Two times lucky!

That would be the Academic College kids!

Check out their Facebook page!
They are currently experiencing lovely weather with stellar viz and heaps upon heaps of Bulls.
Plus, Scarface has paid them a visit not once, but twice! Talk about being lucky! It's actually a karma thing that only happens to good people: as we always say, the big girl sure knows when to make an appearance!

This is the second installment of ATC's Marine Science Program focusing on Shark Behavior and Conservation and from what I can see, it once again looks like a great success and loads of fun on top of that!
Kudos to lecturer Jon McKenzie for being a worthy successor to trail blazer Imogen, and to Lauren for ensuring that all keeps ticking over nicely and above all, safely!

And fingers crossed that Jon's newly discovered Lemon Shark nurseries will be spared! Anybody out there who wants to finance some urgently needed baseline research?

And as always, a big Thank You to the Manifestation of God!

Goin' College!

Great picture, huh?

Taken with a tiny pocket camera by one of this year's junior Academics!

A very gracious post by Patric (Thank You!) has just reminded me that this one of our most stunning and rewarding success stories.
Not only because this is apparently one of Broadreach's most popular programs and thus likely to run for many years to come; not only because of what we are obviously able to achieve in terms of creating future Shark Protectors by changing perceptions; not only because it dovetails so well with our holistic approach and is so much fun and such a welcome change of pace, especially for our more junior staff - but very much also, because it is the brainchild of one of our very own BAD Girls!

Tiff (she's gonna kill me for posting that link...) joined us as a volunteer in the Marine Park Project when we opened our doors in 2004, but then had to make a decision for a "real" job and opted to go and do what she likes most, and that is, to work in Marine Education.
Nobody could have been better qualified to set up this specific program - but it still took months of dogged groundwork in order to hammer out the curriculum and above all, to convince a skeptical Board that putting some Teenagers in front of huge predatory Sharks was not the apex of total and utter lunacy!

And look at it now!
With the Teenager program thriving, it is even being expanded to College Students!
More "academic' in scope, the new curriculum will undoubtedly benefit from the presence of our very own Marine Scientist Eroni - and vice versa! And are we already discussing a further expansion into a year-round multifaceted program comprising proper internships and the like?
Most certainly!

Tiff, again, well done! I'm impressed!
Very much looking forward to it all!