Juniper Berries and Solitude: Back to School

(Follow along as we take a journey back in time, to seven weeks ago when I arrived in Napantao, Coral Cay's base in the Philippines!)

I've been learning a lot this year, but it's been a long time since I've been in a formal class or taken an exam...or had been, until I started SDP! SDP=Science Development Program, the core of my Coral Cay Conservation experience in the Philippines. Before participating as a member of a survey team, all the new volunteers have to learn how to identify just about everything they see underwater.

(All underwater photos courtesy of my fellow volunteers)

We spent two weeks studying and being tested on our knowledge of corals, fish, invertebrates, algae, and assorted other things, and practicing identifying underwater our "target species" for surveys.

Coral Cay uses volunteers to conduct a couple different types of surveys: "baseline" surveys to do basic mapping of the underwater environments off the coast of Southern Leyte, and "MPA surveys" in particularly diverse or at-risk areas where communities are interested in setting up a Marine Protected Area on their reef. The same type of survey is used to monitor the MPAs regularly to see how they are faring under their new protection.

A map of Southern Leyte, painted on one of our walls, showing Sogod Bay in the center.

A close-up of San Fran and CCC's base. White dots represent MPAs.

Locals serve as the "Bantai Dagat," or "Protectors of the Reef" for each MPA, and some are protected better than others from fishing and other harmful acts.

We had a "protector," too, at base: our puppy, Bantai!

We also learned how to do Reef Check surveys, which are similar to MPA surveys but less specific to CCC's conservation work. (Reef Check surveys are conducted all around the world by groups of volunteers to monitor reefs, often in one-day events or on longer expeditions.)

Because Coral Cay has been at this same base for a few years, and was on the other side of Sogod Bay previously, much of the area nearby has already been surveyed, and so we would ride the boat for an hour or more to sites we are now working on. (We survey only 10 to 50 meters by 5 meters on each dive, so at least a couple of days are necessary at any one site.) Our boat was out of commission for a couple weeks but fortunately ready to go again shortly after I finished SDP, so I got to spend a few days out on it doing real conservation work! I also helped to paint the name and Coral Cay logo on before we put the refurbished boat back in the water.