CAREERS & VOLUNTEERING

If you’re passionate about marine conservation and eager to gain hands-on experience, this internship offers a unique opportunity to work alongside a dedicated team protecting the world’s largest-known population of reef manta rays.

Although this is a quieter time for manta activity, interns will still take part in field research and in-water site exploration, including snorkelling surveys and occasional dives at key manta aggregation sites. These experiences will help you build practical skills in marine fieldwork, species identification, and contribute to our long-term monitoring efforts. This season also provides a greater focus on education and outreach, with interns assisting in the delivery of engaging sessions to local schoolchildren, resort guests, and community members, as well as supporting ongoing awareness campaigns. You’ll also be involved in office-based tasks such as data entry, photo-ID processing, and analysis — all essential to the success of our research programme.

If you’re enthusiastic, willing to learn, and excited by both scientific work and community engagement, we’d love to hear from you. This is a chance to develop your skills, support meaningful conservation work, and explore the rich marine environment of the Maldives.

Requirements:

• Applicants must have successfully completed a BSc degree in Marine Biology/ Environmental Conservation, OR have experience working in a related field; Note – for Maldivian nationals only, a BSc degree is not a requirement but experience working in the field of marine conservation is preferred.

• Minimum PADI Divemaster certification in active status (SSI/BSAC equivalent). Please give details of diving experience and number of dives logged.

• Excellent swimming/snorkelling skills. A demonstrated ability to comfortably free-dive to at least 10-15m. You will spend a lot of time snorkelling down beneath manta rays to get photos of their ID spot patterns.

• Physically fit – Mantas love to be uncooperative, and when conditions are rough/there is a current, it can be physically demanding.

• A strong interest in manta rays, conservation and marine/environmental research.

• Computer literate and comfortable working long hours at a desk.

• Fluent in spoken and written English & Dhivehi.

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills - comfortable with public speaking and giving presentations.

• Self-motivated individual with a positive, ‘can-do’ attitude with a flexible approach to a diverse workload;

• The ability to live and work as part of a team in a resort local island environment.

Roles and responsibilities include:

• Carry out research snorkels/dives and site surveys;

• Collect data on all manta sightings (ID photos, gender, injuries, pregnancies, behaviour, etc.);

• Data entry – survey results; sightings updates; research study analysis;

• Lead manta excursions for guests (snorkel and dive trips to manta feeding and cleaning sites), representing the Manta Trust as the manta ray specialist providing expert advice and sharing information about the regional manta ray population.

• Promote safe and responsible tourism interactions with manta rays;

• Active participation in education and awareness events, including the Maldives Education Programme (Moodhu Madharussa);

• Produce material for Manta Trust social media;

• Conduct weekly Mini Manta Biologist session at the resort;

• Participation and assistance in ongoing research projects at the base. These include but are not limited to the Eyes on the Reef project, Ultrasound and SVP measurements; Nursery site assessments; Zooplankton sampling;

Equipment Requirements:

• Personal Laptop with photo editing software (e.g. Lightroom);

• Dropbox Plus Subscription (minimum 1TB storage space).

• Fins (preferably long blades), Mask and Snorkel.

• A waterproof timepiece (to be worn when conducting all in-water activities).

Inclusions & Exclusions:

• Stipend of $300/month (for Maldivian nationals only).

• All food, shared accommodation and internal flight transfers will be covered.

• For those not certified with any Freediving qualification, a theory training course will be provided free of charge.

• Scientific training and experience conducting research in the field.

• Interns will be required to take out their own insurance cover, including but not limited to, travel and personal liability insurance.

If you are interested, and meet all requirements please send your CV/resume (maximum two pages), and a covering letter (maximum one page) to raa@mantatrust.org, quoting the reference above and your name in the email title e.g. ‘Internship Application #MMRP2025 Joe Bloggs’. 

This is an extremely popular and highly competitive opportunity, so really try and impress us if you want to stand out! It should also be highlighted that completion of this internship may present the opportunity to work with the Manta Trust in the future. We look forward to reading your application.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and interviews may be conducted with short-listed candidates before the application deadline. 

Due to limited capacity only successful candidates will be contacted.

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