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Tag: Marine Conservation Program

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BlogMarine Conservation

Volunteering in Madagascar during a Pandemic

Author: Ava Graham
Date: April 2021

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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.

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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!

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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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BlogMarine Conservation

Marine Conservation Volunteer Q&A

Author: Alex Oelofse, Social Media Intern & Photographer

Arthur decided to share some of his thoughts and experiences from his time at MRCI’s Turtle Cove Camp where he partook in the Marine Conservation Program.

Volunteer Marine Conservation Program Q&A

So Arthur where are you from?

Hampshire, England.

 

How did you come across MRCI?

I decided to embark on something new and thought volunteering would be a great opportunity to do something like that. So I searched through many volunteering places online and came across MRCI, which was the most appealing option for me as it had the marine aspect as well as the diving.

 

What was your best moment?

Oh, most definitely becoming survey ready, and my weekend trip to Nosy Iranja.

 

So, what exactly does it entail to become survey ready?

Ah, let me explain. So, there are three avenues if you can call it that; Sessile, Benthic and Active Swimmers. Sessile is made up of corals, sponges, algae, essentially living organisms that don’t move. Benthic is made up of crustaceans and bottom feeders. Lastly active swimmers include all fish. So those are the three options one has to choose from and I chose Sessile.

To become survey ready entails a process of acquiring your advanced diving qualification in order to maintain perfect buoyancy during a survey to avoid damage to the marine life that we are trying to protect. I personally did 5 point out dives to become practice survey ready, which was followed by two practice survey dives.  All the data we capture is then shared with our partners CNRO (Centre National de Recherches Océanographiques) and CORDIO (Coastal Oceans Research and Development in the Indian Ocean).

We have three sites at which we conduct these surveys including Turtle Towers, Dragons Den and Galaxea. Turtle Towers is a MPA (Marine Protected Area), which was established in 2016 with all the presidents of Nosy Komba agreeing to it being a no take zone. The data from the surveys are then compared to see how the un protected reefs are doing as opposed to the protected reefs.

 

Is there anything you would’ve done that you haven’t yet?

I can’t actually think of anything I have enjoyed every minute and the marine program is so well structure I was very satisfied with that.

 

What are your plans after this?

I will be going straight back to England where I will get a part time job as a waiter/bartender at the restaurant where I used to work. After that I will start University in September.

 

What are the biggest lessons that you have learnt during your time here?

Patience, most definitely patience. Never judge a book by it’s cover, in particular people. At the same time the journey might not be so great, but the destination might be incredibly worth it.

Be versatile. I would also say I have grown a lot as a person, especially my confidence I have also become more down to earth … I feel alive! I found a bit more purpose in life, not simply my old boring routines back home, best way in which I could describe this is living life in 4K resolution. Lastly I would highly recommend this to anybody!


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BlogMarine Conservation

Beach Clean-Ups on Nosy Komba

By Alex Flucke, MRCI SCUBA Instructor

Beach Clean-Ups Nosy Komba

“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.

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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!

Beach Clean-Ups Nosy Komba