Tag: wildlife conservation

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From our scuba diving conservation holiday with whale sharks and coral reefs of the Maldives

Greetings from Male’! I have arrived to a beautifully sunny day, but sadly Dr. Jean-Luc Solandt is not with me. Due to unforeseen circumstances, he has had to withdraw from this expedition at the 11th hour, and will no longer be on board the MV Carpe Diem with us. He will, however, be working with us remotely and will support and advise throughout. On expedition we are always reminded to, ‘expect the unexpected’, and this is a true example of that maxim!

Dr Jean-Luc has asked me to pass on this message to you:

“Unfortunately – for critical personal reasons – I cannot make the expedition this year. For that, I’m very sorry. However, you are all in excellent hands with an exceptional expedition leader (with excellent coral reef teaching skills), and two Maldivians who are competent in Reef Check methodology, and who are developing the new in-country NGO ReefCheck Maldives. I hope you have a truly successful and brilliant time, and thank you for your endeavours to help save Maldives reefs.”

As Dr Jean-Luc has alluded to, we are fortunate to have a wealth of experience and expertise on board, with a passionate and pioneering Maldivian presence and a number of marine biologists as part of the team, and it is now all of our responsibility to work hard and collect the data as planned.

I now have a local mobile number +960 789 2930 which should only be used for emergency purposes (such as missing assembly).

I hope your travels are going well and I look forward to meeting you tomorrow, Saturday, at 11:00 at the Coffee Club in Male Airport.

Best wishes,

Catherine Edsell
Expedition Leader

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From our snow leopard volunteering expedition in the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

Can one have too much of pretty wildflowers, awesome mountain vistas and amazing sunshine? Perhaps, but who cares. Get your fill from group 1 here!

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From our scuba diving conservation holiday with whale sharks and coral reefs of the Maldives

Hello, my name is Catherine and I’m going to be your expedition leader for this year’s Maldives expedition. I led this expedition in 2014 and 2015, and am looking forward to investigating, with your help, the recovery from last year’s bleaching event (do read the 2016 report in preparation).

Catherine Edsell
Catherine Edsell

I’ll be travelling out in advance with Dr. Jean-Luc Solandt, our scientist, to ensure that everything is ready for your arrival, and will be in touch with updates and my local mobile number from Male’.

Dr. Jean-Luc Solandt
Dr. Jean-Luc Solandt

On this expedition we will be training and passing knowledge to our new Maldivian partner NGO Reef Check Maldives, which was formed recently as a direct result of our local placement and capacity-building programme.

During the first slot, we will visit our permanent monitoring sites and re-test our theory that those sites in more exposed waters are faring better than the more sheltered sites.  In the second slot, we have the chance to complete an extensive set of surveys in more isolated locations, well away from most tourist islands. This will provide very interesting data comparison, and give us more information on the impact of last year’s bleaching event.  We will also be recording sightings of rare and spectacular species such as whale sharks and mantas, with a brand new survey site for whale sharks, south of Vaavu reef.

I hope all your preparations are going well, and that you’ve had a chance to study all the Reef Check material and whale shark info available on  www.biosphere-expeditions.org/methods as this will not only save you revision time on board, but stand you in good stead for a fruitful expedition. For those of you who are already Reef Check qualified, this is also a great resource to refresh your memory!

I look forward to meeting the first team at the assembly point, Coffee Club at Male Airport on 15 July at 11:00.

Best wishes

Catherine Edsell
Expedition Leader

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From our snow leopard volunteering expedition in the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

Group 1 is safely back in Bishkek, after an excellent fortnight in the mountains with a great group. Thank you all!

We found 1.5 snow leopard signs, saw plenty of ibex and other wildlife, amazing wildflowers and landscapes, and were so lucky with the weather too.

But I will let the videos below speak for themselves. These were done by Matthias, so from now on it will be text and pictures only every fortnight when we change over in Bishkek, but I think the videos will last all of us for the expedition’s duration.

