Marine Conservation Cambodia, not your average volunteering experience…

After landing in Phnom Penh in the early hours of a Monday morning, I made the three-hour journey South to Kep, a coastal town popular with holidaying locals. Upon reaching the Oceanarium at Kep Pier, an education and research facility also established by Marine Conservation Cambodia (MCC), I was soon greeted by Paul Ferber, the organizations founding father, and his large, excitable but extremely welcoming family - dogs and all! Together we made the one hour boat ride further South to the remote and picturesque Island of Koh Seh. I was immediately made to feel welcome by all of the team members and the other volunteers and I was soon shown to my rustic bungalow, which I would be sharing with two other volunteers. Accommodation was certainly basic, but I very quickly got used to the bucket showers and intermittent electricity. The following day I received a tour of the island, and I was amazed to realize how small it actually was. Asides from the MCC camp, there is a fisheries police station and no other residents or developments, making it the perfect desert island getaway.

As I was planning on volunteering with MCC for two months, there was sufficient time for me to be trained in the practice of Reef Check Surveys, which aid in monitoring the state of the reefs in a proposed MPA around Koh Seh and neighboring islands. This meant that I spent my first couple of weeks learning how to correctly identify fish and invertebrate species, and the reef substrate, in addition to spending plenty of time in the water, snorkeling and diving while practicing my ID skills. In the weeks that followed I helped to perform Reef Check Surveys on a number of different reefs, and given that MCC had only last year relocated to Koh Seh and begun work in the area, it was fascinating to watch as the reefs improved in condition and the marine life flourished, even in just the 8 weeks I was there. I was also trained to ID seahorse species commonly found in the area. This meant that when I wasn’t doing Reef Checks, I was carrying out seahorse surveys aimed at monitoring population sizes and distributions of this vulnerable animal in the area. However when weather conditions made diving difficult, there was still plenty to do on the island to keep busy such as beach clean-ups, tending to MCC’s garden and building anti-trawling devices. A fortnightly highlight was the ‘island swim’; a 1.2km (noncompulsory!) swim from Koh Seh to the neighboring island Koh Angkrong, where we would have a picnic on the beach followed by a leisurely fun dive along the reef. Evenings were spent playing volleyball, socializing in the main bungalow with an Angkor or two, round a campfire, watching a film/documentary or swimming off the end of the pier in the spectacular bioluminescence. Additionally, every Friday morning we would head back to the mainland to interview small-scale fishermen from local fishing communities to determine the impact of illegal Vietnamese fishing activity on their livelihoods. Subsequently volunteers had the choice of either returning to the island for a relaxing couple of days, or staying on the mainland for some Internet and creature comforts.

MCC is not affiliated with any commercial voluntourism organization; therefore it is clear that its main purpose is to make a tangible positive difference to Cambodia’s marine environments, something that wouldn’t be possible without volunteers contributing their time and expertise. MCC is working at the frontline of conservation, with Paul and a group of passionate individuals regularly patrolling the area for illegal trawlers in an attempt to conserve the marine environments integrity. For the entirety of the time I was volunteering with MCC, I felt like my contribution was appreciated and integral to their work conserving Cambodia’s ocean and its inhabitants. However, ultimately it was the people at MCC that made my experience so unforgettable. I met such a fantastic team with individuals of all ages and from all walks of life who shared the same drive to help the environment. I wish MCC the very best with all their future work and would recommend this volunteering opportunity to anyone who is looking to contribute to a worthwhile cause while having a hell of a lot of fun!