During your stay at Marine Conservation Philippines, you will most likely be involved with conducting some of our reef surveys. We conduct three different types of survey here. These types are substrate (bottom composition), invertebrate life, and fish life. There is a lot to take in, and you no doubt would like to hit the ground running.  If possible, we recommend starting the learning process before you arrive using the provided primers.  It gives you a basic understanding of what you are going to be working with.

Download current 2025 flashcard decks to practise species identification before your arrival.  The three decks are zipped files, each containing about 70 images.  You can cover the right side of your screen (with the name and identification features) as you practise.  Some people print and fold the cards, so they have the info on the backside.

Historic note: Pre-covid we encouraged volunteer divers to practise species id before their arrival using a digital flash card system called Anki. it was a neat program used to display flashcards.  Volunteers frequently encountered technical problems however, and often times got frustrated making the program work on their devices.  As such this is a legacy option, and we offer no technical support, nor do we update the Anki decks anymore.  We instead suggest new volunteers download the flashcards and survey primers linked above.