Volunteer Update
June 06, 2011 by dyertrust
The sharks have been amazing this past few months with sometimes up to 20 sharks or more being sighted on one trip. The month of May was very exciting forGreat White Shark Research.
Manuel, from Germany, joined us for the 3rd year. Manuel is a Biology student from The University of Marburg and is currently doing his Bachelors Thesis about the subsurface identification of Great White Sharks in the Dyer Island Region. Together with ourmarine biologists,Marine Dynamics, Dyer Island Conservation Trust and Fasttrax, he is working on achieving his research results. It was also very exciting for this young biologist to meet world renowned shark scientist Dr Leonard Compagno and Afrioceans Conservation Exective Director Lesley Rochat who joined us on Slashfin.
View some of Lesleys incredible images here (link toApart from Manuel we also had Noelle back for her 3rd time (in one year). She returned home for her graduation and will be furthering her studies to become a vet. We wish her much success in her chosen career path and hope we see you again, Noelle!
We live on hellos and goodbyes here and we definitely prefer the hellos.
This past month saw the following volunteers pass through our doors and into our hearts:Tami, Max, Mari, Noelle, Daniel and Selena, JR, Jana, Hannah and Julia
Every month we usually have at least one beach cleanup with the local schools as we work with theFootball Foundationin assisting with two lessons, help the groups from the Eco-Schools programme and assist other schools in fulfilling their curriculum. Julia had the wonderful opportunity to be a part of our educational clean marine project and helped with the Beach clean-up at Franskraal with 15 children from Maskhane. The main item found on this particular stretch of coastline was fishing lineat least two bags full. This was a wonderful opportunity to educate the children about ourfishing line bin projectwhich is currently only in Gansbaai and nearby areas, but which we hope to see grow along the whole coastline. Julia assisted on the day and helped collate the statistics which are a record for the Ocean Conservancy.
These stats provide a picture of what Julia comment from her experience.: What a life changing experience the shore line clean up was. As a Canadian, I was very unaware about the impact that fishing lines leave behind. It was devastating when I found a bird
skull with lines tangled around its beak. Their kids were such an amazing help and their motivation was inspiring.
Keep watching this space for more news on what we are up to.We are expecting a bumper crowd of volunteers in the next few months and our first volunteer on the whale boat.If youhavent read about this new opportunity yet,click hereand read more on our whale volunteer page.
