Project update - Project Bay Islands, Honduras - March 2004
Added to website: 01 March 2004
Project Brief
Aim
Project Bay Islands Honduras is a three-year collaborative project to survey the coral reefs of the Bay Islands. The programme provides training and conservation education opportunities for local Hondurans, as part of an integrated programme to develop local capacity and ensure the long-term protection and sustainable use of marine resources throughout the region.
Location
Santa Helene, Roatan, Honduras, Central America.
CCC Partners
CCC is working at the invitation of and in partnership with the Universidad nacional Autonoma de Honduras (UNAH), Programa Manejo Ambiental Islas de la Bahia (PMAIB)
Marine Science Programme
Baseline Surveys
Number and location of Surveys
Because of the preparations for the site move we have carried out fewer surveys than normal. However, the surveys at the Anthony’s Key sector are completed. Additionally, we have redone more surveys at the Gibson Bight sector, and West Bay sector and by now we can consider the data collection of the North shore of Roatan complete. Hurrah!!!
Number of transects completed
We have completed 3 more surveys that were started in the previous month.
Reef Check
All reef check surveys were completed in October 2003
Interesting / Unusual Sightings
With regular sighting of eagle rays, turtles and dolphins you can’t complain. However, no pilot whale, or whale shark spots this time. Also its going to be very interesting to see what the reef will be like at the new site.
Environmental Awareness
Capacity Building/Training of Local Counterparts
This month we have organised another reef awareness day. This time 14 children from the Roatan bi-lingual School, varying in age from 11 to 15 years old, were invited to join our program. We started with an introduction to reef ecology, after which we discussed the current threats to coral reefs and what they could do to help protect their coral reef. Additionally, our volunteers took the participating children out to the back reef to have a closer look at the coral reef ecosystem and its inhabitants. Believe it or not, but some of the children had never done this before, so they were very excited to see so many beautiful corals and fishes out there. And guess what, they even spotted an eagle ray!
Although we were all very busy with packing up the ‘Beach House’ for the big move, we still have managed to organize a final painting session at the Coxon Hole hospital. After having painted the maternity ward and the operation room we now transformed the waiting room and entrance hall into a bright blue and white coloured welcoming place.
As we have moved sites from the Beach House to the East end of Roatan this month, we also had to say goodbye to our local staff at Sandy Bay. Therefore, CCC would like to thank our boat drivers Alex and Arlan for always taking us out to and back from the reef in a safe way. Also we are proud to say, that Arlan has made it up to Rescue diver with CCC and Alex even got his Dive Master certificate with CCC. Leutral, our compressor legend, has done a fantastic job by always filling our tanks in time and more important, with clean air. And last but not least we would like to thank Laurie our cook, for always catering delicious food for sometimes up to 35 hungry people. Thanks to all of you!!!
