Q: Why did you choose marine biology as your field of study?
When I was in the eighth grade of elementary school, my father took me to a diving course and I liked it. I wanted to work at something that involved diving, and I was always interested in Biology.

Q: How old were you when you decided to become a marine biologist?
I was fourteen years old.

Q: How many years of education did you have to have in order to become a marine biologist?
After elementary school, twelve. Four years of highschool, four years of university, and four years of doctorate studies. All together, twenty years of school! Just the other day I counted how many years I went to school and it sounds astonishing doesn't it?

Q: For how many years have you been a biologist?
A biologist, fifteen.

Q: Which skills did you have to develop?
You have to enjoy going out into the field and sleeping in sleeping bags be it on the beach, or on a cliff. You must know how to dive, and also how to drive a car. You must know at least one foreign language.

Q: You obviously need equipment for diving. Who finances the equipment? Do you have to have your own equipment?
Well, when you first start, you ask your grandparents, mother, father, and you borrow a lot of it, or you join a diving club so that you can borrow it there. Then when you start working, then you can start to afford to buy some equipment yourself. However, if your job is diving, then your company will buy the equipment for you, and pay you for diving. Not bad, eh?

Q: Do you dive in the winter?
Da, obavezno. Ustvari, nikad ne ronimo po ljeti jer, kad je vruće i gužva, onda i mi idemo na godišnji. Po zimi je najljepše. Imate posebna, 'suha', odijela koja možete obući preko traperica i, kad izronite, skinete odijelo i suhi ste, i onda vam nije zima.
Yes, of course. In fact, we never dive in the summer, because when it is hot, there are crowds of people,   so then we go on holiday. It is the nicest in the winter. You put on a special ''dry suit'' and then it isn't cold in the water.

Q: Have you ever had a scarry encounter with any marine organizams?
Once I was terrified when we met a dolphin in water about twenty meters deep because at first I thought that it was a shark. It was really big, about two meters long. He passed really close to me and my colleges. My heart was beating hard the whole time we were diving. But that was the only time.

Q: What would you be if you weren't a marine biologist?
I have no idea. What would I be? I can't imagine doing something other than what I do now.

Q: Which event from work will you never forget?
Well, lets say exploring the island Jabuka. We were anchored in a bay for five days. Five days and five nights, next to the island Jabuka. The sea was so calm, that when I dove so that my mask was half in the water and half out of it, all you could see was a thin straight unwavering line.

Q: Have you ever dove outside of the Croatian boarders?
Yes, I have.

Q: Have you ever gotten injured during diving?
No, I haven't. Thank the Lord, I haven't.

Q: Are ther any students from Europe, from countries which have no seas?
Yes, there are. We work in co-operation with biologists and scientists from different parts of the world and I often attend conferences where we meet. Receintly we have had students from Poland, Scotland and England. Foreign student often come to study.

Q: How do they fill the tanks with air? Are the tanks heavy?
There are special compressors which fill the tanks with air using high pressure. This is why the tanks are very heavy, thick and solid because they must hold very high pressure. If we look at a car tyre for example, maybe the boys already know this, the tyre pressur is two atmospheres (or 35 pounds per square inch=35 psi). In a diving tank there is one hundred and eighty atmospheres (or 3150 psi). So, if the tank is old, or you are not carefull and don't service it regularily, it can explode like a bomb. And yes, it is very heavy, about fifteen kilos, but under the sea it isn't heavy. In the sea, everything is very light. When you carry a tank to the sea, it's always nice when someone strong offers to help.

Ivona Andrašek and Tena Gogić, 7th C