Marine conservation expedition in Mexico

This coral reef research and community education expedition program supports and assists the work of local non-profit organisations including Amigos de Sian Ka’an, the local state university of Qunitana Roo, and the National Commission for the Conservation of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP).

The expedition offers expedition members the chance to immerse themselves in one of the world's few remaining truly pristine environments, assessing the health of the second largest coral reef system in the world, diving and collecting crucial data on the coral reef in the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve to help conserve this environment.

You will be living on a deserted beach and contributing to conservation by increasing your personal
knowledge of the tropical marine environment, its importance, the threats to it and helping to increase
both local and global knowledge
and awareness through working on marine and coral identification programmes, using a number of different techniques.

This long running marine conservation expedition takes volunteers to learn scuba diving and earn an internationally recognised PADI diving qualification. In the turquoise Caribbean waters of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, you can take part in important marine conservation work helping with coral reef and fish monitoring, turtle nesting and conducting crocodile surveys. On land you will help community education and sustainable tourism development programmes.

On top of the dive training, volunteers will have the chance to vastly expand their knowledge of this
tropical marine environment, learn Spanish and partake in expeditions to the almost innumerable
places of interest.

As a volunteer you will be living and working on a remote jungle base with incredible wildlife; waking up to the deserted white-sand beach and turquoise Caribbean sea; learning about the reef and how to identify the fish or coral you see; participating in monitoring dives to explore different sites along the coast; being the only people diving in the biosphere reserve surveying the deserted reefs under our special research permit; chancing upon mega-fauna such as dolphins, sharks and manatees; searching the beach at night for turtles laying eggs; learning some Spanish; joining sea and cenote fun-dives and enjoy cultural visits to Mayan ruins. Wake up to the deserted white-sandy beach and turquoise Caribbean Sea and enjoy living and working on a remote jungle base with incredible wildlife. You can explore the mangrove systems, see crocodiles and perhaps even the elusive manatee. You will be the only people diving in the Biosphere Reserve, and surveying the deserted reefs under a special research permit. You will train alongside local students and researchers and also join in the community programmes to teach English and environmental awareness to local school children and adults. In the turtle nesting season you will also be searching the beach at night for turtles laying eggs and you can join sea and cenote fun-dives or enjoy cultural visits to Mayan ruins, and learn some Spanish!

Days are long and hard with an early start to make the most of day light hours, travel to the dive sites, survey work, return from the dive sites, washing down the dive equipment, filling air tanks ready for the next day and generally a late finish once all the data collected has been reviewed and then input in the database. At the end of the day, the whole team gathers in the evening to debrief, eat and socialise over a few cold ones in the evening light of the moon. Enjoy camp life, making food and making friends.

Volunteers can expect to do one-two dives per day, six days a week (weather depending). On these dives you will be assessing the health of the Meso-American Barrier Reef system and collecting data on fish, coral and other benthos. The first three weeks volunteers learn both the diving skills and the marine survey skills that they will need to assist in the collection of data to a quantifiable level. It is extremely beneficial and important for expedition participants to learn as many of the area’s marine species as possible before starting the project.