Rebecca grew up listening to the sound of the ocean from her bedroom window. Although she'd lived by the ocean all her life, she never realised how strong her connection with it was until she spent three and a half years away from it, living in the UK.
“It was something that was always inside of me, having lived on the coast for all my life and then not having it made me miss it,” Rebecca says. “I started to realise that maybe I’m unsettled…because I don’t have this thing that I’d always had, which was the ocean.”
While she was overseas, she started to think about what she was going to do when she got back to Australia.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life, you know that search that you go through…and I started to think to myself, ‘what can I do in my life as work that it wouldn’t matter if I got paid’,” she explains. “I thought, I’m not going to make any money being a snorkel instructor, I’ve gotta take it one better and become a dive instructor.”
Within a month of arriving home, Rebecca was certified in open water diving and ready to chase her dream of becoming an instructor. She spent all her spare time hanging out at her local dive shop in Windang and going on dives with them.
“I love having that connection, being in the water, seeing all the amazing stuff that’s under the surface that no one really thinks about on the land,” she says.
Even though she had only 15 dives under her belt, when an opportunity came up to work on a live aboard boat in Cairns as a hostess, she jumped at the chance. Living on the boat everyday made Rebecca realise the extent of the beauty of the underwater world, as well as the danger it was in.
“The thought of them dredging up… the reef just makes me angry and sad that people don’t have the comprehension to go, ’well this is important’,” she says. “And not just for me as a diver but for the environment.”
Rebecca’s concerns are certainly well founded.
In 2013 a coal port expansion was approved at Abbot Point, with plans to dump 3 million cubic metres
of dredge spoil within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area. The North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation claimed the dredged material was “suitable for unconfined placement at sea”, but International uproar forced those plans to be dropped.
Despite the change of plans, the reef is still under risk from the dredging itself along with an additional 66 000 extra ships per year, traveling through the area.
Rebecca believes there is a positive attitude toward environmental conservation in the diving industry. She says most professional divers she knows take interest in factors that could damage the reef environment.
“When I did my dive masters they were like, ‘If you see rubbish, pick it up. Because you’re the dive master and everybody behind you is going to see you pick up that piece of rubbish.’” she says. “And when they go out they’re going to pick up a piece of rubbish too.”
Rebecca knows from first hand experience how dangerous plastic in the ocean can be for the ocean animals she regards as her buddies.
“It’s such a small thing for us but it’s such a big threat. They can eat it or get entangled in it,” she says. “I went kayaking and I saw a plastic bag and I though it was a jellyfish. I thought it was a jellyfish! So could you imagine a marine animal? They’ve got no hope.”
Entanglement, ingestion and suffocation of marine animals because of plastic, is only increasing with the sources of plastic coming from far and wide off land and sea. Not only does it affect marine animals by direct contact, it can also spread disease and lead to the damage of the reef itself.
With this knowledge, Rebecca tries to lead a life with minimal impact on the environment. Between avoiding plastic and picking up fishing line on her beach runs, she knows the value of giving back to the ocean.
“Just being aware of your effect on everything. Not just in an aquatic sense but everything,” she says. “I try my best to avoid unnecessary waste.”
She also believes that if the people that use the ocean are conscious of their actions, it can have a big impact.
“People do need to be aware that the thing that you love, if you don’t look after it, it isn’t gonna be there forever,” she says. “Being aware …of your individual effects and changing what you do can make a difference. Its just education; educating people on what they’re actually doing.”
Rebecca is continuing to learn more about her underwater world at The University of Wollongong.
“It has definitely, without a doubt, encouraged me to choose my degree which is marine science,” she says. “Not strictly biology and animals but the environmental effect and how we can minimise our effects on the environment.”
Returning to the reef in the near future is a pipeline dream for Rebecca, but for now she is enjoying visiting her old diving haunts and advocating 'fish are friends not food' to anyone who cares to listen.
“It was something that was always inside of me, having lived on the coast for all my life and then not having it made me miss it,” Rebecca says. “I started to realise that maybe I’m unsettled…because I don’t have this thing that I’d always had, which was the ocean.”
While she was overseas, she started to think about what she was going to do when she got back to Australia.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life, you know that search that you go through…and I started to think to myself, ‘what can I do in my life as work that it wouldn’t matter if I got paid’,” she explains. “I thought, I’m not going to make any money being a snorkel instructor, I’ve gotta take it one better and become a dive instructor.”
Within a month of arriving home, Rebecca was certified in open water diving and ready to chase her dream of becoming an instructor. She spent all her spare time hanging out at her local dive shop in Windang and going on dives with them.
“I love having that connection, being in the water, seeing all the amazing stuff that’s under the surface that no one really thinks about on the land,” she says.
Even though she had only 15 dives under her belt, when an opportunity came up to work on a live aboard boat in Cairns as a hostess, she jumped at the chance. Living on the boat everyday made Rebecca realise the extent of the beauty of the underwater world, as well as the danger it was in.
“The thought of them dredging up… the reef just makes me angry and sad that people don’t have the comprehension to go, ’well this is important’,” she says. “And not just for me as a diver but for the environment.”
Rebecca’s concerns are certainly well founded.
In 2013 a coal port expansion was approved at Abbot Point, with plans to dump 3 million cubic metres
of dredge spoil within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area. The North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation claimed the dredged material was “suitable for unconfined placement at sea”, but International uproar forced those plans to be dropped.
Despite the change of plans, the reef is still under risk from the dredging itself along with an additional 66 000 extra ships per year, traveling through the area.
Rebecca believes there is a positive attitude toward environmental conservation in the diving industry. She says most professional divers she knows take interest in factors that could damage the reef environment.
“When I did my dive masters they were like, ‘If you see rubbish, pick it up. Because you’re the dive master and everybody behind you is going to see you pick up that piece of rubbish.’” she says. “And when they go out they’re going to pick up a piece of rubbish too.”
Rebecca knows from first hand experience how dangerous plastic in the ocean can be for the ocean animals she regards as her buddies.
“It’s such a small thing for us but it’s such a big threat. They can eat it or get entangled in it,” she says. “I went kayaking and I saw a plastic bag and I though it was a jellyfish. I thought it was a jellyfish! So could you imagine a marine animal? They’ve got no hope.”
Entanglement, ingestion and suffocation of marine animals because of plastic, is only increasing with the sources of plastic coming from far and wide off land and sea. Not only does it affect marine animals by direct contact, it can also spread disease and lead to the damage of the reef itself.
With this knowledge, Rebecca tries to lead a life with minimal impact on the environment. Between avoiding plastic and picking up fishing line on her beach runs, she knows the value of giving back to the ocean.
“Just being aware of your effect on everything. Not just in an aquatic sense but everything,” she says. “I try my best to avoid unnecessary waste.”
She also believes that if the people that use the ocean are conscious of their actions, it can have a big impact.
“People do need to be aware that the thing that you love, if you don’t look after it, it isn’t gonna be there forever,” she says. “Being aware …of your individual effects and changing what you do can make a difference. Its just education; educating people on what they’re actually doing.”
Rebecca is continuing to learn more about her underwater world at The University of Wollongong.
“It has definitely, without a doubt, encouraged me to choose my degree which is marine science,” she says. “Not strictly biology and animals but the environmental effect and how we can minimise our effects on the environment.”
Returning to the reef in the near future is a pipeline dream for Rebecca, but for now she is enjoying visiting her old diving haunts and advocating 'fish are friends not food' to anyone who cares to listen.