Hi everyone, After 4,5 months on Statia it is time for me to leave. A new job is waiting for me in Mexico and although I haven't heard from them since hurricane Dean, I am still looking forward to going. The last few days here have been good. I had lots of dives planned to map the last dive sites on my list. I think all the marine creatures came to say goodbye to me, because I have seen more in one week then all my time here together. Sharks, turtles and a spotted eagle ray, it was great! Tomorrow I [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone, It has been pretty quiet lately, so I haven't been writing much. I guess when you are in a place for a longer period you have nothing to tell anymore and you just lead a normal life. Well, as normal as it gets on Statia that is. I have been busy working, no more island trips after Saba. Only 4 weeks left here and hardly time enought to finish everything I wanted to. For me it is now important to do as much as I can for the marine park guide that I'm writing. But the last weeks I [View Full Entry]

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Dear all, I haven't written in a while, just because nothing new has been happening to write about. I am getting pretty much used to the island, the way of living here and working here. Almost everyday I go for 1 or 2 dives, either cleaning/replacing lines or doing a survey dive. Furthermore I work on my marine park dive guide, making maps of all the sites (diving with the dive operators in my weekends), writing chapters about marine life, ecosystems and dive sites. Ofcourse I do loads of other stuff that comes along. Last week we put a beautiful turtle [View Full Entry]

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This morning I saw baby turtles for the first time in my life! The first Leatherback nest that was laid 55 days ago hatched today. Arturo and Lauren saw a bird taking a baby when they were doing the morning patrol and found another baby turtle making its way to the ocean. I was just about to take the first bite of my boiled egg for breakfast, when the phone rang and we quickly had to collect our stuff (put the egg in the fridge) and drive turtle speed to the beach again. Here we found the one baby still on [View Full Entry]

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A new working week ahead and lots of things have happened over the past few days. Friday morning, on the way to the office, we are pulled over by a local. He points out tracks on the beach, turtle tracks! I call Arturo, who quickly comes over to have a look. She has made quite a mess on the beach and it looks like she tried to nest at different places. In the afternoon we look for the eggs. Her nest (we don't know exactly where and if she lay at all) is not at a very safe place, but at [View Full Entry]

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Dear all, From now on I have a local phone number. Text messages are very welcome at all times. Phone calls preferably between 17.00 and 23.00 Dutch time. Would be nice to hear from you. The number is: +11 599 3184978. I had a very sad morning today. Just when I was picking up some tanks to go diving I was asked if I wanted to see a manra ray. Apparently one was stuck in a fishing net. I quickly run to the equipment roon, got mask, fins and camera and run back to the scene. Lots of people had gathered [View Full Entry]

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After having been here for three weeks I am starting to settle in. The other marine park intern has left and I have taken over all the intern tasks and have moved into the house. The island is very small and quiet and I think I may have met most people that live here, especially other foreigners. There are 5 volunteers and 4 interns working for STENAPA, furthermore there are a few Dutch girls on the island working for the tourism board and teaching at a local school, there are some Dutch people working for the dive schools and there are [View Full Entry]

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I have been been on Statia for 1 week now and here's an update of what I've been up to: After flying to Statia, alone, sitting next to the pilot (sorry, I still can't get over this), I had an introductory week at Stenapa. Stenapa is the island's NGO that preserves the environment of Statia, and the organisation that I will be working for (doing an internship for to be precise) for the next 5 months. To read more about Stenapa, please visit their website www.statiapark.org. I will fulfill the role of Marine Park Intern while I am here. My tasks [View Full Entry]

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Co-Pilot Thursday I walk from my hotel to the bus stop, meanwhile trying to find a place to have some breakfast. The only thing they seem to be serving early morning is deep fried stuff, so I buy some plain bread and get on a bus to Cabrits Dive Center for another day of diving. I'm the first there, but slowly more people are coming in and we leave shore with 9 divers on board, all but me from the States. I'm buddied up with a lady who's also an instructor. She seems happy do dive with me, as she had [View Full Entry]

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