Vitamin S every day: Sea, Sun, Sand, Shore, Scenic, and Sea turtle - Chong on Pulau Tengah
Hi there! My name is Chong, and this is my internship experience in Tengah Island Conservation. Since it was announced that I am required to find an internship to complete my degree in Marine Science after 2 years lockdown in Malaysia due to pandemic Covid-19, I had already decided that I wanted to find a placement that would allow me to do more field work in nature than other jobs that would require me to spend the entire day inside an office or lab. After some surfing on internet, I had found out that Tengah Island Conservation (TIC) is the place that fulfils all of my satisfaction. Here I had to express my gratitude to the TIC’s team, which I had a very amazing internship experience together with them: Tanya the Programme Director, Siva the Project Manager, Aiman and Izzat, both are the Conservation Officer, Alzam the Outreach Coordinator, and lastly Bell, another Conservation Intern.
As a Conservation Intern in TIC, I had experienced a lot of Vitamin S every day: Sea, Sun, Sand, Shore, Scenic, and Sea turtle. Sometimes I had to go for a morning boat patrol in order to check whether there were any turtle nests on the neighbouring islands, at the same time enjoying the hug from the wind and waves. Finding and retrieving an untouched turtle nest is one of my favourite tasks during my time in TIC. I have finally found a turtle nest by myself after 2 months since my first patrol (A Hawksbill sea turtle nest with 151 eggs located at Pulau Mensirip). Waiting for the sea turtle hatchlings to emerge is an exciting moment, sometimes I had to check the hatchery at night to see if any hatchlings were popping out of their nests, and then when the hatchlings were released, we would watch them crawl towards the ocean and begin their life journey.
Diving is always one of my wish lists to do in my life. I am very appreciated to TIC, which provided me with a lot of chances to dive in Johor Marine Park to conduct scientific diving. The underwater scenery is always clear as crystal, came with rich biodiversity, and amazing experiences in every dive. With more and more reef surveys and coral nursery maintenance I had joined, my diving skills are getting improved, I am able to identify more fishes and other invertebrates, differentiate types of corals underwater, and I have also gained my certification of becoming a Reef Check Eco-Diver during my internship!
The highlight was working and interacting with so many different people from various cultures and learning so much new knowledge from them. Sometimes I had to engage with guests to answer their enquiries, and I had to present both Sea Turtle and Shark Educational Talk to guests every week. I encountered several difficulties while performing the tasks such as the language barrier, but I also enjoyed the learning process. It made me more fluent in communication skills over time.
In a nutshell, working in Tengah Island and TIC is a fantastic first step to achieve the lifelong dream of conservation for any young undergraduate or anyone who is eager to build their resume. It was an excellent opportunity to put theories and knowledge learned in university into practice by engaging in conservation programme.
