Well, well, well… I hope you all have your flippers and snorkel at the ready – or for the lucky ones, at least a boat in your garden, because Earth is getting… wetter? Yeah, that’s kind of an odd statement to make, but it’s true. We’ve all been a bit preoccupied about the next coupling on Love Island to realise sea levels have been rising 3.9mm a year and the ocean becoming increasingly acidic (NASA Earth Observatory, 2022);(NOAA, 2025). To the average person out on the street, they’re going to look at me like I’ve got two heads. More water for the fish, right? But! As a marine biologist … I’m terrified, to put it lightly
I should probably introduce myself – I admit I’ve come across guns blazing. I’m an aspiring marine biologist, heading off to Greece for an internship in marine ecology. What can I say, I watched The Little Mermaid and never looked back. And one thing I can say is that people really still believe marine biology is a made-up job, but it’s folks like marine biologists, ecologists and geographers who are working to conserve the tropical destinations you all love to holiday in – one for the Instagram as they say.
It’s a bit of a given that environmental threats don’t wear neon signs. For many people, the ocean is far away, and therefore the problems are even further. They get brushed aside like my forgotten English homework… anyway. But they don’t have to, and that’s a simple fact. Even the simplest of actions can have the greatest of outcomes, and that’s the philosophy I carry with me. One of the primary focuses of my internship is on the anthropogenic impacts facing the Aegean Sea – we’ve been littering Poseidon’s home, literally!
This internship is more than just research – it’s a commitment to understanding our waters and what we’re really doing to them. Specifically, the sustainable development goals: 12, 13, and 14 aren’t just pages of words; it’s a mindset, a mission (Concern Worldwide, 2021).
Sure, I have to fly to my destination – but I’m not aware of anyone building a conveyor belt to Greece just yet, let me know if they do. No one’s perfect, but guess what, that’s not what’s being asked of us. Personally, I’m off to Greece on a one-way flight, with my reusable water bottle and single–use plastics ditched. (Greenmatch, 2024). I’m eating locally from the Archipelagos local farm – a soon-to-be marine biologist and farmer. Call me a Jack of all trades.
I may be heading off into the unfortunately plastic-filled horizon with my bamboo toothbrush, reusable gear, and my never-ending jellyfish facts (they’re 95% water – aliens, I tell you ALIENS!) (NOAA, 2024), but I’m carrying something much bigger: the belief and hope that the small choices will ripple into real change.
