Behind the Research
My Story
Turtles? The Great Barrier Reef? Why is any of this relevant you may ask. Well, for myself, these topics have a very significant importance in my life. I grew up in Seattle, Washington, for the majority of my life. As a young child, my parents took me to the Seattle Aquarium quite a bit. After my first time entering the doors, I was drawn in over and over again, it was hard to drag me out of the place. During my middle school years, my stepfather received a job opportunity in Sydney, Australia, bringing our whole family down under. Having much curiosity for the subject already, this was of course the prime location for marine science, how could I not fall in love. I spent about three years of my childhood snorkeling, and diving, around the Great Barrier Reef, one of the most enormous structures on earth, that is even visible from space (GBR foundation).
The Great Barrier Reef was the beginning to the development of my strongest passion in life. The abstract diversity surrounding the reefs, and the idea of the unknown that lies beneath the ocean has continually fascinated me. From my Aussie years, moving forward, I would create research projects, unfacilitated, simply for my own knowledge. Every few weeks, I chose an organism, ecosystem, or oceanic principle that I was interested in and watched documentaries or read journal articles regarding the topic. Through the information I absorbed, I applied my learning into PowerPoints, research papers, and educational posters that I shared with teachers and classmates. I created several informational posters and PowerPoints specifically focusing on Sea Turtles during my junior year of high school. Sea turtles are some of the most magnificent creatures I have had the opportunity to swim amongst. They remind me of the sloths of the ocean. Large, leisurely moving, elegant, harmless. They float near humans, moving their flippers up and down ever so gracefully, not a care in the world.
Over a couple of weeks, I had heard chatter regarding turtles in the barrier reef. As one could imagine this automatically gained my attention. After looking into the concerns more, I discovered that this cause of near extinction was due to isolated female hatchlings. Turtles and the reef are both extremely important to me, and have played a large role in my upbringing and education. I wanted to dedicate my time to learning the ins and outs of this problem, to find possible solutions, and to bring awareness to the public about how severe impacts such as climate change can be to our ecosystems. I hope anyone taking the time to read the information presented on this site has something to take away or gain from it.
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Best,
Megan Swanger
