All over the world dedicated volunteers help with important conservation projects ranging from planting trees, scrub bashing to scuba diving!

Yes, scuba diving. In addition to land based projects, conservation and environmental charities are now benefiting from volunteers who are helping to collect important biological data from the ocean.

The Ocean

Our planet is 70% ocean, yet historically we have explored very little of this vast and important natural habitat.  What is know though is that in some areas of the sea, marine life is on the decline, this includes areas around the UK.  I have highlighted loss of marine life in some of my previous posts including: Can we have the Bill please and Cycling to save our seas - Update.

Cycling to save our seas

You may recall that back in August,  I raised money for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust through a sponsored bike ride (reported about in the post titled Cycling to save our seas - Update).

As a thank you for raising this money,  the Marine Officer at the Hampshire and IOW Wildlife Trust ‘Vicky Swales’ invited me and my fiancé to join her and a team of volunteer divers on a Seasearch expedition.

Seasearch

Seasearch is a national project for volunteer scuba divers who have an interest in what they’re seeing under water,  want to learn more and want to help protect the marine environment.  The main aim is to map out the various types of sea bed found in the near-shore zone around the whole of the British Isles. In addition they record what lives in each area, establishing the richest sites for marine life,  the sites where there are problems and the sites which need protection including along the Hampshire and IOW coast.

The Hampshire and IOW coast

The marine habitats off the Hampshire and Isle of Wight coasts are diverse,  with wrecks,  rocky reefs and sand and gravel dunes.  They play host to a wealth of marine life from sea squirts and sponges to corals and cuttlefish.

Due to commercial dredging and over fishing,  areas along the coast have been affected. In order to determine the extent of the damage,  the Hampshire and IOW Wildlife Trust undertake underwater biological surveys as part of the seasearch project.

Seasearch expedition: 21/10/07

When Vicky invited me to join the Seasearch team as an observer for the day,  I was really pleased as it was a chance to see marine conservation in action.  The expedition was to be the last of the year and we were very fortunate that the weather was on our side, the sun was shining and the waves were calm.

In total there was five volunteer divers,  three observers (including me and my fiancé), Vicky and the Skipper Steve Dimmer.   After health and safety instructions and a lot of paperwork (all of which is vital) we set sail onto the Solent.

When we got to the first dive spot,  all of the divers were prepped by Vicky and then they got on with getting all of their scuba gear on.  If you have ever seen divers get ready, especially when they are going into cold water then you will realise it’s not a simple process.  They have to do a lot of checking to make sure that all their equipment is in full working condition.

The divers went down in a group of two and a group of three,  each team had a camera and they all had a waterproof note board in which to write their observations. Unfortunately visibility was not fantastic on the first dive however one group did encounter an eel. 

The second dive was in shallower water and visibility was much stronger.  The divers were very pleased as the area was quite diverse with marine life ranging from algae to even a Bloody Henry Starfish (Henricia oculata).   All of the data collected on this Seasearch expedition and previous ones will be loaded into a database so that the Wildlife Trust can identify important sites and species around our shores.

Getting Involved

If you are not all ready, then I highly recommend that GGG readers become involved in conservation work as it is extremely rewarding and provides essential support to conservation and environmental charities.  For example all of the Seasearch volunteers who I spoke to thoroughly enjoyed what they did and were delighted to combine their scuba dive hobby with important conservation work.

Seasearch are always looking for qualified divers to help with underwater surveying, thus if you are interested and would like further information about Seasearch please click here.

If you are not a qualified diver and would like to help with marine surveying, then you could assist with Shoresearch. For further details about Shoresearch please click here.

I will post details about further conservation volunteering experiences and opportunities in future posts.  However in the mean time if you use the social networking site Facebook and would like to learn about conservation volunteering or share your experiences then please join the ‘I’m a conservation volunteer’ group.