Jeroen's Volunteer Experience in Israel - Conservation Goals

My experience took place in a small community of local Israeli park rangers and local volunteers in the city of Eilat, Israel at the Coral Reef Conservation project. The goals were set as conservation goals, maintenance tasks and educational tasks.



With Joram, Tamar, Bar, Rotem and Schagar from the education center we guided the snorkeling groups. We shared lunch together sometimes, and had loads of fun together. One night, the group even went ice-skating!



With Golan, Omer an Omessi, we had several tasks for the maintenance. All buoys had to be cleaned and some replacement of buoy lines had to be done. In the meantime, the algae had to be removed form all of the stairs and the barnacles as well. It causes slippery conditions and an increased risk of injury for all visitors entering the waters.

Then we had some beach cleanups. After one day of tourists visiting, the beaches are left full of trash. We cleaned up pieces of paper, cans, bottles, empty plastic bags and pieces of metal.



Usually together with Natasha, another volunteer from Germany, I worked on it in the mornings to get all the beaches clean. Natasha was a wonderfull Gnarly Troop volunteer from Germany. We all celebrated her birthday together!

During free hours, I did loads of SCUBA and snorkeling in Coral Beach!

It was an excellent location to learn about the +/- 1100 species present in the Red Sea. Together with Leras, a marine biologist, I received her help in analyzing the photographic material (pictures) from my UW camera. Initially I was only interested in fish species, though after a while I started to do some coral identification as well. In the Red Sea this is pretty much amazing! There is loads to discover form fan coral, staghorn coral, table coral, and many more types. Also mollusks are fantastic like the giant clams and some astonishing other species.

In general this place is really recommend for nature lovers!