Wild Wednesday's: Memories of Madagascar Part 6

in travelfeed •  7 years ago  (edited)

Hello Steemians!

Hope everyone is well, and having a good day so far. It's Becca writing again this week for today's Wild Wednesday's. Sam and I have had a long day, he has been at uni and I have been working, we are finally winding down for the day.

For today's post, I will continue to write about my time spent in Madagascar with ReefDoctor. In last weeks post I shared about the day out to the Spiny Forest and the Baobab Forest not that far from base camp. Today I will write a bit more about another project that ReefDoctor organises and monitors.

A school of fish passing by, I cannot remember the species of these guys!

Coral Reef Fish Identification Survey and Monitoring


This project takes you way down low into the sea and amongst the coral reefs and coral reef fish. ReefDoctor has been monitoring the coral reef ecosystem in the Bay of Ranobe since 2004. All staff and volunteers were trained, and we (volunteers) had to go through a few tests to pass in order to participate in this project. The surveys involved visual census while in Scuba Diving gear, as in, we had to identify the species and count the numbers of each species we saw in each spot. This was really good fun, as we could get up close to some of the fish and really see the details in their colours and markings, while other groups of fish could move in complete sync the moment you got a little bit closer to them. It was actually amazing, such a great feeling to be amongst the marine environment and all its awe.

Myself and two other volunteers, we have just dived into the water about to start our fish identification surveys

We volunteers had to go through coral reef fish identification tests regularly to ensure that not only we knew them but also to ensure that the data collected would be accurate and of high quality. Some of these species I still remember their names, it's not just Nemo and Dory!

Below are some of the pictures from our time under the sea amongst the coral reef fish.

A sea anemone ecosystem, you could often find clown fish amongst them

The African Sea star

Part of the coral reef ecosystem

Scrawled Butterflyfish (the white, black and yellow fish in the center)

False Moorish Idol

The amazingly detailed Emperor Angelfish

Razorfish, hanging suspended upside down in the water, drifting back and forth with the current

Another view of the coral reef in the Bay of Ranobe

After finishing up with the surveys, it felt good taking off the dive gear and hanging the flippers out to dry, putting our feet up for the rest of the day


Hope you have enjoyed reading this post and learning the names of some of the coral reef fish species! I loved it, and I often still think about these days spent under the sea counting and recording the names of species we saw!


Stay Classy Steemians!

Wild Wednesday’s is a post written by the @travelling-two every Wednesday to inform their followers and readers about nature and conservation.

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wow. Good job. How many fishes did you count?

I just want to mention. Normally you can hide

!steemitworldmap -23.144608 lat 43.611592 long d3scr
this code.

I think you just missed

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in font of the code (do not use the -)

Hey @moriartyroue! Thank you for your Steemit help. We will start using the full code minus the (-).
The fish count was too many to remember now. This volunteer experience was back in 2010, but to ensure there was no miscount or double count everyone took a particular specie to focus on. :)
Thanks for the comment and sorry for the delay - we were in Singapore for a few days.

No problem. You are welcome. Oh Singapore. Sounds great. I definitely have to follow your blog. :)

The fish count was too many to remember now. This volunteer experience was back in 2010,

A I see. But definitely a nice experience to remember.

If you are bothered by the code snippet at the end of your post, you still have time to edit it.
Your entry is less than 7 days old.

Yes, a few Singapore posts will come. Just bogged down with Uni work, but there should be one on Friday and a few next week. Fingers crossed, if we can get our act together.

Yes, some of our posts are reflection of our past travels as we've been meaning to blog since 2016 upon realizing we have quite a bit of material. So, we're playing catch-up and why not earn some crypto while we're at it.

We'll take care of the code snippet as soon as we post our Tasty Tuesday post in a bit. Thanks again for letting us know about that :)

With my experience, you've got budget traveling, adventure traveling, current events traveling, vacation traveling, sports traveling, sightsee traveling, spiritual journey traveling,...all sorts of traveling. I'm starting to think you guys are totally adventure travelers with destinations in Africa and now Madagascar! Great post guys. Keep up the great work!

Thanks Dan! We like to expand our horizons and explore different ways of travelling, but ultimately we're more adventure/vacation travelers with bits thrown in. We're conscious about the environment, yet saying that our carbon footprint must be quite bad. Our recent trip to Singapore took us to the aquarium, the zoo and Gardens By The Bay. All these sights were chosen over others (Universal Studios, Waterparks and Museums etc.) as we're lovers of nature and all its beauty. Hopefully, you got to see the beautiful Patagonia in Chile and we need to catch up with where you're at! :)
Thanks for your support as always!

Thanks guys. I'm a big fan of nature too. Yes Patagonia was interesting, beautiful, but cold. I'm now hanging loose in apartment I've rented in sunny and warm Santiago Chile for the next two weeks. Slowing my travel roll! Have a great day!

It should be late summer/early autumn there, right? Yet, we guess up in the mountains it's always cold.
Two weeks in the capital! Exploring the whole city? Or you gonna use it as a base to do day trips outside of the capital too? But chilling for two weeks and slowing down is also a good alternative. Just enjoying the time to unwind and prepare for the final leg of your South American adventures. Have a great evening (first) and then a even better week to come!

Thanks guys. I'm just going to take it easy number one, build up my blog, two, explore the city three, then do some day trips if I feel up for it. But yes, I've had to slow things down. I was getting travel burn out. But by the 13th of April I'll be ready to go for sure!

Sounds like a great plan - some down time to get your material out and catch up to speed. We can imagine even you can get tired of travelling and need a base for awhile, even if it's just two weeks off the road.

Take care of yourself! :)

Just seeing thing now.....thanks guys. Always appreciate your kind words.