If she didn’t have to come up for air, I think she would stay down there. That’s why Cristina Zenato’s life above the water involves doing everything she can to protect the ocean she loves so much.

Cristina runs the dive operations at UNEXSO in Freeport, Bahamas and has devoted her life to protect our oceans through education and conservation. I spent a whole week with Cristina to learn about the amazing work she is doing to help out the people of The Bahamas and our oceans.

Cristina introduced me to shark feeding on scuba and I can assure you that hand feeding sharks underwater is much harder than it looks. I walk backwards in slow motion heavily weighted by the chain mail suit pulling me to the ocean floor. I’m completely surrounded by sharks but it’s important that I choose one shark, approach confidently and get the timing right. My hand is stretched out in the handshake position as I reach out to towards the shark. It senses the fish and makes a gentle flick with it’s body which accelerates rapidly and takes the bait from my hand and a big smile comes across my face. But the input from the sharks is constant and your attention span is constantly going the entire time. I need to remind myself to breathe because I am just so overwhelmed with the whole experience, wow.

Throughout the week I put together this 3 part video to share with people what it’s like to dive with Cristina, how she feels when she’s down there and share the great work she’s doing to raise awareness and promote the conservation of our oceans.

Applications for the 2014 OWUSS Rolex Scholarship close at the end of the year. How you want to contribute to the underwater world?