VOLUNTEER – CLAUDIA DAHMER

When someone asked me how the Volunteer Program was, I told them they should take a look at my legs, covered in bruises, or my hands, full of cuts. Or even told them I thought I would never stop smelling like Chum. But it was all worth it!

Waking up at 5:30 every morning, working until almost 5 in the afternoon, with barely time to eat or rest. Carrying wetsuits up and down (and cleaning and hanging them – and only someone who has done this once knows how hard this can be with wet 7mm wetsuits), transporting smelly bait from the freezer to the boat, from the boat to the freezer, cleaning the boat before the morning trip, in between trips, and after the afternoon trip…. Helping on the boat, attaching the cage, letting the anchor down, helping guests get into their wetsuits… And of course, also patience and understanding had to be fine. We had to be patient to help and inform every guest. And understand their problems and fears, and sometimes even language! (Try explaining how to wear a Wetsuit to a French person without speaking so much as a “Je m'appelle…”) and yet I survived all of this! And more than just that: I would do it again and again! Because all of this is forgotten the moment you see a shark. The feeling you get when you see such wonderful creature swimming around the boat is indescribable. And seeing them breaching, or spy-hopping, or even checking-out (and I can call myself very lucky for being checked-out closely by a shark) it’s a mixture of enchantment and joy and respect. It is butterflies in the stomach, goose bumps and shaking all at once. After every trip all I could do was smile, for all the sharks I had the pleasure to meet. Of course there are some low days, with “lazy” (cautious) sharks, or even with no sharks at all, but the good days make you erase them from your mind, and all I can remember are the great days!

I could go on and on about how I loved the time I spent there. About the wonderful people that work on White Shark Projects (those on the boat, and those on Land). I could tell how fulfilled I felt every time a new client discovered a hidden love for sharks, or had their love confirmed, or even lost their fear. Or even about how I loved meeting all these other volunteers, and living with them in such a nice place. But I would need many pages and wouldn’t be able to begin to describe how the whole experience of working with White Shark Projects marked my life forever, and how I would (and probably will) do anything I can to go back. It’s something you really can only understand once you’ve been there, once you lived it, once you’ve felt it…