OWSI Volunteer Opportunities

[jkarsan]

Hey all,

I’ve managed to get 3 months off work between Dec — March and would like to donate some time to doing some marine conservation work, ideally something pretty informal, perhaps some sea grass / coral restoration, preferably somewhere warm (SEA / Indian Ocean) with access to good diving.

I’m an OWSI (lapsed) and of course happy to pay for board etc, but not wild about paying to volunteer. Does anyone have any suggestions about places that might need some support for a month or so during that period?

Tia!

 

[Cornbread O'Malley]

I know of two places: TRACC and GaiaOne - In Nature We Are One.

I surfed TRACC's site a few weeks ago. I did not look too deep into GAIAOne's offerings. Contact both organizations and see what leads they can provide you and let us know. I'm in the same process as you but looking in Florida, United States with Coral Restoration Foundation.

 

[jkarsan]

I know of two places: TRACC and GaiaOne - In Nature We Are One.

I surfed TRACC's site a few weeks ago. I did not look too deep into GAIAOne's offerings. Contact both organizations and see what leads they can provide you and let us know. I'm in the same process as you but looking in Florida, United States with Coral Restoration Foundation.

Thanks for the suggestion! Just checked GaiaOne – they have a short quiz to direct you to the right programme but it looks like it’s upward of $2500 to spend 3 / 4 weeks there. Will keep looking!

 

[Cornbread O'Malley]

Thanks for the suggestion! Just checked GaiaOne – they have a short quiz to direct you to the right programme but it looks like it’s upward of $2500 to spend 3 / 4 weeks there. Will keep looking!

I'm interested in what you find. Please keep us updated!

 

[Edward3c]

Thanks for the suggestion! Just checked GaiaOne – they have a short quiz to direct you to the right programme but it looks like it’s upward of $2500 to spend 3 / 4 weeks there. Will keep looking!

Most will follow the Coral Cay Conservation business model of volunteers paying for the privilege. The exception, not in the Philippines, is ReefCI based in Belize, where you pay for a dive holiday, but can do marine research as well.

 

[boulderjohn]

I did a similar search about a decade or so ago for pretty much the same reason. Like you, I tried to enlist the help of ScubaBoard. When I grew frustrated with the lack of results, I talked to an ocean conservation group leader, suggesting he provide a list of such places. He thought it was a great idea, and they would get right on it. Nothing happened.

What's the problem?

Almost everything I looked at was a tax write-off scam. The idea was for you to sign up and pay for a typical dive vacation and do a bare minimum of volunteer activity, most of it inconsequential. They then give you the paperwork to write off your trip expenses on your taxes. Some of the websites I saw clearly assured that you would not have to do much work.

So I gave up long ago.

The one tip I can give you is that the former manager of a dive shop I used in Florida now works for 4Ocean, which removes plastic trash from the ocean. I have seen his FaceBook posts showing huge amounts of débris removed from the ocean, so it is probably legitimate.

 

[tursiops]

I believe that Reef Renewal in Bonaire accepts volunteers and neither pays them nor asks them to pay. they do provide free air/gas and transportation to the renewal sites, if needed.
It's not in the SEA/IO, of course, but It is worth pointing out that such things as the OP is looking for DO exist.

 

[diver257a]

Hi Jkarsan,

I have two suggestions for projects both in Bali, Indonesia.

Firstly, I find the following project on the GUE Project Portal - LivingSeas Coral Project There is an organizational website, i.e. Livingseas Foundation , which explains all of the big picture stuff. Most of the activity appears to be delivered by a dive centre, i.e. Livingseas , which offers about two weekends of diving per month during the calendar year which is where the coral planting and maintenance is carried out. More information is available at Coral Conservation Dive Packages I found the pricing of the dives and equipment to be very reasonable, i.e. about USD 80.00 per weekend. There may be more opportunities with this project which have not been mentioned in the above links.

Secondly, I found the following project on the website of Earthwatch, a United States Not-for-Profit, - Restoring Coral Reefs in Bali. The timing for 2025 of this does not line up with your planned break from work and it is also relatively expensive, i.e. starting at USD 3,100.00 for a week. However, following on from posts above, it may be an example of what you may be interested in doing in the longer term - please read the all of the information on the Earthwatch website. This is very thorough, and very relevant to the likely experience to be encountered at sites in the SEA/IO. By the way, I participated in an Earthwatch project in South Australia during the 1980s which involved a lot of time spent underwater observing a particular sub-phylum of marine animals.

 

[jkarsan]

Thank you all so much for your responses, looks like there are some strong starting points for me to get contacting! I’ll keep you posted with anything I find out

I’ve been a donor to Project Seagrass for a few years and have also reached out to them to ask about international partners (UK volunteering opportunities with them are over the summer), so will also share anything I hear back from them.

Thanks again, and keep the suggestions coming! Seems like there are lots of people hoping to do something similar so this will definitely be a good resource for the community to have.

 

[TheRedBeanPanda]

Check out Gili Eco Trust. They maintain Biorock coral gardens and they also help to clean up the island and its beaches. There are courses that you need to pay for afaik but maybe you can also just stay on the island and help out somehow. There are also conservation courses offered at Trawangan Dive that enable you to help with coral restoration.