Author: Ava Graham
Date: April 2021

I arrived at MRCI’s hidden camp found on the beautiful shores of Nosy Komba, also known as Lemur Island. I was feeling excited and eager to learn and explore yet nervous to call this remote camp home for the upcoming 7 weeks. I soon realised that there was nothing to be frightened about. Everybody I met, from other volunteers to staff and locals, were kind and welcoming as well as great fun.

What surprised me most about volunteering was the endless possibilities to learn. In my first week, I found myself being familiarised with 184 species of fish, being lectured on marine conservation whilst also being taught both Malagasy and French. What may have seemed like a quiet camp, was in fact a community of like-minded ocean enthusiasts who were always willing to do and learn more.

Since childhood, the ocean and everything that it holds has always interested me. Next year, I will study marine biology at university but I was eager to travel and gain new real-life experiences in the marine world first. I began volunteering on the coast of Kenya by helping to conserve the turtle populations through community education on the hazards of overfishing, protecting turtle nest sites and rehabilitating injured turtles.

This volunteering experience highlighted the importance of both education and habitat protection. I wanted to continue my conservation efforts by protecting our seas. The MRCI Marine Conservation Volunteering Programme gave me the opportunity to learn and teach in what seems like another world, Madagascar!

Marine Conservation Volunteering Program: My Learning Journey

When volunteering in the marine conservation program, you can pick which group of marine life you want to learn and survey. The choice is between benthic (sea floor), sessile (coral reefs) and active swimmers (fish). I chose active swimmers! From the onset, it was my priority to learn and identify 184 species of fish found within MRCI’s dive site, Turtle Towers.

Every weekday, I was given the opportunity to dive and identify new active swimmers through point-out tests under the water. Back at camp, I had guided study lessons to help me memorise the (what seemed never-ending) species list. During the week, I also partook in regular beach cleans which, despite the long hot walk, always felt rewarding after coming back with 2 or 3 sacks full of litter. We would later recycle all of the pollution into our own ‘eco-bricks’.

Picking up old plastic bottles, toothbrushes, flipflops and broken sunglasses opens your eyes to scale of waste we produce in our modern world. So much of what we use in our daily lives will eventually end up in our seas. My direct experience of collecting our universal waste has inspired me to actively take part in helping to stop plastic pollution. Through education and new policies to ban and limit plastic waste as well as investing in new plastic alternatives, we can change our flawed waste disposal system and help keep our ocean clean and healthy!

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Author: Roxanne Parker

Welcome to Hell-Ville!

Welcome to Hell-Ville a crazy, chaotic cacophony of noise, colliding colours & cultures that is the capital of Nosy Be. The rainy season means the streets are a muddy maze as yellow Tuks-Tuks whizz by beeping at Vazaha’s (whites) offering them a lift & momentary reprise from the mud splattered roads.

Police whistles stretch as the traffic mounts outside Hell-Ville banana toned market where you can buy local spices, fruit, vegetables, pulses, live chickens & zebu meat from woman with faces masked with Maisonjoany, a vivid yellow face mask made from sandalwood that they paint in their face to protect their skin from the sun. As the 10th poorest country in the world Madagascar is where you see life stripped down to the basic bones.

Everything is reused & recycled, plastic bottles are reused for water, to sell bottled pickles & fermented cabbage at market & second-hand clothes are a valuable commodity with roads full of stalls selling old shirts for as little as €1.50. children pound cassava meal in groups using enormous pestle & mortars taking turns to grind the meal when their limbs tired.

Everyone seems to have a life chicken or duck under their arm as they move through the city preparing themselves for New years – the biggest holiday on the island. Personal space is non-existent as bodies push and press past one another in the crowded market space. On the boat, back to Nosy Komba you wade through the waters of Hell-Ville before sitting thigh to shoulder squeeze between villagers, like chickens and the occasional life goat!

There is every aspect of life unfolding before you, in its insane madness & bustle I find myself loving Madagascar & loving the energy that is Africa. The children are beautiful and although I’m stared at where ever I go a smile & my school French opens many doors & conversations.

 

Being A Forest Conservationist

Being on the forest conservation project on Nosy Komba means we act like a courier service as there are no roads or cars and we are hiking through the villages every day. This is a local farmer who I brought glasses to that were donated by a volunteer who had left the island. They worked perfectly for him and he could see clearly for the 1st time in months.

 

On Our Day Off

On our Day off for St Stephen’s day & the 27th we escaped to Nosy Iranja sailing past whales, visiting lemur Island, living with zero electricity, sleeping in straw huts, drawing water from a well and bringing it across a village to use, walking across miles of sand split to the next island and basically being happy & living off the grid with Shandi Di Virgilio, Sarah Sirois, Hannah McCarthy and Felicia Feeley.

Hiked Sunsets on Nosy Komba Island

Sunset on Nosy Komba. Having hiked all day we watch the sunset at the summit and with head torches hiked back through the jungle in the dark to a local hut in the middle of the rainforest where a local family cooked us dinner on long tables outside consisting of cassava leaves chopped & boiled that tasted like spinach, papaya salad which is savoury & dressed in vinegar. Chicken legs cooked in bone broth & jack fruit & pineapple which grow in abundance on the island for desert.

