I am Marieta, from Bulgaria and studying for a MSci in Marine Biology. My placement was with CETUS Project, CIIMAR based in Porto, Portugal.
Whales have always been my weakness and my biggest academic interest. I was lucky enough to be accepted to work for a cetacean project in Portugal, so that was already feeling like a dream come true. This happened when the Covid-19 pandemic started so my departure was delayed by one year, and I ended up finishing my masters before beginning the placement. It was a very hard and uncertain path doe to Covid-19, I was losing hope and patience, but didn鈥檛 give up and eventually in the summer of 2021 things suddenly worked out!
My internship with the CETUS project started with a bang! I was given the opportunity to board the hydrographic research vessel of the Portuguese navy as a Marine Mammal Observer, and sailed from Lisbon to the Azores and back. That was for sure the highlight of my placement and even of my academic career! I was at sea with another girl from the team for 24 days and it was a lifetime experience that challenged me in all kinds of ways, it was mentally and physically demanding, but so worth it. During my placement I was also monitoring from land, I processed all of the data we collected and developed a Photo-ID catalogue for a few hard-to-identify dolphin species.
My whole life in Portugal just felt like one constant holiday, living and working just 5 minutes away from the beach, almost constantly sunny days, living in Porto was like being in a movie. I had opportunities to go around the country with some amazing international people and visit places like Lisbon, Aveiro, Coimbra and Nazare, where I saw the biggest surfing waves in the world! I could go on for ages about my experience and this heavenly place that is Portugal, but you should go see for yourself!
