Welcome to My Office

My Walk to Work

I have been on site for a few weeks now and am getting settled into life with Blue Ventures Expeditions. Here is a virtual tour of my new office (and home!).

The expedition camp is based within a hotel in Andavadoaka called Coco Beach. The hotel is set upon a sort of headland to the south of the village. To get there you walk along the beach or across the football pitch. It isn’t a hotel in the traditional sense of the word but instead rooms (for volunteers, BV staff and paying guests) are actually individual bungalows or huts.

The camp is split nicely into two areas which are separated by sand dunes – although everything has a sea view! The first area contains reception, our dining area and the bar and restaurant. Next to this are some of the guest bungalows and the BV staff huts. Currently my hut is the green one – but more about that another day.

Welcome to Coco Beach

Across the dunes and around the corner is my “office”. Here you can find Nosy Cao aka the classroom and Bat Cave aka the dive shed. This area is also where the volunteer huts are (which they share with about 4 people in each) so there is no excuse for them to be late!

I predict I will be spending a lot of time in Nosy Cao in the next year. It’s here that all the presentations and “dry” teaching happens. This includes lessons for SCUBA courses, information on the work BV does and, my area, marine science training. It’s a well-stocked room with a projector and screen, computers for the volunteers to use (when the electricity is on) and lots of other books and resources. This classroom also comes with a pretty inspiring view.

Nosy Cao - our classroom

The Bat Cave is where to go for all things SCUBA. It houses the equipment lockers where we keep all out kit safely tucked away as well as Bic (the dive manager’s) workshop and various other bits and pieces required for underwater living. Next door is a kitting up area as well as a place to rinse out the kit after diving and hang it up to dry.

Bat Cave - the diving zone

The headland its self has a statue of Mary atop it and is a great place to get a good view of the beaches, rock and sea around site. And there are usually some friendly local boys that love having their photo taken hanging around here too. There’s also a bench which I think I will spend time chilling out on whenever I get the chance. It’s dedicated to some field scientists that passed away while on expedition so is a really nice place to stop for a minute and think.

Views of the village, dive boats and the volunteer huts from Mary

But right now I am in working away in Nosy Cao and think it’s time to get one with learning some more coral names!

National Parks

During our overland tour we visited two National Parks. Madagascar has lots of these parks and reserves and they provided us with a chance to see some of Madagascar’s amazing wildlife and spectacular scenery.

The first we visited is called Réserve d’Anja and is small (only 37 ha). Here we got our first sight of a lemur. This park only has one species of lemur, the ring tail, but it is the one most people will imagine. They are black, white and grey with a stripy tail (hence the name). The guide explained that the lemurs have a strict daily routine which involved waking up and emerging from the caves where they sleep to sunbathe on the rocks before going down to the forest to eat fruits, leaves and flowers. They then have an afternoon siesta, eat some more and then return to the caves at night. Lemurs are predated on by hawks and snakes and so sleeping in the caves keeps them safe. These lemurs live in family groups and the women are in charge – so King Julien from the film isn’t quite right. We got some good photos of the lemurs and they really weren’t bothered by our presence in their forest.

It was here that we also got to first see something that I was excited about – chameleons. We had literally taken about 10 steps when the guide pointed out a small one sat in a tree. It has changed its colouration so it was the same grey as the branches and so was well camouflaged.

The second park we visited is called Parc National de l’Isalo and is probably the most popular park to visit. It’s also is much bigger and older than the first. We stayed in a hotel in the park and spent the whole day hiking in the area. The landscape is sandstone and so where the river runs is a massive gorge. In the morning we walked across the plain and through the forest to our picnic spot. Here there were lots of very tame lemurs. We saw ringtails again but also brown lemurs. These lemurs were used to humans and would try and steal our food. We also saw a Verreaux’s Sifaka lemur that was a little shyer. However, when we were eating lunch we watched it hop across the ground on its two hind legs.

After lunch we hiked further along the bottom of the gorge, where the greenery was lusher. It felt a little bit like a film set and I was expecting a dinosaur to jump out at me at any moment. It is dry season at the moment so the river was very low. Despite this there were several waterfalls and beautifully clear pools on the way. At the largest one we stopped for a swim. It was nice and refreshing but REALLY cold. I tested out my camera on the big tadpoles that were sat underwater on the rocks. After our long hike we were all worn out on our return to the hotel!

Tribes & Traditions

As we have travelled the hundreds of kilometers south and across the country it has struck me that it is not only the landscape that has changed (from city through mountains, farmland, plains, forests to desert) but also the people.

Madagascar has about 18 distinct tribes of people each with many differences. Our local driver Dave has taught much about this as well as the guides we have met in the national parks that we have visited.

It is very obvious the way that the Malagasy people look is influenced by a range of different settlers from different parts of the world. In the east and north the origin of the first arrivals from Indonesia Malaysia is apparent. However, in the south and west it is more of an African heritage which is prominent.

Although French is the official language and the one of choice for tourists (due to French colonisation), each tribe also has its own local dialect and there is also a united Malagasy language. Dave informed us that most words learnt while in Andavadoaka would not be useful in the slightest in any other region of Madagascar.

