Marine Conservation & PADI training

Earn your PADI diving certificate when you join this conservation team and discover Mexico’s Mesoamerican coral reef and its abundant wildlife. Travel to the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea and join forces with our marine conservation expedition, earn your PADI diving certificate while working on and monitoring the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the second largest barrier reef in the world.Our team works directly on monitoring the overall health of the reef and you will contribute to coral reef and fish monitoring, among many other tasks, developing an impressive knowledge of this fascinating underwater environment. You will spend the majority of your time on this expedition gaining and improving Marine conservation and Scuba diving skills, helping our partners carry out their marine conservation work. Non-divers can join for 8- and 12-week durations, we will supply you with all the training you need to be certified up to PADI Advanced Diver. The 4-week duration is only open for divers already qualified to PADI Open Water Diver or equivalent. For non-divers wishing to attend for 4-weeks, we can recommend local dive centers that will help you qualify before your intended start date. Also, if you wish to add to your scuba diving skillset, why not take an extra course at a discounted rate or through a nearby dive centre during your free time. Typical day As a volunteer you will be diving/snorkeling 1-2 times a day. Your main focus will be on monitoring the health of coral reefs through monitoring the corals and fish. Volunteers are divided into fish or coral by the onsite Science Officer. The 4 to 8 week volunteers will be allocated to learn Fish families and the appropriate methodology, they may also be able to help with and learn Coral Watch. Fish study either adult of juvenile fish. If you progress quickly you may learn both. If you are allocated to coral, you will be divided into the study of sessile organisms on the reef and coral diseases, this will be done on base once you have learned the coral species list. Other programmes which will run throughout the year dependent on the needs in field at the current time: a) Coral restoration in laboratory and in marine coral nurseries as per requirements of the project b) Sea grass ecosystem monitoring as per requirement of our in country partners c)Tourist impact assessment on the Coral Reef d)Incidental sightings of marine mega fauna recording e) Lionfish population studies f) Weekly beach cleans and outreach work to assist the community and promote conservation practises. Activities in the Puerto Morelos on this program start at 0730 hrs with the volunteers and on base staff sharing in different duties (preparing breakfast for everyone, setting up dive equipment, setting up boat equipment, base cleaning,etc). After that, the rest of the day volunteers will be allocated to diverse activities such as: working on the coral restoration project in the laboratory area, dive training, in field science training, in base science training, dive briefings, lectures, and other activities. The activities with end at around 18:00, when the schedule board for next days activities is presented to the team as well as any announcements. - Volunteers can expect to have just a couple of hours a day of personal time in this time schedule from Monday to Friday. Weekends, volunteers can rest or take some time off travelling in the region or just relaxing in base. Free-time activities You will be 2.5 kilometers (1.59 miles), over an 15 minutes away from downtown Puerto Morelos within the National Park Reefs of Puerto Morelos. Travelling outside of base is reliant on taxis, minimum US$15 one way per taxi to downtown Puerto Morelos. Larger taxis are cheaper depending on number of people going out. Public transport is easy and relatively cheap, travelling regularly between major towns. In your down time you will be free to travel in the local area and will have 2 free days per week. Every 4 week volunteers get a 3 day weekend. In your time off you could do daytrips such as visiting Tulum or Coba Mayan ruins, do some cenote diving, visit Playa del Carmen, etc. Before and after your programme you could go to Merida, Chichen Itza, Chiapas or Central America - the possibilities are endless!