this will be long and to make this a little more paletable i will cut this into bitesize pieces.
the journey - london to houston was long and boring, spent a night in the "sleep in", really nothing special but it was a bed and a shower - comparative luxury to where i would be staying. next morning woke up nice and early to fly out to san pedro sula where we (i was travelling with one girl who i met up with in gatwick airport). waited in san pedro for 2 other volunteers who we couldnt find and decided to fly out, just making the last flight that we could have taken (any later and we would have had to spend a night in the west end due to falling light). stopover at la ceiba and watch them unload the bags to discover ours are not there. in a mild state of panic with no-one to help except an american couple who informed us that the bay islands service is notorious and offered to share their gear with us!
landed at roatan airport to be met by our expedition leader(EL) and all the other volunteers that had arrived that day.
found out our luggage was coming over on a later flight but we didnt have time to wait for it.
cab/minibus thing all the way through roatan to BJs restaurant (somewhere near oakridge i think) and then boat (one of our own 8m fibreglass dive boats) for about 45 mins all along the 5km of mangroves until we reached the south side of Santa Helena where we would be staying.
The Site - we were staying in coral lodge (named by the EL a while ago, much to the dismay of the project scientist who wanted it to be known as poo towers). its an old fishermans stopover place with 8 rooms, 2 tower rooms on top and a kitchen. there was also a larder, a science room and an office, not to mention the bar, which was right out over the water.
Science weeks- the first 2 weeks of expedition (unless you go out a week early to be qualified to AOW) are for science training. the first week entails learning everything that you might possibly see. almost 200 fish, 100+ corals, 100+ inverts and about 60 or so algae. if anyone wants anything IDd let me know! we had a lecture in the morning, then all day to learn, with a dive to spot things underwater and finally a written test in the evening. all tests had a pass rate of 80%. i managed to pass all the written tests first go except algea which i did on my second attempt. after all written tests are done we do practical tests for fish and coral and a benthic line which i shall explain shortly. for the fish validation you are paired with an old volunteer and must write down all fish 2.5m either side of you and within 10m ahead whilst finning along. all fish must be rated for their dominance and you must score 80% of what the old volunteer has written down.
in the coral test we follow and old volunteer who will point to 25 corals which we must right down. again we must score 80% to pass.
the benthic line. a 10m line is weighted and you have 37 minutes to wrtie down everything 2.5m either side, except fish, and rate their abundance within the area. ( for clarification, the scale used is DAFOR which stands for Dominant, Abundant, Frequent, Occaional and Rare. fish and inverts are counted, while algea and corals are done by how much of the 50m square transect they cover). i had to take the benthic line test 4 times, its surprisingly hard despite the 75% pass mark.
the rest of the first two weeks is taken up by learnign to survey. survey teams are split into 4 divers and a boat marshall.
Diver 1 - physical, they are dive leader andit is their job to draw a plan view and x-section of the survey area, take demperature and depth readings, measure visability, and take a sample of water to measure the salinity.
Diver 2 - fish, they are responsible for counting the fish in teh transect and carrying the smb. they also hover at the end of the transect so the other divers know where to stop.
diver 3 - coral and sponge, they are to count all the corals and sponges within the transect as well as carry the coral line (this is a 10m rope that diver 1 swims away within 1 end and can therefore know where the end of the transect is.)
diver 4 , inverts and algae. this diver is responsible for counting all inverts and algae in the transect. they carry a bouy that is tied off so that the next team know where to start.
boat marshall - they are responsible for the safety of teh divers while on the boat but also record wind and current strenght and direction, surface activity and impacts surface temp and salinity and visible depth which is done with a Secci disk. (this is a round wooden weighted disk painted black and white in quaters. it is lowered down until the black and white become indistinguishable). the boatd marshall is also in charge of the GPS which is used to record the position of the bouy.
