Dolphin and Turtle Conservation in Mauritius

Douglas Adams wrote when he Authored 'Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy' that one should never go anywhere without his or her towel, the logic behind it being that somebody who can stay in control of virtually any situation is somebody who is said to know where his or her towel is. As the last few panicky items were thrown into my suitcase, which the scale were telling me was reaching its limit, I decided to only take one beach towel and remove my heavy bath towel, my only regret is that I did not back it in my hand luggage, and immediately mop my face off with it upon exiting the airport. Golly gosh is Mauritius humid! I mean, I am talking back of knee-cap sweat, moustache sweat and embarrassed-to-shake-people's-hands-whom-you've-just-met-due-to-torrid-sweat kinda humid. Somehow though, the only downfall to this beautiful island is also part of its charm, and I have grown to...well, not hate it.

The people here beautiful, they are not at all perturbed by the cockroaches that are the size of baby mammoths, or the heat or the hordes of mosquitoes (which no one was at all exaggerating about) and instead compensate by endlessly throwing themselves into the ocean - in which the water is so warm it is only just a relief from the humidity - how can anyone not love the atmosphere!? The people here seem to follow no rules, and their freedom in infectious. At any point of the day going down to La Preneuse the public beach there are endlessly locals drumming and dancing, or playing Rastafarian music. Where ever you go people are so friendly and say bonjour, not in a pushy way at all, just genuine friendliness. I wish I had learned more French so I sounded more genuine when I attempt to greet them back.

I can't believe it has only been one week.

There are five volunteers from the Antipodeans Unibreak programme living in this fantastically located house in Black River, 200 metres away from the beach and a five minute the supermarket. All of us volunteers are doing some kind of Marine/coast/environment/etc, course so it is a very like minded group that we are in. With us also is a South African volunteer not with antipodeans and not marine based, but very knowledgeable and passionate all the same! Doing the dolphin research is amazing, it is endlessly worth while for my own endeavors (I have now completely change my views of not bothering dreaming about working with dolphins due to lack of job prospects to having faith and trying to get into it). I have just finished my bachelor in Marine Biology and am about to begin honours myself, so it is a well deserved holiday I feel, and being able to do something worth while in between the endless snorkelling, sun baking and drinking mojitos definitely takes away any holiday guilt one might have about having too much fun. We have been also taking back in some turtle monitoring, which is not as well developed as the dolphin monitoring so feels beneficial to be helping.

We go out in a boat 3 times a week and afterward do data entry, we also have tourist surveys on other days - I have not had to do any yet and it's probably the thing I am looking forward to the least, but it seems crucially important. When monitoring dolphins, there are around 25 boats, some of them rather large, all toting tourists who jump in and try and swim with the dolphins. It was absolute insanity, therefore, as it is only tourists getting in, I understand why tourist surveys are crucial, I just hope they speak English!

Everything is so green and leafy, every tree seems to bear fruit or flowers, every house has palms and looks like a holiday house, all the fish are friendly and colourful! This is a fantastic paradise.

I never want to go home!

Jesse Jorgensen-Price.