Blue Ventures Marine Conservation Expedition in Madagascar

I spent 8 weeks in Madagascar earlier this year and to keep this story short - I had the best time of my life! I really can't recommend this enough, it's a different world and I fell in love with Andavadoaka so much! I wouldn't have believed how attached you can get to a place and a group of people in such a short space of time.

How can this program be improved?
By letting us stay and not having to go home!

Being a Blue Ventures volunteer in Madagascar is an experience that I will never forget for all the right reasons. No two days were the same but fun was guaranteed. I am going to try to give an overview of what a typical day might comprise.

You would get a wake up call from the waves and birds just outside your door any time after about 5.30. I normally woke up between 6.15 and 7 and went outside to lie in my hammock and watch the world go by for a while or go slightly crazy and exercise in Jim’s Gym at 6.30. It would then be time to prepare my dive kit before breakfast if I was diving at 9.

Breakfast was at 8 with the rest of the morning normally spent diving or hanging out in the beautiful surroundings of Coco Beach or Andavadoaka. The diving was really varied with different sites visited almost every day. It didn’t matter if you went back to the same site three times in a week as you would see different species every time. Bic, the dive manager, is absolutely fantastic and you should have no fears about going diving if you haven’t as he really knows how to teach and he is just an awesome person to be around.

When not diving, at 9 and 11, you had downtime in which you could study your fish or benthic invertebrates have a relax outside the huts, take a walk into Andavadoaka or go for a swim off the beach. You would dive once most days and twice every couple of days.

The afternoons varied a bit more with different activities almost every day from 3 till 7. There would be a range of these from English/Malagasy exchange (fun but challenging), volleyball, presentations on different BV projects and lectures on the science (Don’t worry it’s not that hard and though the fish list looks daunting you should be on top of it within two weeks). There will also be opportunities to get involved in other Blue Ventures projects such as their Safidy (health) and education programs which are designed to help the communities around Andavadoaka reduce their reliance upon their precious marine resources by enabling them to have choices in their lives

Both volunteer groups I was in got on well and there was always someone to talk to if you felt like it. You can easily get away, though, and have time on your own.

Some of the best experiences for me were when we went on our excursions and spent some time away from base. These were a great chance to see Malagasy culture up close and the two trips we made to the island of Nosy Ve, were both really memorable. I really found the alternative livelihoods project were giving the communities the opportunities that they wanted and I greatly enjoyed assisting with the cucumber sale in the middle of the night. Perhaps the best experience was surveying for the highly endangered Spider Tortoise in the Bay of Assassins.

The diving was in my opinion better than that on the Great Barrier Reef and the fact that you learn to identify the underwater life makes diving much more interesting as you know what your looking at. I’d heartily recommend BV’s volunteer programme to anyone wanting to experience the extraordinary, while contributing to vitally important marine conservation. You also get to work with some of the most positive people living in some of the world’s poorest communities . The combination of diving, learning and contributing to Blue Ventures community projects was fascinating and exhilarating.

After finishing high school I decided to take a gap year. I already had my PADI Advanced open water so I knew I wanted to do something with diving. After doing some research on the internet I found Blue Ventures in Madagascar. I know there is also another organisation doing a conservation project in madagascar, but I got a better feeling from Blue Ventures.

My 12 week stay was amazing! I am now a dive master and I can identify fish and coral. The staff is super friendly and the place really starts to feel like a second home. BV really helps in the whole progress from getting my visa to getting a new gopro to Andavadoaka because I flooded the other one.

Only been for two weeks to Cambridge before heading to Madagascar I was quite nervous. However I made many new friends during my trip and I learned a lot from this experience! I cried when I left because I didn't want to leave and I know more people did the same.

I really feel that BV has helped the villages in Velondriake and I am proud that I could do something to help. From collecting data to collecting seacucumbers and helping during saturday school. This program is so broad that there is an opportunity for everyone to help in their own way.

The dive instructor Bic is a really good mentor and has helped me a lot with the dive master course. I feel confident in my diving and I am excited to continue my diving education. I did around 60 dives during my stay and I believe that the frequent diving really helps people to improve their skills. I've seen people come to BV without having done any diving before and leaving feeling confident in their diving skills.

