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.

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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.

Marine Conservation Monthly Report January 2018

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.

Marine Conservation Monthly Report January 2018

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