In June of 2019: I, Anne Furr owner of Mangily Scuba, was chosen along with 5 other reef practitioners from the Western Indian Ocean, including Mauritius, Rodrigues, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Kenya. to participate in a reef restoration course on Praslin, Seychelles This course was sponsored by Noble Caledonia Charitable Trust, Nature Seychelles, Corales de Paz, WIOMSA, and The Nature Conservancy. The aim of the course was to bring together reef practitioners from the Western Indian Ocean to teach us coral gardening techniques in an effort to preserve and improve existing reef health in our specific countries. I have partnered with Reef Guru, a British NGO, who has a pre-designed Marine Conservation and Restoration Specialty Diver Course. certification. This 3day/ 6 dives course: 1) teaches
recreational divers’ coral identification, 2) teaches local and global threats to endangered reefs
and how to protect the reefs from small scale local impacts from the dive tourism industry,
and 3) describes reef restoration theory and techniques. The benefits of this course for the local reef will 1) protect and restore a community managed reserve, 2) promote a tourist attraction, 3) be monetarily
beneficial to the local fisherman’s association due to an already established entrance fee
scheme, 4) increase abundance of coral and fish stocks on the reef, 5) create new ecosystem
habitat amongst the nursery and 6) provide better fishing for the local community around the
edges of the reserve due to the spill-over effect.Certified divers can opt to participate in this restoration project that benefits the local reef whilst at the same time completing the Reef Guru Restoration and Conservation Specialty Course. By the end of the 6 dives, the eco-volunteers will earn a Reef Guru diver specialty certification, gain insight to marine conservation techniques, and most importantly help protect, preserve, and improve the health of the reef system of SW Madagascar!!
At the moment this is still a work in progress, but hopefully will become available by 2020! Please let me know if this could be of interest to you...!!! Prices to be made available soon....
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