I left Napantao very early on Wednesday morning and headed to Maasin. Here I met the crew of the South Sea Nomads. Rich was a former SO at CCC and, along with Katie, Kitt and boat captain Arial, had built a boat which they were sailing to Malaysia in order to set up a dive operation. They had arrived at CCC and few weeks earlier for a Saturday night and we had also bumped into them whilst in Maasin. Luckily for me they were due to start their epic voyage on the day I was leaving CCC and offered to take me along! The boat was moored on a small island close to Maasin which was a bit of a holiday resort – but mid week it was really quiet. The paperwork they require took some time coming through so we stayed there for my first night. We had a BBQ on the beach with some really yummy fish and veggies.
The next day we set off (a little later than planned) for Cebu. It was really cool to see the crew (inc. puppies Jack and Lettie) get so excited to be starting something they had been planning and working on for so long. The crossing was good and I fell asleep at the front of the boat (and got quite sunburnt too!). We arrive into Cebu just as it was getting dark which made the city look really pretty but made docking just a little more stressful. But all was well in the end and we set off into town for a TGI Friday and a few drinks.
The next day was pretty stressful one for me. I had lots of things to sort out and buy before setting of travelling proper and spent most of the day in the two big shopping malls of Cebu. In the evening though I went to the cinema which was great. It was a big cinema but the tickets were about £2.50! They played the national anthem before the film (like they do before just about anything) and the power went down for a few minutes in the middle of the film.
On Saturday morning I said goodbye to the crew, thanked them for their kindness and wished them luck for the rest of the journey. I set off to SM mall to meet Nick, from the Thresher Shark Project, who would be my travelling buddy for the next couple of weeks.
Thursday, 15 July 2010
Last Adventures at CCC
Lots of exciting things happened in my last few weeks at CCC. Tim and Petchy, the new SOs, did really well in learning the ropes and with my last SDP finished I was able to get in the water and diving on surveys a lot more. However, we all took a break from diving to spend a few nights in the provincial capital of Southern Leyte, Maasin. It was the 50th anniversary of the region and we had been invited to take part in the celebrations. The first evening we went down to the Capitol – a big grassy area in front of the government buildings. There they were holding the Miss Southern Leyte beauty pageant on the massive stage. All around were food and other stalls; it was just like a festival. The next morning was the main event and we gathered on the main street for the big parade. Everyone seemed to be taking part from school children to government officials at all levels. Every so often there was a marching band and majorettes to keep the pace. We were near the end of the parade and all walked with our matching t-shirts behind our banner. It was really fun, despite the light drizzle, and everyone watching liked to wave and cheer. I felt really proud and honoured to be invited to take part in such an important occasion. When the parade finished, back at the Capitol, there was a short ceremony and Rach, Holly and I were invited to sit on the stage during it. I got to meet the governor of Southern Leyte but it was a little embarrassing as we were all wearing shorts and t-shirts and looking a bit bedraggled while everyone else were in the poshest outfits! Afterward we were free to enjoy all of the things that had been put on such as stalls with crafts from each of the regions in S. Leyte. And of course there was also time to fit in some shopping in the ‘big city’ for things we don’t get at Napantao. That evening we had our own celebrations as it was Holly and Rach’s birthdays while we were away. The next morning all the girls went to a beauty salon for birthday treatments.
On Saturday we had yet more celebrations for the birthdays (inc. Emily’s too) and my last Saturday night. We all went into Liloan to a bar for BBQ and karaoke which was lots of fun.
On Wednesday it was time for me to say goodbye to CCC and hit the road for a few weeks of travel. Tuesday was a really emotional day as I had a lot of things to sort out and really didn’t want to leave. On Tuesday evening we had the traditional goodbye after dinner. Everyone especially Rach and Holly were really nice and I even got presents! I had to say a few words and said how inspirational the people I’d met and the things I’d seen were.
Sunday, 20 June 2010
UPDATE:
EXCITING NEWS - I am now a qualified PADI Dive Master! (All bar some pesky paperwork...) Me, Rach, Holly & Fabrice all completed the course yesterday and are really chuffed to have got this far. We had a bit of a celebration on the beach last night with a hog roast. I ate A LOT of cake too!
So I'll see you all underwater soon!!
xx
So I'll see you all underwater soon!!
xx
Under the Sea
So I hope that you’ve been keeping up to date with everything that I’m up to by looking at my Fickr photo stream (see the link above). A picture says a thousand words after all. But I thought I was well overdue for a bit of a blog update.
Lots and lots have been going on since I last wrote. One big thing is that Claire, my fellow Science Officer left to go back home about a month ago. This left me to do all of the Science Officer stuff all by myself. It was quite daunting at first especially since Claire was so amazing and I was still learning new stuff from her on her last day. It was a pretty hectic few weeks as I ran the Science Development Program as well as going out on the boat for surveys. But I survived and don’t think I did too badly particularly with help from Rach our Project Scientist. Now we have three Science Officers because Tim and Chris arrived to take over last week. I have just started my last SDP and although it’s great to be showing the boys the ropes it’s also really sad to have to let things go.