We hiked through the night spotting & documenting Chameleons, Geckos, frogs snakes & spiders before sleeping overnight on a Church floor in the middle of the forest with the skies heavy with stars at 5 am we hiked back to the summit for sunrise then headed back to base camp for breakfast & then back to the forest to hike to monitor bird species. I’ve passed my first exam & know all 43-bird species here – week one done & dusted.

 

Check out our Forest Conservation Program

 

 

Author: Ethan Getz, Marine Science Manager
January 2018

Over the past few months, the marine conservation staff have worked to continue long-term reef monitoring projects while developing new methods to measure the health of our home reef and the surrounding reefs on Nosy Komba. Robust datasets have been collected from reef transect surveys, turtle watch, and nudibranch surveys. These long-term surveys will provide valuable information on the health of our MPA and some of the indicator species that inhabit it. In the coming months, efforts will be made to analyze these data in depth to decipher developing trends. While long-term data collection from existing surveys remains the primary goal, staff have also recently developed new reef survey methods.

Baseline surveys using the Spirit of Malala were developed in November to assess the health of reefs all around Nosy Komba. To date, three baseline surveys have been conducted (at xmas tree hotel, greenhouse and pyramids) and data have now been analyzed. Results suggest that the south and west sides of Nosy Komba have healthy coral reefs while reefs are more sparse on the eastern side. Results from the sessile surveys indicate that no coral bleaching is currently happening and that the reef appears to be in a period of recovery. The presence of rock, sand and silt indicate that there have been damaging events in the past, but currently the reefs are rebuilding.

Active swimmer surveys were used to determine the number of fish species at each site and which functional group they belong to (i.e. piscivores, herbivores, ect.). Results suggest that there is a good distribution of fish from each functional group on each reef, but the relatively low abundance of piscivores indicates that overfishing may be a problem on Nosy Komba.

These species are generally the first ones to be fished out and their relatively low numbers point to fishing pressure in the area. Benthic surveys also provided data on invertebrate diversity around Nosy Komba and suggest that there is a healthy reef community.

In addition to baseline surveys, artificial reef surveys on the pyramids at Stonehenge and Madhatter have produced meaningful data. On average, each pyramid provides habitat for 115 fish, 39 bivalves and a variety of sessile species. In addition, many species of fish such as the Malabar snapper and red emperor snapper are routinely found on the artificial structures, but only occasionally on the natural reef. The high abundance of juvenile fish on the pyramids is also an encouraging sign that the structures are acting as a nursery for fish larvae settling out of the water column. Overall, the pyramids seem to be increasing both abundance and diversity of many reef species making them well worth the investment to construct them.

Other ongoing projects include the coral bleaching surveys, invasive species surveys and turtle monitoring. Since coral bleaching and invasive species surveys have only just started, preliminary results will be analyzed in the coming months. Results from active turtle surveys, turtle walks and turtle watch are still being analyzed, but preliminary results suggest that there is a healthy population of resident turtles on our reef. Turtle walks have been less productive with only one hatched nest having been found, but it is clear that at least some turtles nest on Nosy Komba. In summary, the reefs around Nosy Komba appear to be showing the signs of human activities, but overall it is still a healthy reef system with strong community structure.

 

Find out more about our Marine Conservation Program Here

 

The mission for the Madagascar Research and Conservation Institute is to:

• Provide a safe platform whereby volunteers of all diversities and backgrounds can come together in order to make a positive impact on local communities and on the environment while gain perspective on their personal growth and development.
• Actively assist and contribute in sustainable research and conservation projects
• Engage and assist local communities to improve their health and educational circumstances.
• Assist local NGO’s and other conservation-based organisations to achieve their goals.

Every two weeks, our forest conservation volunteers make the relatively long walk to the top of Nosy Komba to spend a night in a church. The main objective is to do a solid night survey in the forest surrounding the area. However, a lot more gets accomplished.

Around this little Catholic Church is the micro village Antanamonpere (village of my father). There are only about 12 people who live in the few houses surrounding the church and their purpose is simple – to care for and maintain the church and the surrounding property that belongs to the priest.

This church has an interesting history that dates back to the mid-late 1800s. In fact, they were the first to bring the Ylang Ylang flower to Madagascar on Nosy Komba. Now this flower is widely used to make essential oils, a main export of the area. The priest resides in a lower village, Ampangorina, which is the biggest village on Nosy Komba. At roughly 80 years old, he still makes his way to his church weekly as the weather permits.

The foresters’ bi-weekly expedition provides a steady income to the church village. The Madagascar Research and Conservation Institute pays the locals to kindly provide dinner for the volunteers and for the use of the church in which they sleep. The village takes great pride in this task, providing a beautiful spread of local foods including coconut rice and papaya salad. It’s a real treat for those looking for an authentic experience.

It is important to our conservation efforts that all projects have good community relations and this is one way our volunteers accomplish just that. Interacting with the local community and sharing our conservation ideas and practices is the best way for us to ensure long term success. This church walk is one of many our projects where everyone is a winner.

If you would like to join our forest conservation program and make a difference to communities in Madagascar, contact us today or complete our online application form.