Marine Conservation and Ecotourism: Sharks, Whales and Penguins - Gansbaai

- You will work with professionals and clients in a world-class ecotourism environment, learning all about how responsible ecotourism and conservation work hand-in-hand
- You will learn about the behaviors and biology of sharks, whales and other species in our seas
- Every volunteer chooses day-to-day whether they would like to join in on eco-tourism (cage diving) or whale watching, and other conservation work throughout their stay
- Everyone spends the majority of time at sea aboard Slashfin - The cage diving vessel - or DreamCatcher - The Marine Big 5 vessel.
- 2-3 presentations on Diversity, small sharks, whales, bronze whalers weekly.
- The opportunity to help out at the African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary which is a world-class centre for the rehabilitation of seabirds in distress, with a particular emphasis on conserving the African penguin

Day 1: Welcome to South Africa (Saturday)
You are collected from the airport and taken to your accommodation. You will be shown around and given an understanding of the area. You have the day at your own leisure so you can explore the beach, shops, bars and restaurants. In the evening you are served a welcoming meal at the hostel.

Day 2: Cape Town City Walking Tour (Sunday)
Start the day with a self served breakfast. Your friendly project leader will teach you about the bus system before you head out to Cape Town City Center.

Cape Town City Walking Tour:
Do a walking tour visiting historical sites like the Castle of Good Hope and the Grand Parade. Learn about life under apartheid in South Africa at the Parliament Buildings and the District Six Museum. Shop for African arts and crafts in Greenmarket Square and St George’s Mall.

After the listed activity, you can take a bus or walk to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. Sit back and sip a delicious coffee, enjoy some fresh fish and watch the ships in the busy working harbor or walk around and visit the shops, markets and listen to the musicians on the sidewalks.

Alternatively, you can take the cable car up Table Mountain and enjoy breath-taking views of the city, or visit the famous Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held in prison during the apartheid era. (Own Expense)

In the evening head back on the local bus to Table View where you can join the staff, guests and the locals at one of the restaurants or bars along the beachfront in Table View - all within rolling distance from the hostel where you will be staying the night.

You will be picked up by our driver at your accommodation in Cape Town and brought to the Great White House. On arrival, you will the team, the local coordinators, volunteer(s) who will be on your boat trip and marine biologist. After the safety briefing, you will board the boat as a customer. The coordinator will also give you basic seamanship and an orientation of the boat and the cage so that you are ready to experience shark cage diving. Breakfast/lunch for you and customers are included. On your return, your co ordinator will be waiting to answer any questions.

You will then be taken to the accommodation where your luggage will be waiting and you can unpack and relax with fellow volunteers. You will receive a lodge introduction by the coordinator and receive t-shirts, a cap, a jacket and a key (jacket and key to be returned after the program). Afterwards we will take you into Gansbaai to go shopping and buy food to prepare your evening meals. Enjoy the welcome barbeque on the first evening (normally Mondays).

Environmental Education - Work with local students
Snorkel - Kelp Dives
Community Education - Participate in educational shows
Beach Clean ups - Data Capture
Shark/ Whale boat - Assisting the crew in the dive operations, helping clients, data recording
African Penguins Sanctuary - Cleaning, fish preparation, assisting at feedings
Shark Egg collection
Observational Data - Data capturing on board, support research activities.

*Tasks and activities may vary from time of the year and weather.

You can expect presentations by the marine biologists and expert crew on:

Shark biology and behavior
Basic seamanship and safety at sea
Shark tagging and tracking
Whale research and biology
Ocean conservation
Data collection
Dyer Island Conservation Trust projects

Marine Evenings are hosted from time-to-time, meaning that you will also get to hear other conservation and biology experts share their knowledge. Those volunteers who show an excellent work ethic, and those who are studying in a related field, may have the opportunity to go on research surveys and assist the marine biologists in data collection and shark tracking among other experiences, such as environmental surveys. These trips do not happen regularly and should be considered a rare opportunity. You will also experience working within the community. Beach clean-ups are done frequently and you may even work with the local schools, providing a great opportunity to actively make a difference and possibly interact with local children.

