On Sunday, Blue Ventures again put out both a men’s and a women’s football team to play against the Andavadoaka teams. There was a somewhat unsurprising outcome as both of our teams were beaten. They did however put on a good performance, the woman’s team only lost 1-0!
Next weekend sees a volleyball match as we try to diversify into other sports!
On 20th October those at the site said goodbye to social science research coordinator Joseohine Langley who has left Andavadoaka after 11 months. She single handedly building up the Blue Ventures social science research programme, which is now in the hands of our current social scientist Minna.
On Wednesday 19th October Blue Ventures staff and volunteers took zebu carts on a 1 to 2 hour journey inland to the Maskoru village of Ankilimelinike where they particitpated in a Bilo ceremony. This was the penultimate day of a 10 day ceremony and there was much dancing and singing to a band of local musicians playing accordians, a type of guitar and drums. It was a fascinating insight into life in a
Masikoro village and a traditional fomba which everyone felt honoured to be invited.
Following the blog about EU marine conservation strategy, we now have information about UN based strategy International scientists are making plans to create a network of marine parks in order to save the world’s oceans from fish stock depletion. This plan, supported by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) will be produced in 2008 in order to be implemented by 2012.
There are currently 100s of marine protected areas have been set up in the past 15-20 years. Of the 17 largest with most conservation potential, 15 are already at maximum exploitation levels or are depleting the level of their fish resource base. Scientists say new parks plan would strengthen the base of marine conservation, for example by preventing the over fishing that can decrease coral cover or deplete fish populations important for the coral reef ecosystem. The network would require a co-ordinated global effort, which would elevate the status of marine conservation.
As dedicated marine conservationists, we always have our eyes peeled for a good and informative site. This is a goody that we’ve found about marine environmental strategy to be implimented to protect all EU marine waters. The strategy is different from previous ones in that it takes an ecosystem level approach to address the pressures on marine flora and fauna. It aims to make the EU waters environmentally healthy by 2021, so that people can enjoy them, whilst maintining a high level of protection of the marine environment.
To find out more information about this topic, which they have handily
divided into Q&A sections, click here.
Expedition members went on a camping trip to the Northern beaches where they enjoyed a joint celebration of 4 different expedition birthdays – Amelia, Charlie, Bex and Tracy. A great night was had by all, with a demonstration of wilderness medicine from the camp medic, followed by a delicious dinner cooked on an open fire and sleeping out under the full moon.
A record number of children attended the English teaching class last Wednesday – 66 pupils were in the beginners class where they werer taught how to say the time in English (first they had to be taught how to tell the time).
The advanced group created posters for the beach clean up, the best of which got displayed on the BV notice board.
A group of adults also received personal tuition.
On Saturday 15th with Blue Ventures staff and volunteers carried out a beach clean up of Andavadoaka beach. The event started at 3pm with the digging of a new burn pit in the north of the village. The site for the new burn pit was chosen in consultation with the village president, with the aim of creating a pit which would be easy for people to access so as to encourage the regular disposal of rubbish here. After the pit had been dug out (a tough job in the afternoon heat) volunteers and staff joined around 100 young people from Andavadoaka to collect everything from plastic bottles to fishing nets, flip flops to old clothes and a lot of other waste from the beach in rice sacks. The rubbish was then deposited in the pit and burned as this was deemed by BV as the best available waste management system for Andavadoaka at present.
Continuing with local education, two volunteers have been helping out with French and Maths lessons in the Catholic Mission school.
A team from Blue Ventures and Wildlife Conservation Society have travelled to Nosy Ve to talk to the inhabitants about the idea of creating an octopus reserve and update them on recent decisions in Lamboara and Andavadoaka.
It is greatly encouraging that in light of what happened at the Andavadoaka MPA they were met with a positive response as the people were interested in creating their own reserve.