Testimonials 2008

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Marine volunteer testimonials

Find out what our past volunteers have said in testimonials of our marine volunteer, turtle volunteer and diving volunteer programmes.

Turtle and Scuba Dive 2008

Rachel Sumnall, April 2008

Having planned & booked a years round the world travel to include many volunteer projects, I was glad to find that the turtle volunteer Turtle & Dive Project was exactly what it said on the tin!!

Well actually it was more, more than I ever expected! From my first experience with WOX staff in Kuala Lumpur to meeting the legendary Dan the Turtle Man everyone was very friendly & welcoming! No seriously this is an awesome project for a number of reasons.

For me the diving was the best overall experience I had while traveling, I obtained my Open Water Certification & then went on to do my advanced later on The Great Barrier Reef, Australia. The dive shop staff were great what they didn't know about the marine life & coral isn't worth mentioning.  Being able to see such a varied array of fish even just snorkeling off the beach was incredible.  I assisted with two dive projects whilst there one being a Drupella snail clean up, the snails eat the coral & we went diving & collected the snails & disposed of them. The other was measuring & drawing one of the four PIBAR (Perhentian Island Bubbles Artificial Reef) I'm amazed I remembered that! A group of us went down & measured the 4 artificial reefs made by previous months volunteers, noted the positioning of corals, rocks etc so that future volunteers could look at these & see if they had grown.  Since being back home I've had an email to say that the marine activity on the Pi Bars has increased greatly, this was good to read & know that you did your bit to help!

Now its time to mention the stars of this project, the turtles! These guys or should I say girls have a tough time when it comes to producing more young! I never knew that it took so long (approx 3 hours) for them to get onto the beach, create a nest lay their eggs, cover the eggs & then create a further dummy nest to confuse predators! And the worst predator of all, MAN!

Whilst on the island we did witness one evening a poacher on the beach looking for turtle eggs although he did not find any eggs this caused myself & others great distress, anger & bewilderment. We understood at the time that the value of the eggs is extremely high with one nest equating to 2 weeks wages on the islanders. This is why attending this project is so good, you get to understand why the poachers want the eggs & what we can do to prevent them taking them & hopefully see a lot more hatchlings making it back to the sea.

Even the accommodation is good, little wooden sheds for want of another word that were very simple & just steps away from the beautiful beach! I had my own hammock & certainly made the most of it! I miss my days of turtle watch, diving & then snoozing in my hammock to wake up & then walk 5 metres in to the sea & snorkel to see Anenome Clown Fish (Nemo's) bobbing in & out of their homes!

I would certainly recommend this project to anyone as you get something out of it personally with the diving & you also contribute towards coral and turtle conservation, its win win for all!! Especially the turtles!

Tanya, April and May 2008

As my 30th birthday was approaching this year I decided I wanted to mark the occasion in a special way and so treated myself to 6mths of travelling! I've always had a passion for all animals so I found volunteer projects that all involved endangered animals which gave me the amazing experience of travelling to countries I have never been to before and to see and get close to animals in their natural habitats! I chose to do four projects with three different companies and WOX and the Turtle project on Perhentian Island was by far the best! I originally planned to stay for just one month but I extended it to two months and now I wish I had stayed even longer!

I will never forget my first sight of the Island after the bumpy boat ride, it was totally my picture of paradise with it's blue sea, hot sandy beach cove and the little huts with the rainforest behind! I loved every second of my time there and felt instantly at home. I can't possibly pick out my best moment because it was all so amazing, I thought I would enjoy the Turtle conservation side of it the most but I fell in love with scuba diving and I also learnt stuff I never thought I would.

I spent my days chilling on the beach and diving, afternoons playing volley ball and snorkelling in the cove and my nights doing turtle watch! I feel so lucky to have been sat under the bright stars meters away from the turtles as they came ashore and spent so much time and energy selecting the right spot to lay their precious eggs and to be apart of protecting the eggs from the dangers of poachers and monitor lizards, all of the volunteers were emotional when the first hatchlings of the season broke out of their nest and we guided them in to the sea, all of us crossing our fingers that one day they will return to the beach to lay their own eggs!

All of the dive sites around Perhentian are so beautiful and teaming with sea life, after completing my open water I went on to do my advanced and loads of fun dives too so I went to as many diverse sites as possible including ship wrecks! I was lucky enough to see so much during my dives and to be swimming with turtles and reef sharks everyday is a dream come true!

I have been back home for a few months now and I miss the island so much, it's the best thing I have ever done, part of what made the whole project so great for me was all of the staff, because I was there for 2months I had a few days on my own when the first group of volunteers left and before the next group arrived, during this time the staff were brilliant, they all made an effort to include me and spent time with me even when they were busy, I feel that I got really close to them and really didn't want to leave so I'm making plans to go back next year!

If these stories have inspired you to be a marine volunteer with the Great Marine Project then search our placements.

If you want to be a turtle volunteer visit this page

If you want to just be a diving volunteer visit this page

If you want to be a complete marine volunteer visit this page and add on our scuba diving option to the turtle volunteer program.