Here are some of the activities you could experience:

- Daily assisting on the eco-tourism boat trips both Shark Cage Diving and Marine Big 5 trips (weather permitted)
- Assisting with endangered African penguin & seabird rehabilitation on a daily basis.
- Talks from our marine biologist on various marine topics.
- Various conservation activities e.g. beach clean-ups, fishing line bin construction & clean-ups, estuary monitoring. Often these activities are done with our Dyer Island Conservation Trust Environmental Education Programme (DEEP kids).
- Various excursions (normally on no-seadays) exploring the local area, road trips to most southern point of Africa, beer-& wine tastings, cave or mountain hiking, horse riding etc. just to name a few.
- Night time activities - Braai nights, pubs, restaurants, pizza sunsets, quiz nights etc.
- Unpredicted experiences- e.g. Marine animal strandings and retrievals.

The Fleet:
Slashfin: Slashfin is the pride of Gansbaai. It is a premier cage diving vessel designed by company owner, Wilfred Chivell. It was purpose built for the rough seas which are often encountered and is a fantastic ride on the water. It has an aluminium hull and four 300 hp engines which propel it to a top speed of up to 45 knots. Trips run daily (weather permitting) going out 1 to 2 times a day on average and volunteers are allocated to each trip. Although your first trip is as a client, thereafter you will be tasked with duties.

Some of the duties for Slashfin: Assisting clients on land with their life jackets, Helping clients into wetsuits, Assisting with seasick clients where necessary, Recording of shark data, Preparation and cleaning of boat, Washing of wetsuits / Assisting crew with duties, photographs, recording of Seabird data, assisting with temperature data

Dream Catcher: Dream Catcher is a whale watching and eco-trip vessel and is the latest addition to the fleet. She is a 14m catamaran with an aluminium hull and is purpose-built for eco-marine and whale-watching trips. During whale season the boat runs several trips a day in search of the iconic Southern Right Whale. Out of season, eco-trips are run on demand.

Some duties for Dream Catcher: Assisting with life jackets for clients, guiding, data capture, helping with any sea sick passengers (not as common on Dream Catcher as the boat does not anchor and is on the move a lot), Preparation and cleaning of boat

Trips to sea
You will be able to go out to sea every other day. For example, a 30 day stay enables you to go to sea at least 15 times. Please note that this will be the minimum (depending on no-sea days and weather), but could be more, and we do our best to accommodate you as often as possible.

No sea days
If the weather does not allow the boat to go out to sea we will start the day with breakfast and then you will be taken on one of the following excursions:
Hermanus, Stanford - shopping, wine tours
Betty’s Bay - penguin colony
Cape Agulhas - meeting of the two oceans

With every new arrival we have a safety and orientation briefing where we discuss issues such as general safety in South Africa for example, what to do in the settlements, where not to go, what to do in case of an emergency, sea currents, HIV AIDS and crime. There is a volunteer co-ordinator with our volunteers at all times while on project to ensure the safety of the children and volunteer. We offer all our volunteers 24/7 support and assistance.

Airport pick-up
2-day orientation in Cape Town
Accommodation
Breakfast and lunch on working days
Transfer from Gansbaai back to Cape Town, provided you travel back on a Monday
24 hour support and supervision on project from two full-time volunteer coordinators and administrator and an on-site manager
Donation to the NPO to assist with projects, for all bookings of 4 weeks or more
Certificate of appreciation

Minimum age of 18
CV/Resume
Basic level of competency in English
Acceptance subject to availability
Ability to swim/Volunteers should be physically fit
It is highly recommended to bring seasickness tablets as there are a lot of hours at sea

Volunteers need to be flexible and keep an open mind concerning their placements as situations can arise beyond our control which could require you to be placed at a different project than the one you have initially chosen. We will of course always do our utmost to fulfill your initial wishes but do remember that where you are going is quite different from where you are coming and as such one should be prepared for things not always going according to plan.

Volunteering and intercultural travel share a common trait: the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. This program is designed for proactive individuals and groups that are prepared to adapt to the local environment and its current needs. Naturally, the scheduling and activities of our program are subject to change. Alterations in activities are mainly due to changes in local conditions, which we believe is part of what makes overseas programs the interesting adventure and incredible learning experience that they are.

It is important to remember that we are working with wildlife and nature, both of which are unpredictable. We cannot guarantee sightings of any specific species. For this reason and in case of bad weather days, when we can’t go to sea, we recommend a 2-4 week minimum stay. If you join for a one-week stay, you might be very disappointed if you miss several days on the sea due to the weather conditions.