A reef away from home: Meet Karen

From one UNESCO World Heritage Site to another, Marine Biologist Karen Chong-Seng has a career spanning international waters.

Journeying 9980 kilometres from the Great Barrier Reef into the Somali Sea region of the Indian Ocean, you’ll find some spectacular coral reef.

And surrounded by this reef is a group of islands called the Seychelles, where giant tortoises roam like ibis.

The Seychelles, lovingly nicknamed ‘the land of perpetual summer’, was the backdrop of an idyllic upbringing inspiring a love of the natural world for Karen. Now, she’s a North Queensland-based marine researcher who’s authored 18 publications and conducted work all over the globe. But it wasn’t always clear to Karen that marine science was her niche.

“My mum said lots of people climb career ladders, but you can also climb trees, by trying out different branches along the way,” Karen Chong-Seng said.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I think I liked marine science because I was interested in maps and cartography, the mixing of science and art.

“It’s the connections between things that are most interesting to me. How all the species and animals and processes connect to each other.

“My parents worked in terrestrial conservation; I rebelled by doing marine science instead—I avoided plants —it wasn’t a very good rebellion,” Karen laughed.

Surrounded by nature growing up, Karen says her family were always trying to be more environmentally conscious.

“The Seychelles community has a strong link to the environment and through action, are influencing what happens.

“They’re positioning themselves at the forefront of the blue economy.”

While her parents were an inspiration for Karen’s love of nature, it was Karen’s own creativity which paved the foundations for her future career.

Karen was first introduced to the incredible underwater world through an art competition in high school.

Tasked with creating a poster illustrating the human impact on reef environments, Karen took home first place.

And in an interesting twist, her poster told a prophecy of what was to come.

“I actually drew my PhD topic when I was 15 for an underwater art festival.

“Half of the poster showed the reef with a beautiful shark and half showed a degraded reef. My PhD studied that — why some reefs recover, and some don’t.”

And it’s an ever-present question, with climate change affecting the condition of reefs worldwide — Karen’s PhD research was as salient at the time as it is now.

Karen’s first introduction to the Great Barrier Reef was when she moved to Australia for university.

While she studied her undergraduate Bachelor of Marine Biology at James Cook University in Townsville, she brought her knowledge back home to conduct her PhD fieldwork in the reefs of the Seychelles.

“My PhD fieldwork was in Seychelles. It was pretty amazing to go back home to work.

“In 1998, the Seychelles’ bleaching event was really big, it really hit the corals, and they were devastated for years.

“My PhD supervisor became heavily involved in monitoring how the reefs fared after the bleaching, so being able to see the follow-up and trends and build on what we’ve learned was pretty significant.

“After completing my PhD I went back to Seychelles to work for the Seychelles Island Foundation, which manages the island nation’s two UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

“I was their program and project coordinator; they do a lot of monitoring, they get some government support, and they have links with research.

“I spent some time on Aldabra in the Seychelles which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site with the largest single population of giant tortoises.”

So, while the UNESCO listed Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area boasts six out of seven of the world’s marine turtles, a different type of turtle was famous where Karen grew up.

“I can tell you lots of stories about giant tortoises in Seychelles, giant tortoises have a lot of character!” Karen laughed.

“Growing up we had them as pets. My dad would collect injured giant tortoises—we had some really grumpy ones; they have a lot of personality.

“They’d escape and try and get into the neighbours veggie patches and you’d have to figure out how to get a 200-kilogram tortoise up or down a hill,” Karen laughed.

After ushering tortoises and scanning the health of reefscapes in the Seychelles, Karen moved back to Australia, and now works for the Reef Authority as a Project Manager in data analysis.

“My work involves translating — or making the science accessible. It’s trying to make sure the best evidence base is available to decision makers.

“I found it meaningful coming to work in the reef management space.

“Trying to apply science is becoming something I am really passionate about.

“Being in that interface and trying to figure out how do you actually make the science meaningful to ensure it properly underpins decisions made by reef managers.

“How do we turn it from just a research project to something that’s operational, on the ground — something we can actually implement?”

A lover of learning, her words of wisdom to students comes from experience.

“You don’t need to have a destination in mind, but find work that you’re interested in.”