I’ve also been busy doing my Dive Master training. PADI Diver Master is the next SCUBA qualification up after the Rescue Diver course which I completed a couple of months ago. It’s a professional qualification which means I can use it to work doing things like guiding divers and helping instructors doing courses. The training programme involves all sorts of things like theory exams, practical tasks (e.g. a rescue scenario & mapping an area), swimming tests and then an internship. I have been helping Instructor Emily (and now also Mark) with things like checkout dives and the dive training vols do. It’s been really good to hone all of my skills. I can even swim along with no mask without any worries!
I have also been doing lots of cool diving too. I arrived with 26 logged dives and hit 100 two weeks ago. It’s tradition to go a bit silly for that and so I went out in just my bikini and got graffitied all over me. Turned out it was mostly permanent marker so it took a while to come off! The water here is now really warm. It’s usually about 29degC which means that even a wimp like me doesn’t need to wear a wet suit. Instead I just wear board shorts and a thin rash vest.
Jollies on Saturdays have been really nice the last couple of weeks. In the morning we often dive the south wall at the edge of site. It’s an amazing place and lonely planet actually named it one of the top dive sites in the Philippines! Week before last I saw a really big turtle. In fact lots have been seen around and they’ve even been nesting on a near by beach. The best spot for me last week was a clown trigger fish which was something I’d been waiting to see for ages. Another really exciting thing in the water is our resident family of black tip reef sharks. These like to hang around in the shallows just outside base. Because they’re really quite small (the biggest is only about 1m long) they get really shallow in about .5m of water and so are perfect to spot when snorkelling. There seems to have been an increase in numbers recently and some people have see 10 at once!
Last month I also went on holiday for a long weekend. I went over to Padre Burgos to a dive resort there. It was nice to live in a bit of luxury for a couple of days – hot running water, flushing toilets and some different food! I did some amazing dives whilst I was there too and saw some really cool, rare stuff. I went on a night dive around the pier which was a new experience. It was really quite spooky but I saw a mandarin fish and a crab jumped on my head! I also dived on their house reef and saw a pygmy seahorse. My favourite thing I saw though was some white ornate ghost pipe fish. Although I had seen a dark one on the house reef the week before.
A couple of weeks ago we also did a Crown of Thorns clean up at Padre Burgos. Crown of Thorns seastars are predators of coral and can get really out of control and decimate a reef. Therefore we always try to keep an eye on them and remove them when numbers start to increase. You have to do it really carefully though as they have poisonous spines and release all of their larvae when stressed!
Last Sunday we went on another Whaleshark watching trip. We had an amazing experience with a female who kept hanging around the boat. She was feeding with her mouth open and we were able to get really close (although not closer than 5m) because she wasn’t really swimming quickly at all but staying in the same place. I was so pleased that my last trip was a great success.
Saturday nights have continued to be lots of fun with plenty of opportunities to dress up. Themes have included circus, the letter ‘D’ and ‘anything but clothes. Photos to follow. We’ve also been up to lots of fun things in the community like planting Mangrove trees, open days and attending the Napantao fiesta :)
I can’t believe I have less then three weeks to go here. Then it’s off on some travels around the rest of the Philippines!
Love
Abi
xxx
Lots and lots have been going on since I last wrote. One big thing is that Claire, my fellow Science Officer left to go back home about a month ago. This left me to do all of the Science Officer stuff all by myself. It was quite daunting at first especially since Claire was so amazing and I was still learning new stuff from her on her last day. It was a pretty hectic few weeks as I ran the Science Development Program as well as going out on the boat for surveys. But I survived and don’t think I did too badly particularly with help from Rach our Project Scientist. Now we have three Science Officers because Tim and Chris arrived to take over last week. I have just started my last SDP and although it’s great to be showing the boys the ropes it’s also really sad to have to let things go.
I’ve also been busy doing my Dive Master training. PADI Diver Master is the next SCUBA qualification up after the Rescue Diver course which I completed a couple of months ago. It’s a professional qualification which means I can use it to work doing things like guiding divers and helping instructors doing courses. The training programme involves all sorts of things like theory exams, practical tasks (e.g. a rescue scenario & mapping an area), swimming tests and then an internship. I have been helping Instructor Emily (and now also Mark) with things like checkout dives and the dive training vols do. It’s been really good to hone all of my skills. I can even swim along with no mask without any worries!
I have also been doing lots of cool diving too. I arrived with 26 logged dives and hit 100 two weeks ago. It’s tradition to go a bit silly for that and so I went out in just my bikini and got graffitied all over me. Turned out it was mostly permanent marker so it took a while to come off! The water here is now really warm. It’s usually about 29degC which means that even a wimp like me doesn’t need to wear a wet suit. Instead I just wear board shorts and a thin rash vest.
