Volunteer- Project Bay Islands, Honduras
Added to website: 21 February 2004
I left Roatan yesterday afternoon after spending a very happy two and half months on the island with Coral Cay Conservation doing their marine surveys. It was a wonderful experience and I really enjoyed it. I made the most of it despite weather and boat engine problems. I only managed to add 70 dives to my log book- but at least I learnt over 400 fish, algae, invertebrates and coral species from the Caribbean!
When I first arrived mid-December, Honduras was suffering from really stormy weather- fortunately the first two weeks of my arrival were ‘Skills Development Week’ so it wasn’t too bad sitting indoors having lectures on species, habitats and surveys. Unfortunately one of the dive boats sunk in a storm before New Year and another boat’s engine was damaged, so it posed a problem once we started diving in the good weather. Despite these difficulties, the staff were very organised and managed to send out one boat, six times a day, so we could each get two dives a day.
I spent Christmas and New Year on Roatan and those two weeks were better than I could ever have imagined- rather than the usual rice, beans and tortilla meals… we managed to get hold of turkey ad stuffing and did a full Christmas dinner for all 30 of us on site and eat it on the beach. On Christmas day I went snorkelling out on the reef in front of the House and saw a Southern Sting Ray in the lagoon- it was amazing…unforgettable!
Otherwise once all the training was complete and I was out surveying- that’s pretty much what I did everyday (except Saturdays when we did recreational dives). It was so easy to get into a routine and allow the days to slip away so fast without realising it. We’d have breakfast at 6am and the first boat would leave at 7am and do three trips before lunch at midday. If I wasn’t diving, I was boat or radio marshal, doing data entry or helping the new Volunteers learn their species for their tests. It felt like such an achievement to pass all the exams and underwater validations after just a day or two of knowing/being taught about the subject and animals. It made me realise that I could probably have done better at university or revising if I had put my mind to it a bit more! As it happens my Marine Geography degree and the work that I did during my industrial placement in the port of Dover was very useful to me and I was able to give a lecture to everyone on environmental monitoring in the UK and marine coastal management, which was nice.
It was so interesting to see everything that I’d studied and learnt at university and the techniques and interpretation of data collection and entry. I was able to bring in a few new ideas for the project and science staff and also pick up a few myself. On bad weather days we had trips to local botanical gardens and marine research institutes where we got to see how important the data we were collecting was and how it was interpreted. I felt that I really benefited from my stay there and that I was a lot more than just a diving holiday or expedition experience. My only regret was that I didn’t stay on site longer and work as a staff member (I couldn’t as my plans to travel around South America after my expedition could not be changed)! I am definitely considering applying to CCC in the future- may be as a career break in a few years time.
The highlight for me and everyone else who was on site two weeks ago was that we had a load of whale shark pass along the reef in front of the site for a couple of days. We also got the change to swim with the largest mammal species on the planet!! It was completely amazing- I’ve got loads of photos to show everyone when I get back. Otherwise other things I saw were dolphins, porpoises, hawksbill turtles and pilot whales- more that I would have dreamed of seeing.
So now it’s all over and I am flying above the equator. I only left CCC yesterday and I really do miss the people there and the friends that I’ve made. We’ve planning to meet up in the summer of 2005 after everyone has returned from their travels and do some diving in the UK! I think diving in the UK will take some getting use to again after I’ve got used to diving in the Caribbean sea at 27’C.
- Christine Marsh.
