Manon Bares All for Gili’s Sharks

Dutch Divemaster, Manon Krijnen, a recent Blue Marlin graduate, recently showed true leadership in promoting awareness and raising funds for the Gili Shark Foundation. Manon, along with other instructors at Blue Marlin Dive Gili Trawangan, participated in the Great Gili Shark Count for the month of October. Thinking on her feet, she came up with an innovative idea to merge her graduation ceremony, the infamous Divemaster Snorkel Test, with a raffle auctioning off the chance to be her dive buddy on her 100th dive with all proceeds benefitting the Gili Shark Foundation. Those of you familiar with diving may know the tradition for the century dive, let’s just say she may have been a little colder than normal! The raffle generated plenty of attention, with bids from many divers from all over Gili Trawangan. In the end, however, the home team won, with the prize going to our very own Kiwi instructor Michael Steele. The dive took place a few days later at Simon’s Reef which was the chosen site for the century dive, with its beautiful topography and plenty of canyons for Manon to hide between!!

The Gili Shark Foundation was set up in 2013 and is a direct action in response to the slaughter of sharks and rays we are seeing at the Tanjung Luar fish market in East Lombok. Its mission is to monitor the shark populations around the Gili islands and is dedicated to the protection and conservation of sharks and their habitat. Earlier this year, the Gili Shark Foundation purchased some baby sharks saved by fishermen from Bali and released them here in Gili, so we now can track and monitor their movements. The Great Gili Shark Count which was held last month, and gives us some great data about the habits of sharks around Gili will be repeated again in April so that the results can be compared. In total, Manon raised 5 million rupiah, which will go a long way in helping the Gili Shark Foundation further their actions on the preservation of Sharks around Gili Trawangan.