What Will I Do as a Volunteer?
Why
The Big Idea
For most people, what happens beneath the waves stays out of sight, and what you can't see is easy to ignore. As a scientific scuba diver, you'll see first-hand what overfishing, global warming and pollution do to a reef, and why it's worth fighting back.
In the water and on land
Your Involvement
During your stay, you can take part in many different projects. Some are one-offs, like tackling crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks or planting mangroves at certain times of year. Our science officers' projects also change over time, as some are completed and new ones take their place. The constant is our ecological monitoring programme: year-round surveys of the coral reefs along the southern coast of Negros, where, among other things, we record species abundance, substrate cover and damage to the reefs.
Our work relies on citizen science and scientific scuba diving. If you've never dived before, you'll spend your first two weeks learning to dive safely and confidently through PADI training. Depending on how long you stay, you can complete several courses. Our rule of thumb is one course for every four weeks of volunteering, choosing from PADI Open Water, Advanced Open Water and Rescue Diver. If you're really ambitious, you can even become a PADI Divemaster.
Not all our work happens underwater. On land we plant mangroves, run beach clean-ups and community outreach programmes, and every year we host a marine conservation summer camp.
A typical day
The Daily Schedule
Life at base starts with breakfast at 7am, followed by a run-through of the day's plan. Some volunteers will still be on their scuba courses, while others head out for marine research, underwater clean-ups or community work. What you do depends mostly on where you are in the volunteer programme, but we take personal preferences into account too.
When you come back from diving and have cleaned your dive kit, it's time for lunch. This is normally around one or two o'clock. Afternoons usually go to entering survey data, which we turn into reports for the relevant authorities (see how the data works here). You may also be studying for your next PADI course, joining a workshop or sitting in on an interesting talk. If none of that applies, you can use our gym, enjoy that book you found in the library or snooze in a hammock.
In the evening, if you aren't night diving, you'll probably just want to unwind with the other volunteers. Dinner is at six thirty. After dinner, your time is your own. You might organise a game or movie night, get people around a campfire, catch up with home on our free wifi, or put in a few hours of study or remote work in one of our quiet, cosy corners.
Time to explore
Days Off
Whenever you'd like a day off, let us know. You might want to see other islands, make a visa-and-shopping run to Dumaguete, explore the area on a habal-habal (motorbike taxi), or simply spend the day in a hammock with a book. The work we do is important and we value your contribution, but we understand that if you're staying for months, you'll want some time to yourself. That's fine, but please give us plenty of notice so we can plan around it.
Sunday is always a day off. There's no diving from base, and our staff get the day off too, so the kitchen is open for you to cook your own meals, or you can head out to eat. Many volunteers spend Sundays on day trips around the countryside. When did you last swim in a mountain lake, dive off Siquijor, visit a faith healer or sing karaoke?