“The visibility is great today!” said no one in Fiji ever.

Bula!

You’ll have to forgive the lack of pictures in this post… the Wi-Fi is almost non-existent, so it would take about eight years to load. It’s been about a month since my last blog post, and my time in Fiji is beginning to wind down. I’m half part sad, half part excited for the next chapter in my life. To remind everyone… I’ve been working with sharks in Fiji (shocking to everyone, I know) and doing a population analysis of the sharks that inhabit Shark Reef Marine Reserve.

Eat. Sleep. Dive. Repeat.

“Meredith! MEREDITH!!! Tagging! We need to leave now!” “I’m in the shower!” “TAGGING! WEDGEFISH!” Rushes out half dressed, as Oni, our cook, calls from the balcony, “You need your sarong! It’s in the village!” Rushes back in, rushes back out… Welcome to shark research in Fiji!!!

That was Wednesday afternoon and not an uncommon way I go tagging, but I’ve quickly learned to roll with it and just say “Fiji Time” when I have no idea why something is happening or not happening.

Shark Conservation in Fiji

Bula from Fiji!

Our official transportation cars

For my summer placement project, I am working with the Fiji Shark Conservation Project in Pacific Harbour near Suva on the main island of Viti Levu. I arrived on Monday and was met with the information that my advisor, who I was working with for my personal project, had quit the previous week. You know you’ll run into problems with any job or project, but I really didn’t think I would find out I may not even have a project anymore approximately one hour after arriving at the site. To top it off, no one in charge was even there on Monday, since it was pouring, and the rains flooded the main road from Suva (where many of them live).

On the plus side to those first few hours of chaos, I still have my project! A bit altered, but I think it will actually work out for the better.