Thank you again to group 1 of Adnan, Cate, Gina, Jannis, Lisa, Matthias, Nadia, Neil, Nitin, Shruti, Uli, Urmas, the Grupa Bars members Aman and Shailo, our scientist Volodya and our amazing cook Gulia, as well as Biosphere Expeditions staff Tessa, Amadeus & Matthias.

See you on Monday, group 2! You have big boots to fill 😉

…and here is an updated version of…

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From our snow leopard volunteering expedition in the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

This by special courier from the mountains (from group 2 onwards, there will only be an update/summary every two weeks as groups change over in Bishkek).

Group 1 has arrived, gone to the mountains, put up the yurt, had its training sessions and conducted its first week of field surveys. Many ibex, marmots, birds and other wildlife have been spotted, but there is no sign of our quarry yet. But then snow leopard research & conservation is a long game. All is well with the team in the mountains.

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From our snow leopard volunteering expedition in the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

We’re all ready for you. Here are two more videos…

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From our snow leopard volunteering expedition in the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

Our pre-expedition shopping spree and preparations are done. Tomorrow we will drive everything into the mountains and set up base camp. It was over 30 C in Bishkek again today,  but the forecast is for the mountains for tomorrow is rain, and snow higher up. It would be our first time setting up in snow. On Sunday, some of us will come back for some last-minute shopping and tying up lose ends, and of course to collect Group 1 on Monday.

So now it’s time to introduce you to Volodya (scientist), Amadeus (expedition leader), Aman & Shiloo (from the NABU anti-poaching ‘Grupa Bars’ = group snow leopard). Sadly missing is the most important person of the expedition, our cook Gulia (Aman’s wife).

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From our snow leopard volunteering expedition in the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

Here’s our first diary entry from Bishkek. It’s in the 30s C here, so hot and sunny. The mountains will be a relief. As you can see, we’re getting ready for you and we hope your preparations are going as well as ours 😉 Safe travels, group 1. We’ll see you at the Futuro 08:00 on Monday.

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Update from our conservation holiday protecting leatherback and other sea turtles on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica

Here’s a first report of the season by our expedition scientist Fabian Carrasco:

Fabian Carrasco

The leatherback season started on 26 February with the first nesting female. Unfortunately she was poached. Later we had a nest in situ on 1  March. Her tracks were hidden by the waves in a couple of hours and the eggs remained safe from poachers. Our patrols with local assistants and international research assistants have started and in the past 43 days we have recorded 52 successful nesting activities:

* 1 natural nest (in situ)

* 25 nest relocated in Styrofoam coolers

* 9 nest relocated higher up the beach between markers 95-104

* 19 poached nests

* 1 nest saved by the Coast Guard and Police O.I.J.

Among the nests relocated in styrofoam coolers is one of green turtle (from 2 April). The others nests are from leatherbacks. No hawksbill have been seen yet.

The fist hatchlings are due between 1 and 8 May at marker 79.

Green turtle returning to sea after nesting
Leatherback turtle returning to sea after nesting
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Update from our conservation holiday protecting leatherback and other sea turtles on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica

Welcome to the Costa Rica 2017 expedition diary! My name is Ida Vincent and I will be your expedition leader. This will be my second year on this expedition and I look forward to being back at the Pacuare field station and working together with Latin America Sea Turtles (LAST).

Ida

The field station is located just behind the beach where the turtles nest and during our time in Pacuare we will work closely with the onsite biologist from LAST, Fabian Carrasco, who will be training us in sea turtle monitoring. Lucy Marcus, expedition leader in training, will be assisting me throughout the expedition and we all look forward to meeting you on 8 May.

Lucy

Lucy and I will already be in Pacuare helping to prepare the field station for you arrival, however, Nicki Wheeler from LAST will be meeting you at 09.00 in the lobby of Hotel Santo Tomas. Make sure to be on time as our first night of patrols starts that very evening and there is a lot to learn prior.

Have another look through your dossier and check your packing list, remember that your head lamp needs to have a red light mode.

Hopefully you will all have read the 2016 expedition report too, so you already know why we are there and do what we do. As you can read in the report, support from citizen scientists such as you is critical, so thank you for your support and see you in a couple of weeks!

Ida