Alumni
For everyone who spent a season with Coral Cay Conservation, in Napantao or any of its other bases around the world, this page is for you.What Alumni Remember
These are the real thoughts and lines from reviews, left over the years on GoOverseas, TripAdvisor and elsewhere. There's only a handful here, but you can find dozens and dozens more online, all echoing these sentiments and experiences. They overwhelmingly describe what the CCC experience was like, and probably, to a large extent, what volunteering with Marine Conservation Philippines is like today too.
“...the house reef just a stone's throw away from your room was the highlight.”
No background in marine science going in. Wrote about surveying the same house-reef site more than forty times, a passing pod of thirty-odd pilot whales, and swimming with whale sharks on a day off.
“...the friends you make at the base will remain friends for life.”
Wrote about presenting survey results directly to the villages whose waters CCC was monitoring, and knowing local government actually used the data collected.
“Coral Cay truly is world-class in the manner they conduct their research projects.”
Described a nine-month placement that only began after CCC pushed back with hard questions about the proposal, rather than accepting him outright.
“...probably the best trip of my life.”
Planned five weeks, stayed to the very last possible day, and cancelled the travel booked afterwards rather than leave early.
“My time there changed everything for me.”
Went straight from high school for three months. Wrote fondly about the small stuff, fish paintings on the walls, the chef's extra fried chicken, serious Saturday quiz nights.
“Swapping the suits & endless meetings from my former life as a consultant...”
Told The Scuba News he'd left a London consulting job, and found real satisfaction watching volunteers arrive knowing nothing and leave as ocean advocates.
“...really connected with their approach to research and community engagement.”
Met a CCC team in Cambodia before later joining their expedition management internship, UK training first, then six months on site in the Philippines.
“...started out as something of an interest has become a sort of life direction.”
A Manila-born volunteer's detailed TripAdvisor account of six weeks at Napantao: no running water, learning coral names by heart, staying well past when she'd first planned to leave.
Stay in Touch
A CCC base was a small, intense place to share a season of your life: shared bunks, long dive days, science lectures running late into the night, and the kind of camaraderie that only comes from all of that together. It's natural to wonder what happened to the people you went through it with, the dive buddy who got you through a nervous first survey, the roommate who saved you the last of the fried chicken, the friends who kept you sane through the science tests.
There's no formal alumni network to point you to, but Coral Cay Conservation's Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts are a good place to start. Plenty of former volunteers and staff still follow along there, so it's worth posting on the Facebook wall, tagging old dive buddies, or just asking around, someone probably knows where everyone ended up. If enough of you fancy it, use the page to get a reunion going. We'd love to hear it's happening.
Come Back Anytime
If you volunteered with Coral Cay Conservation, in Napantao or on any other CCC site over the years, we'd love to welcome you back into the water.
That willingness doesn't expire. You already gave up weeks or months of your own life for a faraway reef, learned the hard science, did the early starts, and helped build something the local communities actually relied on. The organisation that first sent you into the water may be gone, but the reefs, the people, and the work are still here, and if you're still willing to get back in for them, we want to make that easier, not harder.
The same way returning MCP volunteers already get a discount, we're gratuitously extending a 10% discount to CCC alumni too.
Just mention in your application that you volunteered with CCC, and we'll take it from there.
Apply to Volunteer