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Marine Life Encounters Snorkelling
There are many advantages to using just a mask and fins when observing marine life. Not least of all is the cost. Our Marine Life Encounters Course is suitable for everyone who can swim a bit even the kids. Minimum age for diving is 10 years old. Diving is good value but sometimes you are short of time and money, or just are not comfortable with all that heavy gear. That is where snorkelling comes in. A lot of marine life is easier to approach free diving. Scuba involves many bubbles. In the wild, creatures like dolphins blow bubbles as a warning or a sign of irritation. Thus snorkelling, or free diving, can get you a lot closer to observe or get that picture you always wanted. Our Marine Life Encounter starts with a short chat to get to know your guide and tell you a little about what you are likely to see.
Video and cameras are available to rent.
Marine Life Encounters (for certified divers)
Marine Life Identification Courses
The perfect follow up to our Marine Life Encounter tour. This course teaches you the basics of recognising reef life and observing it for yourself. The course introduces and covers all the forms of life you are likely to see on our local reefs and explains their lifestyles. The course can be structured to any level of diving experience or conducted as a snorkel programme. Course covers species by common name and also introduces you to the scientific Latin and Greek. (Do not worry about this, as your guide will always use the common name first, you do not have to try to remember the Latin and Greek unless you want to). Species are introduced by family (related species) and discussed in general, for example sponges. We will then move on to local examples of such creatures showing you pictures and video we have shot on site. In many cases, you will be seeing the same fish on your dives that we showed you in the classroom. You will also be taught the methods developed by us to aid in identifying species. On the basic option of this programme, we rely mainly on memory and sketching, but, as we will illustrate in the classroom, identifying anything from static coral to fast moving fish is made much easier by using photographic aids.
Videos and cameras are available to use for this purpose at reasonable prices. Types of animal covered in Marine Life Identification include: Plankton and Protozoa (only the interesting bits), sponges (Porifera), corals, anemones, jellyfish, and hydrozoans (Cnidarians). Worms:- ribbon, acorn, peanut, spoon, spaghetti, Xmas tree, flat, and tube worms (Nemerteans, Platyhelminthes, Annelida, Aschelminthes). Sea stars (Asteroidea), sea cucumbers (Holothuroidea), feather stars (Crinoidea), basket, brittle and serpent stars (Ophiuroidea), and sea urchins (Echinoidea). Snails, oysters, clams, whelks etc. (gastropod and bivalve molluscs). Cuttlefish, squid, and octopus (cephalopod molluscs). Crabs, shrimps, lobsters (crustaceans). We will also of course be devoting a large chunk of time talking about the bony and cartilaginous fish (sharks and rays), the cetacean mammals - whales and dolphins, and the turtles (Reptilia). Classroom work is followed by guided dives and snorkel trips to help you put what you have learned into practice. Your guide will be close at hand to point out things and help you identify what you've seen. We will also be happy to assist you after the dives to identify what you have seen from our collection of local area guides and reference books. The staff you will be in the water with are full time members of the Reefwatch project and are constantly involved in observation and behavioural experiments. Marine Life Identification Program. Includes class work on identification techniques and types of marine life, all equipment for diving and snorkelling, guide/ marine life adviser.
More advanced marine life courses
These courses we prefer to structure on an individual basis, you can either tell us what interests you and we'll draw you up a day-by-day program for it, or we can design a more structured programme to cover your diving and snorkelling needs. You can also participate in our Reefwatch Observation / Conservation Projects and behavioural studies projects on a day-by-day basis or, should you choose, join as a full-blown volunteer for a longer stay.
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