International Scholarships for Change

Dear Supporters, 

As introduced in our last report, our International Scholar, Catherine has an exciting update:

"I was honoured to be chosen as the GVI Scholar for 2017. This awarded me enough to support my dream thesis research which I feel has the potential to propel me towards studying my PhD, with the skills this experience will provide. I am English, and I am studying my MSc in Marine Biology at the University of Algarve, in Portugal. However, it seemed that moving between two countries just wasn’t far enough for me, so for my data collection, I’m on a whole new continent: Australia!

I have been here since October 12 2017, and I have been a very busy bee! The day I arrived in Perth, I was sent to pack up a car and drive all the way up to Shark Bay, in Western Australia. By the end of the nine hour drive, I already considered my new colleagues friends, and I was ready to get down to some hard science - which they were happy to oblige with!

The focus of my project is studying the use of drones in science, specifically studying shark movement ecology. In Shark Bay, I was able to carry out several preliminary transects which yielded some really interesting activity that has helped shape the focus of my research now. From studying the drone footage, we noticed that when we put our baited camera systems in the water, sharks would actively swim towards the bait - then at about 5-10m away, they would turn and swim away very quickly. This kind of behaviour has never been recorded before, so now our goal is to look at how sharks are responding to in-water stimuli. We are planning to run more aerial transects simultaneously with the camera systems, and some with only bait, to take a close look into how their behaviour changes in the presence and absence of controls. Therefore, we can assess the reliability of the underwater camera equipment as a research method.

The people I am working with are world class experts and every day I feel like I am learning something new. Prof. Euan is not only a genius, but also a kind and encouraging man, and with his backing I believe I can publish two papers out of the work I am doing here - which is the defining pre-requisite of studying a PhD in Australia. I feel like a truly valuable part of the team, which is such a precious feeling!

I cannot begin to explain how grateful I am to The GVI Trust for awarding me the opportunity to be here: because of your generous donations, I was able to invest in my drone and afford to fly to this beautiful country. In nine days, I will be flying to Cocos (Keeling) Island for six weeks, where the lion’s share of the data will be collected, and I can’t wait to send you another update about what I am getting up to over there!"

What an incredible reason to invest in the International Scholarship Program! 

Thank you all for the support,

The GVI Trust