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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By Alex Flucke, MRCI SCUBA Instructor

“Another Beach Clean…?”

A typical day on the Marine Conservation Program here at MRCI consists of scuba diving, snorkeling, entering data we collected while scuba diving and snorkeling, and getting set up to go diving and snorkeling. One would not typically think that a marine activity could be done on land, walking with our feet, not typically wearing a swimsuit but alas, the beach clean-ups. A verb, in which one walks along a beach with, in our case old rice sacks, and picks up any piece of man made trash they can get their hands on. This activity, in my humble opinion is one of the most important, if not the most important thing we do weekly on marine.

A typical phrase I hear at board reading, when volunteers hear that we will be doing a beach clean tomorrow is, “Another one?” or “But we did one yesterday!” I then jump on to my soap box, metaphorically, and shout “Yes we are!” You may be asking yourself why is this scuba instructor so passionate about beach clean-ups? I am passionate about them because they are both important, and needed here on Nosy Komba.

Participating in local beach clean-ups is one of the most visible forms of conservation and can take only an hour or two. A beach is covered in trash when you arrive, you leave probably a little dirty and smelly yourself, but it is obvious that you made an immediate difference. There is less trash that can choke our waterways as well as the creatures that call that body of water their home. Studies also show that people who participate in just one of the beach clean-ups have increased well-being (this was proven scientifically but I won’t get into the nitty-gritty numbers of it all), feel more confident in the ecosystem they cleaned, increased marine awareness and pro-environmental intentions, and most importantly are way more likely to participate in other beach clean-ups.

So, in conclusion, sure beach clean-ups help your local flora and fauna significantly, but you get a huge boost of well being for every piece of litter you squat down to grab. You may not come to Madagascar to volunteer with MRCI to participate in beach clean-ups, but you may leave with a cool beach backpack or clothing item you found on one (please wash before you wear or use)!

Also, if you are interested in looking into the article I spoke about it is called, “Can Beach Cleans Do More Than Clean-Up Litter? Comparing Beach Clean-Ups to Other Coastal Activities.” By Kayleigh J. Wyles, Sabine PAhl, Matthew Holland, and Richard C. Thompson (2017) http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0013916516649412.

Make a difference and plan your own beach clean-ups

or Join our Marine Conservation Program today!