It’s that time of year again! The 2016 MantaWatch Internship Program started today, and we have an excellent group of interns this year!
This year four MantaWatch Interns have received Guy Joseph MantaWatch Awards to join our team: Amelia Nur Kumala from Diponogoro University, Rafid Shidqi from Jenderal Soedirman University, Retno Ningrum from Padjadjaran University and Tri Sujatmiko from Bogor Agricultural Institute.
Retno presents her MIP goals
We also have some familiar faces in the team. Muhammad Ichsan, one of our founding MantaWatch Interns, has recently completed his Masters degree in Conservation Biology at the University of Queensland, and Vidlia Rosady has recently completed her undergraduate thesis at Padjadjaran University and the first phase of the Indonesia Mobula Project. Both Ichsan and Vidlia will be joining this year’s program, and the students are becoming the teachers!
Our first day was a baptism of fire for the interns! An action packed day in the classroom, setting schedules and defining goals for the month ahead, and learning about effective conservation communication techniques. One important item on the agenda today was an introduction to MantaWatch’s safe diving practices and the safety considerations when diving for work. This year Divers Alert Network Asia Pacific are kindly supporting the program again, and have provided the interns with training handbooks in addition to annual DAN membership and dive insurance.
Divers Alert Network training handbooks for MIP-2016
This year’s interns bring some great experience and knowledge to the program. Today their conversations were not only restricted to their respective areas of study, but ranged widely across such diverse topics as how to establish effective conservation collaboration across sectors, market-based mechanisms and the incentives for conservation.
I am looking forward to exploring these topics and the relation to manta conservation in more detail over the month ahead, particularly as we will have some special guests who can share their unique experiences and perspectives on these issues.
Tomorrow morning we will meet with the National Park Authority to introduce this year’s program and identify areas of collaboration. After that, the real work begins!
