Category: LMRT

On the 1st of February, 2018, we went to Koh Seh for our 5th trip with the LMRT crew. We were hoping that the weather was okay because our last trip was cancel but the weather was still a little bit harsh on us. Usually we do four dives per trip but this time, each of us only get to do a dive because the visibility of the water was really bad. The cause of it was because there were trashes and water hyacinth flowing the river from Vietnam and it floated around the Kep ocean. As I ride the boat to the island, I could see it almost everywhere and it was pretty disgusting and upset to see it float on the ocean floor where animals could very easily died from eating those stuff. As we get to the island, we saw, even more, trashes and dead water hyacinth along the shore, now that was even more disgusting. So this trip, we basically just helped the island people to clean those stuff and it was very dangerous because there were all kind of stuff like medical materials, needles, fishing materials, and TRASHES.

 

For my reflection, I really thought out that this was a very humble and powerful trip. Though, we learn to dives and do survey and try to protect our ocean but there’s always other issue that we hadn’t look ahead for and to protect the ocean is a big challenge. We didn’t realize that there would be a huge amount of trash that could literally destroy all the lives in the ocean and it’s really sad to see that. 

On the 16th of November 2017, My LMRT has once again went off on our third adventure to Koh Seh to do more scuba diving and training to do survey. As always, this trip was incredibly fun and challenging but everyone always smile.

 

This time we finally learned and practiced how to do survey underwater by laying transect line. For this weekend trip, we did two dives a day for two day. Our first dive of practicing survey was super confusing and messing and unorganized. I was out of my mind to see the loads of responsibility we have when we do survey. But in general I think these dives were very funny.

Guess what, this is why people say divers are lazy.

 

So the transects line is 100 meters. We divided 100 meters into four section, 0 to 20 meters, 25 to 45 meters, 50 to 70 meters, 75 to 95 meters. There are gaps for five meter every 20 meters because in the gap, we don’t recorded the data. Before we start to survey, we have to wait behind the line for five minutes until we can start. This survey is super SLOW! Our speed for this survey has to be two meters per minute and we stopped for one minute every five meters. That is SLOW! It is harder than you could imagine to be this slow underwater. For the first dives, I was going so fast but for the rest of the three dives, my speed was getting better and better because sometimes when I have the dive computer, I can look at the time and sometimes when I don’t have, I can just try to keep track of the time in my head.

 

Talking about the responsibilities, it was more than we could asked for. Besides controlling and focusing on our neutral buoyancy, we had all these stuffs that we have to look after such as, slates + pencil (to track data), tank banger, buoy, dive computer, compass, our buddy. Sadly, I lost my pencil in my first dive because I didn’t pay attention to it because there were so many stuffs tangling on my body.

 

I am still very proud of myself because I can keep myself on track. My buoyancy was alright, my speed was OK and I’m getting way more comfortable underwater. Personally, the most challenging part for these dives is to cooperate with my buddy team. It’s hard for me to tell my buddy to slow down underwater when she’s going too fast.

 

By the way, we also took substrates ID test and I passed! Huray!

Another successful adventure!!

 

A few months ago, I have been chosen to be in a research team, focusing on the marine field. A group of eight students, four boys and girls were very excited to be the chosen and we all are very passionate in studying marine researching study. This will be the first Cambodian team of research divers in the country. On our summer holiday, we’ve been working really hard to study the dive course because we need to know how to dive in order to do research underwater. But, in order to do our research study, we need to have the budget to go to our research site, buying scuba dive gears and equipment to do our research. So we have submitted a grant to a foundation, requested a budget of $15, 610 for our project. And so they have accepted the grant, that means we can do three years of research field in our project. This opportunity was created from the enthusiasm of all of us to protect our marine ecosystems, which will also allow us to follow our passion of science and experience the rigor of a long-term research project.

On the 28th of September, we went to Koh Seh, where our research location is, and we were experienced our first dive. We spent over 5 nights on the island, learning all the skills of scuba diving. Before I went there, I felt really nervous because I thought I’m not going to passed the exam in order to be a certified diver, but I was wrong. My first dive underwater was so tense and excitable and it was very challenging and new but also fun. At the end of our trip, I realize how challenging it was to do skills underwater than taking the exam on paper on things we’ve already know because we have spent our times studying. Breathing underwater is really weird for the first time, and I felt way nervous than I ever felt on anything. Those challenges didn’t stop me from what I want to do so I kept pushing myself and always be reminded that I can do it. However, I am now officially a certified diver and I’m very excited to my research soon. We will be going on the island every month for one weekend for this next three years.