EXPEDITION DATE: JANUARY 2012
Any donations will be used to support vital research into shark and marine conservation.
Earthwatch is exactly the same age as me! It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1971, as international environmental charity, committed to bringing together individual volunteers and scientists, to conduct scientific field research conservation projects worldwide, tackling the world's most pressing environmental problems.
If you have watched the "Big Fish Fight" on Channel 4, you will know just how seriously Marine Ecosystems are being affected at present. Shark populations worldwide are collapsing. The Belize Reef project is attempting to establish protected areas for sharks along Belize's magnificent Mesoamerican Reef.
During my expedition, I will be helping to deploy and operate baited, remote underwater cameras to capture footage of sharks for scientific analysis. Working on research boats, I’ll get close to shark species such as: the Caribbean Reef, Nurse, Caribbean Sharpnose, Great Hammerhead, Lemon, Night, and Tiger. I will also assist scientists in the capture, measurement, tissue sampling, tagging, and safe release of these iconic marine predators.
Every year Earthwatch needs grants of over £2.5 million to support around 120 research projects. They do this by recruiting volunteers from the general public and partner organisations to join their scientists as research assistants and share the costs of the project. I’m hoping that this project will provide some amazing opportunities for my own children, and the children I teach, to learn more about Sharks and the Marine Ecosystem. I firmly believe that to teach effectively about conservation, you have to experience its issues first hand.
Donations will be used by Earthwatch to help fund this project- and if you can spare a few pennies to help, I’ll do a great talk on Sharks when I get back!! Thank you so much for reading my page xx