Jollies on Saturdays have been really nice the last couple of weeks. In the morning we often dive the south wall at the edge of site. It’s an amazing place and lonely planet actually named it one of the top dive sites in the Philippines! Week before last I saw a really big turtle. In fact lots have been seen around and they’ve even been nesting on a near by beach. The best spot for me last week was a clown trigger fish which was something I’d been waiting to see for ages. Another really exciting thing in the water is our resident family of black tip reef sharks. These like to hang around in the shallows just outside base. Because they’re really quite small (the biggest is only about 1m long) they get really shallow in about .5m of water and so are perfect to spot when snorkelling. There seems to have been an increase in numbers recently and some people have see 10 at once!
Last month I also went on holiday for a long weekend. I went over to Padre Burgos to a dive resort there. It was nice to live in a bit of luxury for a couple of days – hot running water, flushing toilets and some different food! I did some amazing dives whilst I was there too and saw some really cool, rare stuff. I went on a night dive around the pier which was a new experience. It was really quite spooky but I saw a mandarin fish and a crab jumped on my head! I also dived on their house reef and saw a pygmy seahorse. My favourite thing I saw though was some white ornate ghost pipe fish. Although I had seen a dark one on the house reef the week before.
A couple of weeks ago we also did a Crown of Thorns clean up at Padre Burgos. Crown of Thorns seastars are predators of coral and can get really out of control and decimate a reef. Therefore we always try to keep an eye on them and remove them when numbers start to increase. You have to do it really carefully though as they have poisonous spines and release all of their larvae when stressed!
Last Sunday we went on another Whaleshark watching trip. We had an amazing experience with a female who kept hanging around the boat. She was feeding with her mouth open and we were able to get really close (although not closer than 5m) because she wasn’t really swimming quickly at all but staying in the same place. I was so pleased that my last trip was a great success.
Saturday nights have continued to be lots of fun with plenty of opportunities to dress up. Themes have included circus, the letter ‘D’ and ‘anything but clothes. Photos to follow. We’ve also been up to lots of fun things in the community like planting Mangrove trees, open days and attending the Napantao fiesta :)
I can’t believe I have less then three weeks to go here. Then it’s off on some travels around the rest of the Philippines!
Love
Abi
xxx
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Workin' 6 'til 10
So a few people have commented on how it doesn’t seem that I actually do much work. I think mainly because I’ve been writing about exciting things rather than the day to day. So with a new batch of volunteers just arrived or dive trained I thought it was the perfect opportunity to let you know how I am earning my keep. As one third of ‘Team Science’, as we are affectionately known, I help to keep the science which goes on running smoothly.
One of the central aims of the Coral Cay expeditions is to gather data about the coral reefs in the area. This data can be used in a variety of ways to help conservation efforts here in the bay, in the Philippines and also worldwide. Firstly we want to get a picture of what is actually out there. You can’t protect something if you don’t know what that something is. Our data is also be used to find suitable sites to set up MPAs (Marine Protected Areas), compose reports which go to local government and then to monitor what affect they are having on reef health. We also do Reef Check surveys which contribute to a world wide data collection effort.
The most important type of survey which we do, and the ones which go ahead throughout the year (rather than every 6 months as with reef check and MPA surveys), are baseline surveys. These are the most in depth and look at everything found on the reef; corals, algae, invertebrates, fish and the physical environment. Coral Cay aims to make a detailed map of the coast of Southern Leyte using this information. With each transect on which we record data only 250m apart this is a massive task! To make things easier the coast is divided into 1km long stretches and currently we are focusing on just 3 of these which are fairly close to base. Each survey starts at a depth of 24m meters and then progresses into shore. This usually quite a long way so each transect will take several dives to complete.
For the past couple of weeks we have been moving on with surveys while we have had at least one survey team (4 divers). I have spent a lot of time on the boat (the way we travel to survey sites) as Boat Marshall. This job includes being on the boat to check that all the divers are safe, inform Delia of the divers’ status and make sure they enter the water at the right point (using GPS) as well as noting down data such as weather and boat activity on the surface. I am also responsible for deciding exactly where we are going to go in a day and what volunteers are doing what job. I also have to log what we have done and help with the entry of the data into the computer.
But before any volunteer can take part in a survey they have to know how to do one and what it is they’re looking at. This is where SDP (Science Development Programme) comes in. This is a course that lasts about 10 days where the volunteers learn how to identify basically everything on the reef as well as the survey techniques they will be using and therefore become ‘validated’. This is done though lectures, ‘pointy’ dives where vols get to see in the field what they have just learnt about in the classroom and several tests. For each topic there is a computer slideshow test, a pointy test on a dive (where a validated vol points at organisms to identify) and trails which are permanent transects which mimic what happens on a real survey.
Currently Claire (the other SO) is away in Malupasca visiting the Thresher Shark Project so this time I’m all on own to teach and organise SDP (with some help from Project Scientist Rachel). So far it’s been good. Although the group is massive it was great to see them so happy after coming up from their first pointy dive. I’m really excited to teach them all the cool stuff I know and get them out doing surveys.
So I am a busy bee doing all sorts of things in the name of conservation science!
Love
Abi
xxx
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
