She took up scuba diving in her second year at the University of Otago, and decided to pursue marine science alongside zoology.
"I was fascinated at everything about living systems above and below the water.
"It’s especially interesting to couple research with scuba diving as you can really immerse yourself in the environment you’re studying."
Now, the recent master of marine science graduate’s passion for the subject has won her a $NZ32,900 Australasian scholarship from the Our World Underwater Scholarship Society.
She is on her way to New York to attend the United Nations Oceans Day on June 8 and will spend the next 12 months working alongside world-leading scholars in underwater fields.
"The scholarship was a dream opportunity and an ambitious goal of mine that I worked towards during my time at university."
During her studies, Miss Mannering covered a lot of the planet - from the subantarctic Islands to the Great Barrier Reef, Japan, Mexico, Panama and more recently, she worked as a scientific diver for the Department of Conservation and an environmental consultancy on different projects, including monitoring the spread of undaria (an invasive seaweed) in Fiordland.
She said the scholarship would give her an opportunity to pursue an underwater-related career and be involved in a wide variety of underwater or aquatic-related projects.
"That could range from underwater archaeology, videography, scientific expeditions, technical dive training or different research projects.
"The scholar really gets the opportunity to tailor the experiences to their own interests."
She intended to focus on developing her diving, photography and videography skills, and to join different research projects as opportunities arose.
"I look forward to learning more about future strategies for marine conservation and research, including innovative approaches to protection and restoration.
"It’s all still in the pipeline, but I’m really interested in temperate reef ecology and things like kelp forests.
"And I have a big draw to wild remote places, managing anthropogenic impacts on them and working out how to further their protection.
"It’s a really exciting area ... I think marine science is ... developing ... as people gain more understanding of the underwater world and ... the impact we have on it."
