Tag: marine research
Aquaculture in Madagascar by the Tuck School of Business
In March, five students from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth came to Madagascar to work alongside Blue Ventures’ community-based aquaculture project as part of their First Year Project. These highly experienced business students came to Madagascar, and got...
Education helps to change hearts and minds in Belize
by Rohsny, BV volunteer, Belize Despite its laidback charm, Sarteneja in Belize is a small, fairly insular community that has faced considerable hardship during the past half century. Also, as is true in many other places, the grown-ups in charge...
Life in the mangrove forest: what happens exactly?
by Zo Andriamahenina, Blue Forests Research Assistant, Madagascar My first time working in the mangrove forest was in February 2012. Before, I had never walked into one, so I could not picture what we would see or find in this...
Saving Mozambique’s dugongs
by Dr Garth Cripps, Senior Conservation Scientist & Forest Carbon Finance Specialist, Madagascar Walking down the lively streets of Vilanculos and Inhassoro in Mozambique it is difficult to believe that in the early 90’s these were dead towns. The streets, shops and...
Declare your support for our oceans!
Here at Blue Ventures we work hard to help conserve the marine riches of Madagascar and Belize, but did you know that there are problems in the developed world too? Once upon a time Europe’s seas teemed with fish such...
Blue forests: behind the scenes…
by Samir Gandhi, Blue Forests Research Assistant, Madagascar A lot has changed for me in 12 months, undoubtedly for the better. Just over a year ago I was stuck in a dead-end office job; now, I am working for Blue Ventures...
Diving deep in Belize
by Jen Chapman, Country Coordinator, Belize The queen conch (Strombus gigas) fishery in Belize is valued at approximately US$ 3,000,000 per year and engages over 3,000 licensed fishermen nationally. Despite non-destructive fishing methods (free-divers collect conch off the seafloor by...
VIP expeditions
by Thomas Forwood, volunteer, Belize Generally speaking, life at Bacalar Chico Dive Camp (BCDC) is routine. You get up at 5am, breakfast is at 8am and lunch is at 1pm. In between is diving, marshalling duties and other enjoyable responsibilities,...
Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it’s bat fish and sea robin! The bemused wanderings of a marine biologist lost at sea…
by our anonymous contact with BatFish & SeaRobin, Madagascar During a post dinner discussion with a colleague in Belo sur Mer, he mentioned that during his trip to the islands of Kirindy Mite, approximately 20 km west of the village...
Nosy Hara: the coral island
I was exceptionally excited to be asked to join a team of scientists to help undertake marine resilience surveys in the Nosy Hara archipelago.
The (not so) rum diaries: life in Belize
by Anders Hartmann, BV volunteer, Belize After 1 week at Bacalar Chico Dive Camp (BCDC) we have now learned the routines and the focus has moved towards surveys and passing the fish and benthic tests, both on computer and in...
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”...
Getting bogged down in northern Madagascar: news from the blue forests team
by Trevor Jones, Remote Sensing Scientist, Madagascar Greetings from Ambanja, in the north-west of Madagascar, where the Blue Venture’s (BV) Blue Forests and Coastal Communities (BFCC) team is currently recharging their batteries (figuratively and literally) in preparation for the 4th week...
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...