Tag: Internships

From March 18th to April 7th, Corales de Paz team was receiving the support of three young danish volunteers who for three weeks were in San Andres and Providencia being trained in coral restoration and coral monitoring techniques. They were our first international Reef Repair divers and Reef Check Divers in this volunteer program that Corales de paz began this year. They could experiment the islands in a different way and get involved in the coral conservation work that is being carry out in San Andrés and Providencia. This text was prepared by Vera, Victoria and Tobias. They share to all of us their daily experiences. We hope this is the first of many visits for our first volunteers and we invite you to participate in this volunteer program. Corales de Paz team say thanks to Entremares Providenica diving center, Posada Nativa Barracudas'camp, Armada Nacional and Fly Hight company for the support. First week of volunteering with Corales De Paz: Reef Repair 1st day Today we learned the basic concepts of reef rehabilitation, such as reef ecology in general, the coral gardening method, different kinds of reef restoration methods, identifying coral diseases etc. Next, we did a practical exercise in order to learn how to attach the corals to the nurseries underwater. 2nd day The first dive of the many dives to come in the following weeks. We did basic buoyancy exercises, since buoyancy is key when cleaning, transplanting and attaching corals. Then we saw the demonstration site for the coral nurseries, and tried attaching our very first corals onto the nurseries. A big stingray swam by during the dive, and we saw tiny salpids all around us.  On the second dive of the day, we searched the reef for fragments of opportunity, which is naturally broken corals that you