Tag: marine research

The team in Madagascar

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...

/ Apr 29, 2013
Beautiful butterflies in the butterfly reserve

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...

/ Apr 22, 2013

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...

/ Apr 17, 2013

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...

/ Feb 19, 2013

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...

/ Nov 23, 2012

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...

/ Oct 31, 2012

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...

/ Oct 15, 2012

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,...

/ Oct 9, 2012

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...

/ Aug 29, 2012

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.

/ Aug 2, 2012

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...

/ Jul 25, 2012

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...

/ Jul 10, 2012

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”...

/ Jul 6, 2012

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...

/ Jun 12, 2012

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...

/ May 25, 2012