Hello everyone, I'm Maxime,

I hold a masters degree in aquatic resources of the University of Montpellier 2 in France. I heard about the SASC by Katie Gledhill who diffused, by “coral-list”, opportunities of internships in shark conservancy. I have already had the chance to give a hand occasionally to a PhD student who works on black-tip sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) and lemon sharks (Negaprion acutidens) in French Polynesia during I was working on another project to finalize my master degree.

And I loved that, so when I saw that I could learn more about shark research, participate in tracking and tagging Zambezi sharks (Carcharhinus leucas), try to know more about those fantastic animals, talk about them to children, all that things with the aim of protect them more efficiently, I applied!!! And thanks to Meaghen and Tamzyn, they accepted, and now I’m here for three months.

Hello, my name is Lindy McMorran and I am the newest intern working at SASC. I hail from Los Angeles, California, United States and graduated from the University of Oregon (U.S.) in June 2010 with Batchelor of Science in Marine Biology. As a student, I took classes in Invertebrate Zoology, Marine Birds and Mammals, Estuary Biology, Animal Behavior, Oceanography, Invertebrate Embryology, and Environmental Issues, so a very wide range of classes for such a huge field. In school, I worked at a plethora of different jobs ranging from being a camp counselor to a lab technician in a Neurobiology lab. I currently have a seasonal job working on Catalina Island, a small island off the coast of California, where I am an outdoor education instructor for CELP (Catalina Environmental Leadership Program).

Due to my 3-month break off work, I decided to apply for an internship in another country, obviously in the marine science field. I knew I wanted to go to somewhere I had never been, and I had a couple ideas of what organisms I wanted to work with. I have always thought that sharks were beautiful animals, and knew a lot about the affect humans are currently having on the shark population, leading some sharks to extinction. With this in mind, I literally googled “internship, South Africa, sharks,” and SASC ‘s website popped up. I instantly fell in love with this group and everything they represented. I applied on a whim, crossing my fingers that I would get a chance of a lifetime.

Now after a 24 hour flight, and a couple of hours drive, here I am currently sitting looking over the Breede River in gorgeous Witsand, South Africa, helping with research that is currently being done on bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) that are known to swim up the river from the open ocean. Watch this space for more information about the outcomes of the trip, it’s pretty awesome!