Diane,
I've just joined this forum and saw your post. I am the Director and co-founder of Utila Centre for Marine Ecology and thought I may be able to waylay some of your concerns...
Having seen a multitude of "volunteer conservation" outfits over the years I must agree that many of the diving and "research" they do is, as you put it - cr*ppy.
However I can safely say that UCME is a completely different concept. Instead of being a UK operation sending people to "help" another country, it is a Honduran non-governmental organisation with a group of research biologists and conservation specialists based permanently within Honduras. Because of this we are directly linked to national and international universities and to national and local government authorities and thus form a hub for marine research that can funnel the results directly to those who need the answers.
The work we do here is not the standard reef mapping or monitoring that many organisations conduct, but actual research trying to identify and mitigate environmental problems. Each of the research team here head up a different portion of the work and train volunteers to assist them to collect important data sets. Be it monitoring dolphin and whale populations, collecting genetic samples of coral or evaluating spawning aggregations of fish, the work is varied and as a volunteer you get to take your diving and your understanding of the marine environment to a whole different level. Whilst obviously biased I would say the 4 week programme would give you an unforgettable experience.
If you'd like further information I'd be happy to explain more about the organisation via email just drop me a line at
steve@utilaecology.org or I can put you in touch with previous volunteers who'd be happy to tell you more about being here.
As for diving in Utila in December, since it's the rainy season the weather's not always great, which can make the schedule unpredictable, but even if visibility drops due to rain we're still able to conduct most of our work. In fact when its grey and rainy on the surface the best place to be is underwater!
Look forward to hearing from you,
Steve
