Here is Kirsty‘s first update from Fiji:

Thanks to a spur of the moment email sent 5 months ago, I now find myself face to face with 40+ bull sharks on a daily basis. They, however, are just an added bonus to my time in Fiji. I am really here to conduct a summer placement for my Masters Degree in Marine Environmental Management at the University of York, UK. My work will involve researching the individual, sex and species specific boldness in blacktip, whitetip, and grey reef sharks at the Shark Reef Marine Reserve. Where ‘boldness’ is defined as the tendency of an individual or species to approach and take food from the feeder.

My first week has flown by and any uncertainties I had of diving into waters riddled with bull sharks have been squandered thanks to the professional activity and friendly nature of the guys at Beqa Adventure Divers. While my first few dives were purely to take it all in, I am now beginning to recognize individual reef sharks (an essential part of my research) and am learning how to overcome the difficulties of collecting sound data in an ever changing and challenging environment. Over the next week I hope to have everything in place in order to begin data collection and if I’m lucky I may even get my first glimpse of a tiger shark!