NEWS
Good luck Sue!
This year we say farewell to LAMAVE researcher Sue Ong as she sets out on new adventures. Sue has been part of the team since 2017 and made quite an impact during her time with us.
Diving into the unknown
A real ‘go-getter’ Sue’s passion for conservation and her determination to make the Philippines a safe place for marine life has always driven her onwards and upwards. Over the years we’ve seen Sue complete many firsts and take on a host of new challenges.
She initially joined LAMAVE in 2017 as a #LAMAVEscholar for our whale shark project in Northern Mindanao. A Cagayan de Oro native, her local insight and passion for her home region made Sue a great addition to the team. While the core of the project work was conducting interviews on land, the team also completed surveys on the water, looking for the enigmatic Butanding. Sue joined these, yet the remarkable thing was she was not able to swim at the time, and so began her journey to conquer the water. Soon she could not only swim but she could also freedive and after the Northern Mindanao Project was complete Sue was hired to work alongside MJ Lamoste on LAMAVE’s turtle research and conservation project in Apo Island. This is where Sue’s passion for sea turtles really started to bloom. The project which collected data on the local population of turtles on the island also investigated the behaviour of sea turtles in response to tourism interactions as well as tourist compliance to local guidelines. Working with stakeholders and international volunteers Sue quickly became accustomed to fieldwork and what it takes to run research and conservation projects on the ground.
In 2018 she presented the project’s research on turtles in Apo Island at the 5th International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC5) in Kuching, Malaysia. This was her first international conference, but not her last, as she’d later go on to present at International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB). Her presentation at the latter focused on the work she had completed in Myanmar with Flora and Fauna International (FFI) during a placement with the Conservation Leadership Program's Internship Award Program, supporting the Development of Sea Turtle Monitoring and Conservation in Myanmar.
On her return from Myanmar Sue joined the Rapid Bycatch Assessment Team led by Jessica Labaja, finding herself back working with communities across the Philippines from Romblon, Sorsogon, Palawan and Masbate - where she also got her first scuba diving experience. In more recent years she has worked closely with Dr Alessandro Ponzo on LAMAVE’s marine animal stranding and rescue work and throughout the global pandemic, she was assisting local communities around the country by phone, messenger or in-person to ensure marine animals in need of rescue had the best chance of making it safely back into the ocean.
If Sue taught the team one thing, it is to always go for it and to be fearless in learning new skills!
The end of one chapter is the beginning of another
Sue - daghang salamat for all you have done for LAMAVE and the protection of marine megafauna in the Philippines. Good luck with the adventures that lay ahead! Amping kayo!