Jo Morris.

During my 8 week volunteer stay in Madagascar, I had the opportunity to assist Jo Morris with the field work for her BTEC. Her project was focussed on the mangroves – located between the forest/beach and the sea - around the Frontier camp in Ambalahonko and other nearby villages. I assisted with snorkelling surveys of fish species, and with vegetation plotting in the selected areas. All field works were well planned, with snorkelling species surveys around high tide and vegetation surveys around low tide, and were well executed under Jo's leadership. Jo was constantly enthusiastic about the project and with her encouragement, others from the marine and forest programs joined the field trips and became engaged and interested in her project. She sought ideas and feedback that I feel improved the accuracy of the data collection, and lessened the amount of time the team spent in the somewhat hazardous environment (heat and humidity, mud, mosquitoes and flies, razor sharp barnacles on the branches, and large root fields).Jo ensured all data was as accurate as possible, and complete, and the quality of her hand sketches is, in my opinion, very high.

As a scuba diver I have, until now, just focussed on the seas. This experience in Jo's project and the mangroves however has highlighted to me the importance of the mangrove habitat to both marine and land environments.

Thanks for including me in the project Jo.

Steve Roberts

968steve@gmail.com