A semester abroad made waves in my student experience

Field trips with amazing wildlife

I had the opportunity to study for a semester at James Cook University (JCU) in Australia. Whilst there, I became a JCU Restricted Scientific Diver and conducted scientific surveys for a master’s student. 

We were investigating juvenile coral competition in massive corals at Orpheus Island Research Station. I will never forget seeing humpback whales, including hearing them singing whilst I was diving and seeing them breach by our research boat.

I also went on several incredible field trips for my modules. I travelled back to Orpheus Island for a coral ecology module. Whilst snorkeling I conducted surveys investigating coral cover and composition between the reef flat, slope, and crest.

For my tropical aquaculture module, I visited 4 different aquaculture facilities in North Queensland, barramundi, grouper, tiger prawn and red claw. On one of the days (my birthday) I also I saw platypus and glow worms.

Time for travelling

I wanted to make the most of my trip halfway round the world, so I did lots of travelling when I wasn’t studying. I travelled to the Central Queensland outback with a group of friends I made at JCU. We drove 1600km in 3 days and saw tumbleweed. 

I found my own extinct species of fossil bivalve, Inoceramus, which is about 189–66 million years old. I was allowed to keep it as I got a permit from the museum.

I was very fortunate to see so much Australian wildlife. This included emus in the outback, saltwater crocodiles in Daintree Rainforest, koalas at Magnetic Island and fairy penguins at Philip Island. 

I dived as well as snorkelled on the Great Barrier Reef, where I saw coral spawning at Magnetic Island as well as an epaulette shark.

After my semester abroad, I went backpacking around West Papua in Indonesia. I had to take a cargo ferry which took over 12 hours but I saw pristine coral cover. 

I saw so many cool terrestrial and marine animals. This included 3 species of birds of paradise, kingfishers, crazy insects and spiders, wobbegong shark, manta rays, eagle rays, pipefish, bumphead parrotfish, turtles, sharks, so many dolphins, and a dugong.