Tag: marine conservation
The end isn’t near, it’s here!
by Chris Miller, BV volunteer, Belize We are now in our last week at Bacalar Chico and we are all so sad that our time here is nearly over. Over the past few weeks we have had an amazing time...
Swimming in an ocean of stars
by Jo Hudson, Conservation & Research Assistant, London On June 25th two members of the Blue Ventures team packed up their promotional materials and headed down to London’s Southbank to take part in the London Aquarium’s an “Ocean of Stars”...
Sea cucumbers paving the way to education
by Fran Humber, Conservation Programmes Manager, London Working from the London office of Blue Ventures, it can be easy to forget, underneath the piles of emails and reports, how the projects our colleagues in the field work hard on actually...
Paradise lost: my final few days in Belize
by Colin Engel, Blue Ventures volunteer, Belize Monday 7 May This is the day we pack up camp and leave. The first boat took the early birds back at dawn to Sarteneja, leaving half of us some further hours to...
Bobbing along on the bottom of the beautiful briny sea….
by Caroline De Willebois, Blue Ventures volunteer, Madagascar Descending into the cool turquoise water below, I am overcome with that well-known sense of utter peace that accompanies the stillness and weightlessness of being underwater. After a few days of not...
Setting up and diving down
by Chris Miller, Blue Ventures volunteer, Belize We are two weeks into our expedition here in Belize and so far have already experienced one of the best celebrations in Sarteneja – the Easter Regatta. To celebrate the regatta we had...
Setting sail: a brief look at migration in southwest Madagascar
By Kame Westerman, Velondriake LMMA Coordinator, Madagascar Human migration can be influenced by a number of factors – political, social, economic, physical, and even cultural. In southwest Madagascar, where Blue Ventures works, migration is an important factor to consider when...
Conserving biodiversity in an ever expanding world
by Jo Hudson, Science Intern, London Dr Vik Mohan, Director of the Blue Ventures Sexual & Reproductive Health programme, joined John Williams and David Lopez-Carr (both from the University of California) to speak (via a live weblink) at the Woodrow Wilson...
Girl power: the role of Ghana’s fishmongering women
By Mebrahtu Ateweberhan, Ghanaian Research Team, 21st Febuary 2012 It is early morning in Miemia Village, Western Ghana. The sky is hazy from the dust of the recent revisit by the Harmattan winds that mingles with the smoke coming from...
Having fun at the Club Aloalo Environmental Festival
by Jeremy Pivor, Blue Ventures volunteer, Madagascar Last Saturday (4th Feb) I had the fortunate opportunity to go to a festival put on by kids from Club Aloalo. For those that don’t know, Club Aloalo is an environmental youth club...
One coffee and a warty chameleon, coming right up!
by Shanta Barley, Field Scientist, Madagascar With 57 of the world’s 131 species of chameleon, including the largest and the smallest, Madagascar has a monopoly on the family’s diversity. This unusual individual (see photo, below) was spotted clinging to a...
The boy who cried whale
“A dead whale? Washed up in Antsanaranasoa bay?” Within minutes, a mob of villagers, armed with axes and buckets, was sprinting through the spiny forest, effortlessly hurdling knee-high thorny shrubs, in a race to procure enough fish bait to last...
Feom’bezo (the Voice of the Vezo) radio show
The Velondriake Management Committee works hard to keep the community informed about its many conservation activities, and how these benefit the community. In September 2011, Velondriake began producing a bi-monthly radio show in partnership with Blue Ventures, called Feom’Bezo (The...
Starting out in Sarteneja
By Casey Lewis, Blue Ventures volunteer, Belize I arrived in Sarteneja, Belize a little after 5pm – just in time to watch the sunset creep over the small town. Sarteneja is right by the ocean with beautiful views of the...
A return trip….
by Jon Schleyer, Blue Ventures Film Maker, Madagascar Three years ago, on my first trip to Madagascar, I settled in for an exceptional adventure as I embarked on a pirogue (dugout outrigger canoe with a large square sail rig) to cruise...