Reef Action Team 2018

So, our new RATs (Reef Action Team) are up and running for 2018!

Our first session, on January 12th, saw our group of 10 head up to Rickie’s beach and spend a couple of hours using some ‘search and rescue’ techniques to do an underwater clean up in and around the swim zones. Some of the debris we collected was still a clear reminder of the terrible hurricanes last year – Ms Rankin and Oliver had to swim one huge piece of broken metal back to the shore by itself! It was a fantastic clean up job by all involved, with RATs once again acting in a positive way for our marine environment: well done team!

Our second week, January 17th, our plan was to go to Amanyara and learn something about the Reef Ball Project they have installed, but unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. As an alternative we went over Coral I.D. We were able to use the ICT lab at school so everyone had time to investigate a variety of material on Benthic cover, Coral health and basic types of coral I.D.  For a fun twist, Ms Rankin and Jackie Walker (of Amanyara) split us into teams and gave us a quiz on what we had learnt. Our team was doing so well, but was finally overtaken by Tristan, Oliver and Sam who reigned victorious! Overall this week of RATs was very eventful – and there is definitely more to coral life than you might realise!

                                                                                                       Charlie Downes

Week three, the weather once again was not on our side, but we turned the Common Room into our very own cinema, munched on popcorn and watched Dolphins, Home To The Sea – a documentary made here in TCI about the dolphins that were brought here from the UK in the 1990s to be rehabilitated and returned to the wild. It was a really interesting film, with some familiar faces that can still be seen on Provo today! Putting the dolphins safely back in the wild was a hugely successful operation, yet it does leave us wondering if a dolphin rehabilitation centre might be a better option for our beautiful islands than the hugely debated dolphinarium idea … if you get the opportunity, you should watch this film, it’s a pretty convincing argument and a very touching look at how humans can positively interact with dolphins.