#whycoexist 2023 competition winner, Emma Batty, shares her amazing Seychelles experience and her progress towards a career in marine conservation
The #whycoexist competition invites participants to create a short video on why we need to coexist with the ocean, an initiative from Co-Exist Marine Conservation Projects.
In return, the winner and a friend get to make an expedition trip to a private island in Seychelles, where they can spend their time diving – or learning to dive – and learning the ropes of life as a marine conservationist.
Since winning the 2023 #whycoexist competition, Emma Batty, from Bali, is well on her way to fulfilling that dream. She took her sister, Bella, with her, and has since earned her Divemaster certification with Blue Corner Dive in Nusa Lembongan, Indonesia. Bella is set to do a six-month dive internship in Raja Ampat, and both are hoping to go on to do their Instructor Development Courses later this year.
Emma has applied for an @oceanculturelife storytelling grant, and her project to collect and study the sounds of coral has seen her through to the competition’s final. She and Bella have also finished the scientific @coralcatch diving programme, from which she has pitched the idea for a min-documentary.
Emma has also successfully applied for, and been awarded, a dive photography grant to take photographs of manta rays in Indonesia.
She’s also joined Blue Corner in collaboration with Coral Gardeners to record reef sounds and create ID the local fish populations, and has also participated in the dive centre’s new restoration program.
For more information and to see some of this year’s entries, head to coexistprojects.com/whycoexist/ and follow the competition, and more, on Facebook and Instagram
