Marija is a student of the Master’s program, Sustainable Management of Aquatic Ecosystems, at theUniversity of Zadar in Croatia. She is a rescue diver with nitrox specialization and has over 350 scientific and ecology dives. She has been an active member/volunteer in a local NGO, "Marine Explorers Society – 20,000 Leagues," since 2019. Most of her efforts so far have been dedicated to marine conservation with an emphasis on protection and rehabilitation of the endemic, slow-growing, and long-living seagrass species of the Mediterranean Sea, Posidonia oceanica.

‍