Spending a summer in Guatemala is not something that I had on my radar before last year at all. But, on a bus ride during a conference for the Women in Nature Network, an organization that I joined through an HCCS project, I met the executive director of Fundación Mundo Azul, who, after a bit of conversation about my undefined future plans, offhandedly offered the option of volunteering for her foundation. When November and summer planning came around, I decided to reach out, mostly on a whim, and thank goodness I did. Thanks to that random encounter and some funding from Harvard’s Office of Career Services, I spent 10 weeks this summer interning for the foundation during weekdays, and then either resting or traveling on weekends.
Fundación Mundo Azul (Blue World Foundation) is mostly focused on the conservation of elasmobranchs in Guatemala’s waters, and works toward this mission through both scientific data collection and educational outreach. Because the foundation is so small, I got to jump around to all different sides of NGO operations.
A couple of my weeks were spent helping to measure elasmobranchs that were caught as by-catch in a fishing community on the Pacific coast. In this area, fishermen often catch endangered juvenile hammerheads and endangered rays. We measured a few different lengths on each organism and collected data from the fishermen about their fishing efforts on that particular trip. The hope is that these data will guide the Guatemalan government in creating protected areas or other fishing restrictions for these endangered species.
I also got to spend a couple of weeks on the Atlantic coast assisting with environmental education workshops in a few different communities and schools. We mainly spoke on plastic pollution, and I learned facts like: it takes one plastic bottle up to 450 years to degrade (though plastic never completely decomposes), and that every year, 8 million tons of plastic make their way into the oceans globally. The most impactful part for me was a workshop for a large group of government workers in a municipality that has passed a law to ban single-use plastics (to be affective in November). It was absolutely amazing to see these adults learning about the issue of plastic pollution in their country and their oceans for the first time, and to see them walk away after the 2-day workshop with new perceptions and new passion to be a part of the solution! I got to see the same sort of transformation in workshops with children both about plastic pollution and the importance of sharks in an ocean ecosystem. This was the experience that solidified my persistent inkling that my path toward vet school is no longer the path for me. This means that I definitely took organic chemistry for nothing, but it’s fine.
Guatemala itself is a beautiful country! With lakes and volcanos and misty mountains all over the place, it’s natural beauty is hard to beat. I was incredibly lucky in my experience, and I got to see 3 different faces of the country: I saw the areas of well-off Guatemalans, with lovely residencies and high security; the tourist areas with hand-made goods galore, vegetarian restaurants, and as many foreigners as locals; and some rural areas, with litter all along the beaches, river water for washing as brown as chocolate milk, and questionable electricity at best. Still, there was vibrancy simmering in each of these areas, and I left with a new understanding of hospitality, fresh tortillas, and colorful clothing.
At the end, I had the opportunity to be scuba certified, and to then use that certification to help out with a lionfish hunt. If you don’t know, lionfish are an invasive species that were introduced into the Caribbean sometime in the 90s, probably from the US aquarium trade. They are machines of fish, eating nearly anything up to half of their body length and laying more than a million eggs each year (that’s not an exaggeration!). They have no predators in this new ecosystem, and so are taking over the reefs with an astounding speed. We spear-fished a good number of them and then held a fundraising dinner to contribute to scholarships that the foundation gives to the children of shark fishermen in one of the participating communities. Having this opportunity to see the reefs and animals that we were working to protect gave the work a whole new weight for me.
Finally, at the very end of my internship, my supervisor took me to dive with living, swimming, adult sharks, in contrast to the dead juveniles I had been collecting data for throughout the summer. It was absolutely incredible to see them in their habitat and to swim among them, and it was the perfect way to cap off the summer! I never imagined spending a summer traveling around Guatemala and working in ocean conservation, but it has been one of the most important experiences in my life.
Fundación Mundo Azul (Blue World Foundation) is mostly focused on the conservation of elasmobranchs in Guatemala’s waters, and works toward this mission through both scientific data collection and educational outreach. Because the foundation is so small, I got to jump around to all different sides of NGO operations.
A couple of my weeks were spent helping to measure elasmobranchs that were caught as by-catch in a fishing community on the Pacific coast. In this area, fishermen often catch endangered juvenile hammerheads and endangered rays. We measured a few different lengths on each organism and collected data from the fishermen about their fishing efforts on that particular trip. The hope is that these data will guide the Guatemalan government in creating protected areas or other fishing restrictions for these endangered species.
I also got to spend a couple of weeks on the Atlantic coast assisting with environmental education workshops in a few different communities and schools. We mainly spoke on plastic pollution, and I learned facts like: it takes one plastic bottle up to 450 years to degrade (though plastic never completely decomposes), and that every year, 8 million tons of plastic make their way into the oceans globally. The most impactful part for me was a workshop for a large group of government workers in a municipality that has passed a law to ban single-use plastics (to be affective in November). It was absolutely amazing to see these adults learning about the issue of plastic pollution in their country and their oceans for the first time, and to see them walk away after the 2-day workshop with new perceptions and new passion to be a part of the solution! I got to see the same sort of transformation in workshops with children both about plastic pollution and the importance of sharks in an ocean ecosystem. This was the experience that solidified my persistent inkling that my path toward vet school is no longer the path for me. This means that I definitely took organic chemistry for nothing, but it’s fine.
Guatemala itself is a beautiful country! With lakes and volcanos and misty mountains all over the place, it’s natural beauty is hard to beat. I was incredibly lucky in my experience, and I got to see 3 different faces of the country: I saw the areas of well-off Guatemalans, with lovely residencies and high security; the tourist areas with hand-made goods galore, vegetarian restaurants, and as many foreigners as locals; and some rural areas, with litter all along the beaches, river water for washing as brown as chocolate milk, and questionable electricity at best. Still, there was vibrancy simmering in each of these areas, and I left with a new understanding of hospitality, fresh tortillas, and colorful clothing.
At the end, I had the opportunity to be scuba certified, and to then use that certification to help out with a lionfish hunt. If you don’t know, lionfish are an invasive species that were introduced into the Caribbean sometime in the 90s, probably from the US aquarium trade. They are machines of fish, eating nearly anything up to half of their body length and laying more than a million eggs each year (that’s not an exaggeration!). They have no predators in this new ecosystem, and so are taking over the reefs with an astounding speed. We spear-fished a good number of them and then held a fundraising dinner to contribute to scholarships that the foundation gives to the children of shark fishermen in one of the participating communities. Having this opportunity to see the reefs and animals that we were working to protect gave the work a whole new weight for me.
Finally, at the very end of my internship, my supervisor took me to dive with living, swimming, adult sharks, in contrast to the dead juveniles I had been collecting data for throughout the summer. It was absolutely incredible to see them in their habitat and to swim among them, and it was the perfect way to cap off the summer! I never imagined spending a summer traveling around Guatemala and working in ocean conservation, but it has been one of the most important experiences in my life.
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