That is science week.
the diving was fantastic. although less fish than i expected (from over fishing), the reef is otherwise in great condition and a pleasure to dive. during the week we would do survey dives and on saturdays recreational dives. sunday was a day to do nothing and relax (and recover from hangovers).
the first day i had a scuba review and a rec dive in eth afternoon. that evening we had a BBQ for all the locals to thank them for their hospitality they had shown to us. it was a great way to start the trip as things like that are extremely rare as well as having a chance to meet many of the local poeple. plus we got meat which hardly ever happens apart from mechanically seperated chicken sausages - just dont eat them.
sunday we went straight into science week, see above. learning the algea seeemd to be the hardest, not only beacuse it was the first and most daunting, but it was in latin. having done that all the others seemed much easier. we lost a couple days diving becasue the money that was due to be sent out was sent to the wrong account, so we could not buy any fuel. this did give us plenty of time to learn.
the second weekend we went on rec dives as usual and had a toga party in the eveing. (being one of the 3 volunteers who wernt allowed to drink 'cos we were under 18 did have its disadvantages!.) the following morning was the worst on the trip. our science officer got appendicitus (sp?) so she and the project scientist (who was due to leave in a week) had to go which made everyone feel down, particularly as news about how she was doing was infrequent.
the next week not alot happened, just continued with science week and had a one of our 2 boats break (and coulld not be fixed without ordering special parts which wouldnt happen whilst i was there). another week of surverying and 5 poeple were to leave, but 7 more arrived that friday evening. (incase your not sure this happened at teh end of the 3rd week)
an influx of new people changed the group dynamics alot. we suddenly became the old vols and became a tighter group. we knew everything they would have to learn and it was good fun helping them train (by the way they were doing diver tarining the first week, and 2 more would join the following week).
this is straing to become less chronological as i go so ill just give in and write things as i remember them.
after a couple fo weekjs i gave up with my wetsuit, didnt need it and could dump a load of weights. on one dive i tried going weightless but it was a shallow dive (about 10m) with a lot of surge so i ended up head down and kicking the entire time, struggling to stay down.
the second last week we had a T-party where everyone dressed up as somehting beginnig with T, i went as a turtle, but we had evrything from tarts to transvestites and terrorists to teabags.
that day (of the T-party) the field oppeations manager arrived. and with him a new instructor whom he knew froma while ago and just bumped into in the airport and convinced her to come.
in teh last few days i was there she gave us an EFR course, and caught a baracuda which i dint like so much, but teh next day some guy came round with a big wahoo which was really tasty, one of the best meals ive ever had ( particularly after eating rice with pasta, or for some variety pasta with rice for over a month).
i left one day early (once i couldnt dive anymore there was not alot of point on being there) and spent a night in teh west end which was so so so different. i enjoyed it and glad i went but it doesnt even compare to where id been. ( i stayed at the Arco Iris and had filet mingnon at the agrentinian grill which i reccomend.) also sundowners and the twisted toucan were fun.
this is really going into a mess now but i have a few more stories and order doesnt really matter.
the best rec dive i did was barbaretta wall on the north side of teh island (incidentally we almost had the project on barbaretta, but pepper pulled out at the last minute) as there was no fishing around here there were many larger fish and we were followed arounf for a while by an fairly big 'cuda saw aburse shark that was 2m+ and a midnight and a blue parrot as well as big queen triggers. none of which id seen before.
thats all ive got for now but ill think of stuff later to add on.
one last thing - this was the most amazing thing i have ever done and i now appreciate how delicate and fragile the reef is. i would reccomend and activly encourage anyone and everyone to do somehting like this. every little bit that you can do will make a difference. go and do it.
just one last thing, the island of santa helena is the most friendly and welcoming place i have been to and would urge anyone who can to try and visit. while we were there 2 backpackers came for a day and couldnt believe the difference to the west end. go and check it out.
(i tried to upload some photos but the files are too large, i will shrink them and put them up soon)
GUY
