This expedition will take you to the Bay Island Archipelago in the Caribbean Sea to survey part of the world's second largest coral reef system. You will be trained in diving and coral reef survey techniques and then assist in an international reef survey programme by diving along coral reefs and recording various indicator fish and invertebrates. All this as part of a global effort to assess coral reef health and assist with the formulation of effective conservation strategies. Please note that you need to be a fully qualified diver to take part in this expedition (minimum PADI Open Water or equivalent).

You will spend the first three days on land and in the water with training. The expedition leader and the local scientist will prepare you for your fieldwork tasks and explain the research methods and goals. Talks are organised to make you familiar with safety, the equipment, the research (and your part in it) and the area in which it will happen. Open water dives are organised so that everyone can get comfortable in the water again and put into action the fish, invertebrate and other ID skills taught before the actual survey work begins. Once you are trained up, your tasks will be predominantly dive-based and consist of several distinct underwater activities with the team split into buddy pairs. Depending on what your assignment is on the day, you and your buddy will, for example, be recording fish or invertebrates along the transect, or recording what kind of substrate (hard or soft coral, sand, rock, etc.) covers the bottom along the transect. Covering a transect will take you about one hour and you will dive one transect in the morning and one in the afternoon. During the course of the expedition, you will be laying transects in different locations all over the reef.

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