What’s Going on on Site
Much to the surprise of both staff and volunteers the first rain of the season fell in Andavadoaka on Tuesday. This meant that all activities had to be cancelled and everyone settled in to a Blue Planet marathon. Andavadoaka’s locally...
Malnutrition in Madagascar
A study conducted by the Ministry of Health, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and a number of local NGO’s has reported that malnutrition levels in Madagascar have reached up to 74% in some parts of the remote southeastern region...
Week 1 on the Blue Ventures Site
The 1st week of our November expedition has drawn to a close with a football match Blue Ventures against the Vezo. Again the women put on a good performance and hopes were even raised with a half time score of...
Site News
Expedition 18 has arrived safely in Andavadoaka after a record fast 18 hour camion journey from Tulear. The two newest members of the BV team were also aboard the camion, Sage and Onion, Blue Ventures very own pair of turkeys...
Big Makis
The Malagasy rugby team, the Makis, celebrated their centenary last Saturday by beating the South African Amateur team. The game was tight but the Makis managed to clinch it with a 33-31 win. This victory took place in front of...
The Japanese are Having a Whale of a Time
An article printed today stated that this time of year sees the Japanese whaling fleet of 6 ships setting of to carry out ‘scientific testing’ on 1000 whales in The Southern Ocean. This method of ‘testing’ involves harpooning the whale,...
Fiji Ups It’s Game
Today Fiji’s Great Sea Reef launches the 1st in a network of 5 Marine Protected Areas (MPA), that, when completed will form one of the worlds largest underwater sanctuaries. Areas of these MPA’s will be known as ‘tabu’ zones where...
Blue Ventures Loses it’s Short Holiday Cherry
Blue Ventures’ first foray into short diving holidays went without a hitch last week. The group of 12 enjoyed a weeks diving in the ecologically rich Red Sea off the coast of Dahab, also sampling the local cuisine and chilled...
Research memories from Andavadoaka
This is a message we received from Jon Galton, a student from Cambridge University who carried out research on Andavadoaka’s artisanal fishery for his undergraduate research dissertation. After finishing his studies, Jon was traveling in inland Madagascar, some 500 miles...
Show Your Support for Another Marine Conservation Cause
The Ocean Conservancy released a scientific report showing that even the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are not immune from the dangers of overfishing. The report — based on government data — reveals that some key fish populations in the area...
Madagascar Hits the Airwaves
Yesterday BBC Radio 4 broadcast a radio-documentary about mining in Madagascar in their show Crossing Continents. We had mixed opinions about this show as you can see by checking their website and looking for comments by Richard Nimmo. If you...
It’s the Taking Part That Counts
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...
Bye Bye Josephine
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...
It’s All in the Bilo
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...
More Marine Action Plans
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...