Education & Outreach
OCEAN ART SUNDAYS
With a mission to inspire and empower, this is a free of cost extra curricular program for coastal village children from economically underprivileged backgrounds. Our focus is to teach these children about the fragile ecosystems that surround their island homes and why they should care for it.Keeping away from their regular school curriculum, we use the outdoors as their classroom, where they explore and interact with their natural surroundings, and learn through practical experience.We also teach them to swim, snorkel and dive. All three of these physical activities involve an active engagement with the ecosystem and lets children have a more personal connection with it.
This program has been conducted for the last 4 years at our base in Chidiyatapu, with children from 3 local villages attending.
Since 2017 Ocean Art Sundays expanded its reach to conduct programs in Havelock and Neil Island. With the support of local schools and panchayats, 30 children from each island attended 10 day long camps in their respective villages.
ISLAND EXPLORER
This program creates the opportunity for school children from urban settings to explore the rural island environment and to experience a simpler and more basic way of life. Structured to inspire students with the fascinating aspects of the Andaman Islands, its wildlife and its ecosystems, it introduces deeper thought to the way in which modern life is lived.
It connects the impacts urban living and over consumption have on distant ecosystems. With the help of our dive partner, Lacadives (link), we offer students the unique opportunity to discover and delve into the underwater world in the crystal clear blue waters of the Andaman Islands. Additionally, we aim to bring students outside of their classrooms and to learn through new and exciting perspectives of our biological world.
This program can be structured to meet the learning objectives of individual schools, including but not limited to fulfilling IB CAS requirements, covering portions of 9th – 11th grade Biology, Environmental Systems, Geography curriculums, creative storytelling through film and photography, etc.
Contact us if you would like to know more about this program.
MARINE NATURALIST AND DIVE MASTER PROGRAM
ReefWatch Marine Conservation has come together with Lacadives – India’s oldest Scuba Diving school – to bring a unique program that trains individuals to become professional divers qualifying them to work in India’s growing Scuba industry while equipping them with scientific knowledge of the marine world focusing on coral reefs, associated ecosystems and conservation.
This 2 month program is built to take someone from being just an ocean lover to an involved professional who is aware of the various nuances of coral reef ecosystems, has hands-on experience of working in conservation and with local island communities and is also a PADI Dive Master qualified to work in any dive shop across the world.
Re(ef) Generate Course
The Re(ef)Generate course is an initiation into active coral restoration techniques used by us to help conserve and replenish coral reef cover in the Andamans. This three-day course is conducted by ReefWatch Marine Conservation in partnership with Lacadives. It is designed to teach you the theory of coral ecology and restoration tied into the practice of the techniques employed by us on our artificial reef in Chidiyatapu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It includes four dives over two days where you will learn how to identify and collect the right coral fragments, hitch them onto artificial metal structures and also maintain and monitor the reef. You will also learn the basics of fish and invertebrate identification and take a closer look at the various relationships that form on a coral reef between its inhabitants.
Often called ‘Rainforests of the sea’, coral reefs are one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. They sustain more than 7000 species of fish, invertebrates, turtles and marine mammals. Even though they cover less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, they support more than 25% of life in the ocean. They are currently exposed to many human-induced stressors that put their survival at risk and yet they are inexplicably linked to our survival as a species. This course is for anyone with a keen interest in marine ecosystems and the will to conserve them.
PARAMETERS
- Coral biology
- Coral restoration theory
- Coral restoration techniques employed by ReefWatch
- Artificial reef monitoring and maintenance
- Basics of coral identification
- Fish and invertebrate identification
Prerequisites: Advanced Open Water (AOW) certification with 30 logged dives
Structure: Theory + 4 restoration dives
Duration: 3 days
Price: INR 23,000+ taxes
We are an Indian Not For Profit, established in1993 as a Public Charitable Trust, committed to the conservation of marine & coastal biodiversity.