All in all, I would really recommend this program to everyone. If you are interested in the program. I kept a blog during my stay https://sannestravels.wordpress.com

In 2013 I graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in Marine Biology. After graduating I married my husband, a petty officer in the Navy, and moved to Virginia. After a year of working outside my field I had paid down my student loans enough so that I could afford to gain the dive certifications I will need to further my career in my field. After a lot of research I felt Blue Ventures was the best way I could not only get the dive certifications I needed but also gain experience in the field aiding conservation efforts while giving back to the local community.

I could not have made a better decision. As it was my first time out of my home country, USA, I was very nervous about leaving. From the fist step Sarah, from the London office of BV, was extremely helpful and was able to answer any questions I had, wether it was a simple passport question to getting me in touch with Madison the expedition manger in Andavadoaka, Madagascar.

I was very impressed with Blue Ventures involvement in the village. During my 8 weeks in Madagascar I was immersed in the local culture. I was able to participate in several community events such as Earth day, choir practice, dancing with the Nahoda, and the Malagasy Independence Day. I also developed a strong bond with my English student, Symphorian, who I am still in contact with.

I and the other volunteers formed a real sense of community with in the Blue Ventures team, who was very helpful throughout the expedition. As a group we dove twice a day while practicing dive skills, under water species identification, various surveying techniques, and eventually were able to conduct our own surveys. By the end of the expedition I was not only PADI Rescue Diver and Emergency First Responder certified, but also skilled in IDing local fish and benthic organisms as well as actively involved in the village community.

My expedition with Blue Ventures was a life changing experience and I would recommend it to anyone wether you looking for adventure, immersion in another culture, gaining dive experience, or kick starting a career in Marine Biology.

Before leaving Europe for Madagascar, I was pretty nervous. Will volunteers and staff be friendly and fun? Will the diving be an good? Will I get sick? All these worries were blown away on arrival in Andava, the little village where BV has its camp. The huts (4 person huts, we were 3 girls sharing) are overlooking a beautiful bay. They are basic but totally sufficient, each hut even has a flushing toilet (luxury in that part of the world) and a salt water shower.
Volunteers were amazing. The age range on my expedition was from 18 to 60 and we all bonded instantly (being on the overland tour at the beginning of the trip was helpful). Staff was very helpful, cheerful, knowledgabe and seemed to enjoy their jobs. Malagasy people were always friendly and welcoming, even with the language barrier (French might be helpful but not as much as I thought). And shopping trips to the village for our daily sugar rationing in the form of bocu-bocu, a local kind of "donut" were always fun, people interested and open.
The first couple of weeks were lots of studying: fish, benthic, diving. But being right next to the ocean, having sand everywhere, being salty all the time, going diving every day: for me it was mind-blowingly beautiful! Not even the adminittedly basic, monotonous food (white bread and honey for breakie; rice, beans and fish for lunch and dinner) could harm my enthusiasm. Special treats were trips to the baobab trees, to the seacucumber pens in another village, to go search spider tortoises, sailing trips in pirogues and party nights on saturdays.
The diving was very diverse. We had everything from 2-30m visibility, saw lots of broken corals from the last hurricane and lots of beautiful hard- and softcoral. Of course also lots of fish, and we were able to ID most of them ;)
I learned so much from this expedition. I learned a lot about life in the ocean and about living with the ocean. But also what it means to live in a third world country, where people still live without electricity, bathrooms, or any other kind of luxury. (don't worry, the expedition huts have power for 7 hours a day from a generator and as mentioned, they have bathrooms).
I loved staying in such a remote area, being around awesome people and living right next to and with the ocean. I would definitely recommend this program. It was a wonderful, rewarding and live-changing experience.

Wonderful experience. Excellent staff, great support throughout, very responsive to feedback, well organised.
A typical day would involve two dives in the morning, learning fish and benthic or collecting coral/fish data to help monitor the state of the coral reef both in and out of reserves set up by blue ventures. Afternoons are spent in informative lectures about other projects blue ventures take a part in, as well as chances to give something back with three weekly english lessons to local villagers.

The setting itself is breathtakingly beautiful, a remote area of paradise.

I wrote a blog about my life changing experience, have a read and see for yourself: http://cpikesadventures.blogspot.com

This will tell you all the ups and downs but it is nothing short of a magical experience!

I would love to go back... It is where I left my live for an amazing country!