From BV volunteer Roger Vaughan, a retired teacher from California.

Over the past few days I have had the opportunity to travel afield with BV staff members Lalao and Thomas, and volunteers Ben (U. Sheffield grad student), Ali (U. Montreal recent grad) and Ollie (just past A level in England). We left on a motorized pirogue early Friday morning and headed south for Lamboara and Tampolove. Ben and Lalao landed in Tampolove to begin work in monitoring mangrove forest health and eelgrass bed data collection. Thomas, Ali, Ollie and I met with the President Rahlehsah of the Lamboara Nehuda (Council of Elders) to start GPS mapping of traditional fishing areas around the two villages.

After lunch at the president’s home, he put us in touch with another Nehuda member, Fisherman Deelateh, who travelled with us in the pirogue to locate known fishing grounds on the reefs, and provide additional information about them. The gathered data will be used to develop maps for planning Marine Protected Areas, with the understanding and cooperation of the local fishing community.

In the course of a wet and windy day we mapped 20 use areas, and managed a brief visit to the only identified turtle nesting beach in the area, which recently recorded a successful hatch of turtles. We saw the discarded egg shells from the hatch and were shown the remaining unhatched nest by the beach guard that BV and the local community has hired to protect the nest from egg-raiders (visit the BV site again soon for news on the progress of this second nest).

In the afternoon the crew returned to Lamboara where we had time for a walk through the local mangrove forest before being hosted for dinner and an overnight stay at the President’s home. Extremely low tides delayed departure for another round of mapping on Saturday, so there was time for another walkabout to visit the village wells, observe the daily work activities of the community (hulling rice, octopus fishing and mollusk collection in the tidal shallows,) and identify some local birds, including several lesser Vasa parrots, black and white forms of the dimorphic egret, and a Madagascar kestrel.

Once the tide was up enough, mapping continued in the areas closest to Lamboara. Rising winds made it impossible to reach all sectors of all fishing grounds, so a follow-up trip will complete the work in a few weeks. Returning to Lamboara for lunch, we found Ben returned from Tampolove with news that the mangrove data collection was under way and in good hands.

After lunch we all climbed aboard the pirogue to return to Andavadoaka. By this time the winds had kicked up high enough seas that we had to undertake a round-about route south through the Baie des Assassins and out to the open ocean beyond the waves at the barrier reef. Captain Thomas demonstrated his master seamanship, navigating the rough seas with ease. It was an exciting 3 hour ride that I would compare to river rafting at class 4, but without the rocks! Safely back at Andavadoaka, all hands cooperated to beach the pirogue above the high tide line before hurrying off to showers and dinner – lobster!!! A totally awesome 2 days.

I’m coming to the end of my first week here in Andavadoaka, and I’m already regretting the fact that I’ve signed up for just six weeks instead of three months. There’s so much to see and do here – not to mention a phenomenal amount to learn. That said, I couldn’t be happier with the tuition on offer. I came to Madagascar with one short ‘discovery’ dive under my belt. Now, just five days on, I have only three skills left to learn in order to complete my open water diving certification. What’s more, all the fears I had about things like taking my mask off and swimming without it underwater have completely evaporated.

And that’s not all. I’m actually in a position now that when I dive I can recognise a number of corals, algae and invertebrates.

If I’m completely honest, I didn’t pass my first benthic test – held yesterday. But 42/50 ain’t so bad for a first attempt (45/50 is the pass mark). And when I look at it in context – that this time last week I couldn’t have told anyone the difference between crustose coralline algae and hard coral massive – I’m pretty pleased with my progress. I’m slowly learning my fish too, and can now recognise pretty much all of the butterfly fish, banner fish and angel fish that swim off these shores. Just another 40-odd families of fish to go and I’ll have everything covered!

There’s no denying that Blue Ventures keeps you busy while you’re in Andavadoaka. But it’s not simply about learning to dive, what’s on the seabed, and what swims in the water. Over the course of the past few nights, we’ve learnt a lot about the work the organisation is doing with the local and wider community – for example, the implementation and monitoring of no-take zones for octopus (octopus fishing is one of the local people’s main sources of income, but reserves became dangerously depleted some months ago, and no-take zones had to be introduced in order to repopulate stocks).

We’ve also been learning about the solar-powered stoves BV has been able to provide for local people with the carbon offsetting money they’ve generated from volunteers who fly to Madagascar. It’s great to actually see how this money has been used. The fact that the stoves are being distributed among local people means that less wood is being chopped down, and Western Madagascar’s precious spiny forests are being preserved that little bit longer.

Other news from week one… well, less than 24 hours after receiving a lecture on injuries in and out of the sea, I managed to step on not one, but two urchins while out snorkelling. (I was a little too preoccupied to be able to tell you what type of urchin they were!)

Fortunately for me, help was at hand in the form of the three wonderful people I was out snorkelling with (one of them is planning to do her rescue diving qualifications while here; hopefully I gave her a bit of advance training!). After being pulled unceremoniously out of the water, having the visible spines tweezed out, and undergoing ‘hot water treatment’ I was right as rain. Well, enough to go diving the next day, at least…

All in all, it’s been an eventful week. I’ve learnt a lot – including some Malagasy phrases. I’ve eaten a LOT of fish, rice and beans. I’ve taught some local kids how to play ‘Snap’. I’m even getting a tan (a wonder in itself). I’m loving every minute. I just hope the next five weeks don’t go as fast as week one appears to have done!