While in the national parks we found out about some of the interesting traditions that the local tribes partake in. One such is the way that the bodies of the deceased are buried not once but twice. First they are placed in a traditional coffin and taken into the mountains to a cave which serves as a family grave. However, this isn’t the end. In a few years’ time the family returns to collect the remaining bones and they are taken back to the village. Here they are the centre of several days of celebration, music, dancing, drinking and eating. After this the bones are wrapped in silk and returned to a second, final grave which consists of a hole in the cliffs, which is again closed up by many rocks. This is in contrast to other tribes that construct a more traditional mausoleum type building to bury their dead.

For the Bara tribe another important part of life is Zebu. Zebu are a type of Ox which can be seen across the county pulling carts and as a staple on every restaurant menu. This is because the area in which they live has large grass plains that although are now yellow, in the rainy summer will turn to a lush green. We were told that this makes for the best meat and having tried it myself I have to agree. One tradition is that when a Bara boy comes of age he must steal some Zebu for himself from another family. Apparently this stealing is totally normal and not a crime as such as it is an expected tradition. Of course the more Zebu you steal the more respect you have from you family and the community and therefore the more girls will want to marry you! I’m not sure if this tradition still happens today but even if it doesn’t it’s a great story.

http://www.fotothing.com/marky33/photo/aab1516cf9763529a9bc27b5586d2f0f/

The tribe that is present at the Blue Ventures Site in Andavadoaka are the Vezo. They are traditionally fishing folk and I am looking forward to finding out more about their traditions and learning some of the language.

Despite all these differences something that brings the whole country together is Independence Day. This happened on 26^th June so we were lucky enough to see some of the celebrations.  On the evening before we were still driving though the countryside after it got dark. It meant that we could see the many, many bonfires that had been lit in the local villages. It seemed like everyone was out and about and playing with fire and lots of the children had lanterns or flashing toys. When we stopped for a break you could hear cheering from all over the place. When we got to the hotel there was a party in full swing and the music was pumping. We also saw a firework display. It was nice to see a big community celebration where everyone had come out to have a good time – although I think there would have been some sore heads in the morning.

Overland Tour

There a two options to get from the capital city of Antananarivo to the Blue Ventures site in Andavadoaka. They both involve travelling across the county to get to the nearest town, Toliara, but here are where the similarities end. The quickest (but not necessarily easiest) way is to hop on another plane and fly direct. However, as only a few days in the country has shown, Air Madagascar is not always the most reliable mode of transport where cancellations, delays, weather or strikes all mean that take-off is not guaranteed.

Instead I chose to take up the option of an overland tour to get to my final destination. This tour not only avoids the need to get on another plane but also has allowed me to see some of the other parts of Madagascar and get to know the county a little better.

Myself and six volunteers loaded ourselves into Dave the driver, guide and all around nice guy’s “Mazdave” mini bus and set off on our 4 day adventures at 5am on Thursday morning. The journey has involved riding along the R7, one of Madagascar’s main routes. However, this is not a three lane motorway or even a nice A road. Instead it is often bumpy, has huge pot holes and is only just wide enough to allow two lorries to pass each other. We have also many stops at police check points and witnessed some very interesting overtaking manoeuvres. Having spent the whole of Thursday in the minibus and most of Friday too (with a few hours off to visit one of Madagascar’s many national park) we were all happy to hear that the whole of Saturday would be spent using our legs to transport us rather than wheels in another national park. Similarly Monday was a “no bus day” with time to explore Toliara and stock up on essentials before the last day of travelling to Andavadoaka.

However, the spectacular scenery, plenty of stops for food, toilet and photo opportunities as well as quite a lot of napping has kept us happy and I am glad I made the decision to spend a few extra days travelling. Saying this I am also excited to get to my new home, unpack and start the hard but interesting work of a Blue Ventures Field Scientist.

Getting Up to Speed

24/06/15

It has been a while since I last posted on this blog (several years in fact!) so a quick note to get everything up to speed before I briefly explain know why on earth I am resurrecting it for the fourth time.

I did return from St Lucia with some actual data in my notebook and used this to finish my MSc thesis paper. I found that the return of the Diadema urchin probably did have a reductive effect on the large algae on the reef as expected (because the urchins graze on the algae). I also found that coral disease isn’t more prevalent in areas with higher algal cover, but in fact that disease occurs more when there is a higher density of coral in the area. Finally my algae samples were tested in the lab and didn’t show any sign of coral disease pathogens being present on them. So I concluded that algae probably wasn’t a carrier of coral disease.

I wrote all this up, gave a viva presentation on it and graduated from Newcastle with a distinction level MSc in Tropical Coastal Management. But that was four years ago. What have I been up to since?

After a stint of job searching (and selling watches) I started working at the North Western Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (NWIFCA for short) as a Science Officer and that’s where I’ve been for the last three years.  My small team was tasked with providing science information to a committee so that they could make decisions to ensure that fishing activity in the region was sustainable. This included all types work including carrying out written assessments to ensure that fishing was not having a damaging effect on important habitats and responding to consultations on other projects in the sea. We also did get to go out and about occasionally to carrying out stock surveys of species like cockles and mussels (which involved riding around the beach on a quad bike).

But now for the reason I’m here again writing on this blog – I’m going back to the land of corals! I am just about to start work for an organisation called Blue Ventures. They are a marine conservation organisation that started in Madagascar (but now also works in other places across the globe). This is why I am sat here in a hotel in the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo, typing this now. I hope that this blog will provide some insight into the work that Blue Ventures does and also what I am getting up to. Here’s to a new adventure!