After two weeks full of survey dives and data analysis, today the MantaWatch team decided to do something even more interesting! We visited Komodo National Park office to learn more about their duties and roles in marine tourism and conservation.

We were welcomed warmly by Maria who is a Monitoring Officer and she introduced us to other staff members. Then we sat together for a discussion.

First Maria gave a presentation about Komodo National Park duties, functions and activities. Then we had a lot of questions to ask! We discussed how tourism can affect the sustainability of wildlife in Komodo National Park, and the importance of collaboration between government, dive operators and tourists. We enjoyed learning more about conservation in Komodo’s large marine areas.

Maria and the MantaWatch interns

After a lot of ideas and suggestions, we finally finished our discussion and headed back to the classroom to discuss what we’d learned.

Back in the classroom we talked about tourism impacts, sustainable financing and effective management of marine national parks. Then we worked on our final report, and Andy helped us analyse our data and taught us how to write a good scientific report. I hope our final export can be useful, not just for us but also for marine conservation here in West Manggarai and Komodo.

Finally we had some surprises today. The first surprise: Andy gave us another test. But this was a fish ID test, and was lots of fun.

Our second surprise was a special guest. MantaWatch alumnus Ranny Yunaeni came to visit and tell us about her life since last year’s internship program and her new role with WWF. It was great to meet Ranny and I look forward to discussing more with her.

Planning our internship report with Andy