Alexandra Coxon
Blue Ventures Volunteer (Expedition 39)

From Justin, Expedition Manager

Dive number: 39

Location: Valleys

Time: 0500

First night dive! Yay!

Depth: 16 metres

Time: 48 minutes

Temperature: 21 degrees – cold!

I was very excited to be doing my first ever night dive. All the other (9) Advanced Open Water qualified volunteers and Louis, Al and myself were the divers. Al gave a dive briefing, short and sweet, and we collected our gear and headed for the boats. I didn’t even need to use a torch because the moon was directly overhead and it was only a few days past full.

I sat in the bow of the boat shining my torch in front of us, checking for pirogues. At the dive site, the moon was almost bright enough for the whole kitting up process. There was a red glow in the east that got noticeably brighter before we got in the water.

Once we were in the water, Allison, our boat marshal, passed me the surface marker buoys and I activated the funky red beacons on the SMBs and passed one to Al.

Once we were submerged, we headed off in a column of three buddy pairs. We snaked our way over, down and around a topography that felt very random given how little we could view of it at any one time. It was the most sense of adventure I have ever felt on a dive.

We saw a stingray under a ledge and for much of the dive a remora followed us. It looked like a tiny grey and black striped shark. I noticed that many of the corals that I was used to seeing without polyps now had them out: leathery soft corals and encrusting massive hard corals.

I looked up at some point to see the sky was no longer black but a deep blue, the first hint of dawn. It got brighter over the dive so that by the end, we were no longer using our torches. As the dive wore on, I started to get cold. This is the first dive where this has really been a problem for me.

When we finally came up the sky was red all round the horizon and the sun had quite risen. As we were getting into the boat, the shout of “Whale!” went up. I spent a frustrating minute or two in the water trying to get my dive kit off so that I could get into our boat. I finally got in and we were able to get a good view of the whales. I saw numerous spouts and breaches. Small parts of huge bodies emerging from the water not far in the distance and arching down again, followed by tails the width of our boat at least.

They were easy to spot because there was not a breath of wind or any waves and every perturbation of the water’s surface was so noticeable. We watched 5, 10, maybe 15 whales altogether. I’m not sure how we decided when to leave, but the part of me that had noticed my chattering teeth was pleased.

Getting up at 4 O’clock in the morning has never before been so rewarding.

From Becks Hill, our medic
Since last writing, another expedition has been and gone, and with the help of our volunteers, STI awareness has stepped up apace: the campaign to create awareness has come a long way. After the first STI play was performed in May, the feedback was that it just was not long enough. Taking this on board, Expedition 38 performed the same piece again. We rehearsed daily, practising lines, and for Vaza (foreigners) to speak Vezo it can be quite challenging. The volunteers took it in their stride and the “Sea of Life” was another step towards raising awareness.

All fears of not having an audience to perform to were soon alleviated, as word must have spread and the crowd was larger than for the previous play. It was very well received by all, with much laughter at the cross dressing elements of the play. A dance routine followed with some energetic gymnastics by Emma. James, a Vezo colleague, had written a beautiful song all about condoms and the grand finale was Jen, singing an amazing Italian opera piece. An incredibly brave delivery as opera had never been heard by most present. It was a phenomenal day. For that, we have Expedition 38 to thank.

That was two weeks ago now. New posters went up in the village; this time advertising a theatre competition, open to all in the village. It was time to test whether awareness really had augmented, whether knowledge regarding STI’s had increased. Again not a great deal of time for folk to prepare but we felt it only right to hold the competition whilst Expedition 38 was still on site.

We were four judges, Monsieur Roger (President of Velondriake), Laloa, Garth and myself. Anxiety and despondency took hold on discovering there was just one group entering the competition. Not the desired outcome; one of those despairing moments where a big hole wouldn’t have been big enough to bury oneself in. I was saddened by the lack of response and just when I thought it was all hopeless, a last minute entry emerged. Now there were two plays! Aha, we had a competition, even if there were just two groups competing.

Eventually the crowds arrived and a sea of faces could be seen. I felt relieved as the first show begun. It was slightly amusing that it was almost a copy of the one we had performed two weeks previously. This could have been viewed as cheating but that was hardly an issue, being as there were only two groups contesting. What can I say? It was amazing. They were amazing. The crowd was hysterical, my eyes were streaming with laughter; it was an incredible delivery. The content revealed a thorough knowledge of various STI’s; I was in awe of the spectacle, the costumes, the humour, the storyline, it was perfect and they had even composed a song about condoms.

The following play: completely original, a very involved and informed piece, and again I was enthralled by it all. Such well considered efforts and being the shortest day of the year here, it was a blessing that there were just two groups competing. It was a tough decision but the first prize had to go to the first piece.
Again another phenomenal day in Andavadoaka: it far surpassed all my hopes and expectations of the competition. Thanks to all involved, thanks to all the efforts of this expedition and previous expeditions who have contributed in various ways, the words Mampiasa Kapoty (use condoms) are now commonly used. Once a highly embarrassing topic, it is now good humouredly spoken about and STI awareness has evidently grown. Captain Kapoty (Captain Condom) is now becoming a local hero.