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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 11 AUGUST 2019
From South Trinidad to the North Pole
B Y M A R C K A N N E H
OUR PEOPLE
From growing up in rural Tortuga in Trinidad
to sampling
subsurface waters on the Swedish icebreaker
Oden
in the Arctic
Basin, Dr La Daana Kanhai has left her mark on the world of
marine science.
“My mother gave me a very important piece of advice,”
Kanhai said, “she said to me, ‘don’t do something because you
think you’ll make a lot of money or because you think you’ll
be famous. Do something that you really love, that you’re
passionate about. I think that’s the point when I decided I
wanted to be an environmental scientist.”
Kanhai’s passion for the environment began in her
childhood. “I’m a country girl,” Kanhai said, “I grew up in this
village called Tortuga, it is in the middle of the country but we
are located on the Central Range and so even though we were
in the countryside we had a lovely view of the Gulf of Paria.”
At home, Kanhai would often spend time in the garden
andmarvel at nature, igniting her passion for the natural world.
She said, “Anything you could think about used to come into
the garden. Being outdoors was just an adventure for my sister
and me.”
Her love for the natural world drove her to pick
subjects like biology, chemistry and geography in her secondary
school, Naparima Girl’s High School. At the end of secondary
school, she decided to follow her passions and pursued a double
major in chemistry and environmental and natural resource
management at The UWI.
Kanhai said, “even though you’re pursuing something
that you are passionate about, it’s a hard journey because
they’re going to be times that are tough and there are going
to be setbacks.”
She then completed her MPhil in environmental biology.
Kanhai praised some of her supervisors Dr Judith Gobin and
Dr Denise Beckles for being strong female rolemodels inspiring
her to do more and go further.
“Dr Kanhai is a very keen researcher and a highly
motivated young woman who has already begun to make
scientific strides for Trinidad and Tobago,” says Dr Gobin,
who is also Head of the Department of Life Sciences. “I have
no doubt that she will continue to be successful in her research
and will herself be an inspiration to many of our young UWI
and TT researchers.”
During this time she gained great experience in publishing
her work and presenting at conferences. “UWI does offer
you that solid foundation as a research student to have these
opportunities. So that is what prepared me very well for when
I went on to do my PhD,” Kanhai said.
Marc Kanneh is a final year strategic communications student from the Florida Institute of Technology interning at the Marketing and Communications Office at UWI St Augustine.
His interests include running and cooking.
Kanhai’s first expedition was the Floating Summer School,
North-South Atlantic Transect Training on a German ice
breaker for five weeks in 2015.
The vessel travelled from Germany to South Africa. The
expedition selected 32 students from all over the world from
hundreds of applications. On the voyage, the students were
taught about biological oceanography and how to use the tools
and systems on the ship for their research. Specifically, Kanhai
was sent by her supervisors to conduct a portion of her research
collecting samples of subsurface water to study.
Kanhai applied her experience in a second expedition on
the Oden to the Arctic Basin.
She applied to the six-week expedition after finding out
that there was a lack of research with regards to plastic in polar
regions. This expedition came with new challenges such as
having to take samples through the ice.
On August 21, 2016, Kanhai and the rest of the expedition
team reached the North Pole aboard the Oden.
She completed her PhD in 2018 in marine ecosystem
health and conservation. Her dissertation was titled,
“Microplastic abundance, distribution and composition in the
Atlantic and Arctic oceans.”
Microplastics are plastics that are less than 5mm in
diameter. Kanhai said, “every environmental compartment
that we’ve sampled in, be it surface waters, subsurface waters,
sediments, sea ice, we’ve found these particles.” She added
that already, experiments have shown that microplastics are a
threat to marine life.
Kanhai said that stopping plastic pollution has to be done
using a multi-pronged approach involving the government,
businesses and everyday citizens. She acknowledged that
locally, businesses like Massy Stores and PriceSmart have
adopted policies that reduce the number of single use plastics
generated by their operations.
Kanhai called on young people to make a difference and
be knowledgeable about what is going on in the world around
them, “Trinidad and Tobago needs change-makers, people that
are not self-absorbed. We are facing somany issues in Trinidad
and Tobago. How are you going to make a difference if you
don’t know what the issues are?”
Kanhai, an instructor in the Department of Life Sciences in
the Faculty of Science and Technology, stressed how important
it is for researchers and professionals to realise that they are in
a position to influence young people. Kanhai thinks that young
girls should be informed and knowledgeable about the work
that women are doing in STEM fields and in turn be inspired
to do their own work.
When asked what she was going to do next, Kanhai
said, “For me, it is always about dealing with issues that I’m
passionate about. I came back to Trinidad and I knew that I
came back here for a purpose and to utilise the skills that I have
learnt along the way to address local issues. It’s not only about
fulfilling my dream but enabling the dreams of others as well.
That’s why teaching is important.”
To share her work and experiences,
Kanhai launched
her website
and also posts on
Twitter and Instagram under the handle
@ladaanakanhail
Dr La Daana Kanhai
Participants of the Arctic Ocean 2016 expedition at the North Pole.
PHOTO: LARS LEHNERT
