fine with the equipment. The smaller sharks bit more than the larger ones.
There were many remoras attached to sharks. Remoras were suctioning to the sharks while they were feeding. Remoras could choose a specific shark which had the most bacteria/algae/parasites. This is a symbiotic relationship. The remora eats leftovers of prey from the shark. The shark gets help from the remora since it eats parasites off the shark’s skin and mouth. Those parasites would hurt the shark. Remoras can even stick to a diver.
Planting Mangroves to Save the Environment
Planting mangroves helps to restore our natural environment and improve the carbon footprint we cause. Mangroves protect the coast and allow for coastal restoration. Mangroves help to reduce waves that can hurt coastal villages and it protects against cyclones and tsunamis. This means when there are surges the mangroves help reduce the waves that are coming into shore and could possible cause lots of destruction.
As part of the Projects Abroad Fiji Teen Program we harvested the small mangrove plants from a nursery where they were grown from seedlings. It takes 3-6 years for red mangroves to grow to 6-8 feet. We planted the mangroves near the water on a beach and anchored each of them with rocks and sand so the water wouldn’t knock them out of the ground when high tide came. This was a way for us to give back to Fiji!
