The Gap Year Blog

A few days ago, Belize held a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ referendum vote on whether to let the UN International Court of Justice arbitrate a long-standing territorial dispute Belize has with Guatemala. For the small country of Belize with its roughly 375,000 inhabitants, just little over the population of Stoke on Trent, this signifies a monumental vote as Guatemala is claiming a significant portion of Belizean territory.

You have a reusable coffee cup, take your own cotton bags to the supermarket and bring your own lunch in sustainable boxes to work. Do you think you have ditched disposable plastic now and got everything all green? Before you do so, I would like to help you to do a reality check and show you even more single-use plastic items that you use in your everyday life without even realising it and can easily be replaced.

Upon our arrival in Cambodia, we decided to visit Angkor Wat for the day. The temple is considered one of the wonders of the world, and unsurprisingly left us all in awe after we got up at 4 am to see the sunrise.

In May the Frontier Whale & Dolphin Conservation team in Tenerife teamed up with local forces to assault the accumulation of dangerous trash at Playa de Arenita, at Palm-Mar. With combined powers the Frontier staff andvolunteers, the local primary and high schools and diving team managed to recover over 53.5kg of trash!

Plastic pollution is ubiquitous and a threat to everyone. But how much do you actually know about it? Take this quiz to test your knowledge!

To finish a good week on an even higher note (and as I’m prone to taking spontaneous adventures), I decided to use my ‘Day-Off’ to take a trek/run up ‘Montana Roja’ literally ‘Red Mountain’- which is situated on the East coast of Tenerife, Spain.

I have always been curious about Costa Rica. Throughout my education it always seemed to be the pinnacle of biodiversity. It was constantly used by teachers and later lecturers as one of the richest remaining hotspots with regards to density abundance, and diversity of organisms.

The mass production of plastic only started about 70 years ago and yet created 8.3 billion metric tons worldwide. Can you imagine that? It is an incomprehensive quantity. Out of that 6.3 billion metric tons have become plastic waste – most of it are disposable products that end up as trash. And only 9,5 percent of that plastic waste has been recycled because many plastics cannot be recycled due to contamination, market value, sorting or transport. That’s I why you should know your plastics. Find out which types of plastic are (currently) not recyclable and why.

Plastic is a resource we as a species have become increasingly reliant on. However, the world is also becoming increasingly more aware of its impact on the health of the planet, its wildlife and humans ourselves. As a wildlife conservationist, I have taken a special interest into researching the effects of plastic on the environment and have seen first-hand the widespread reach of plastic in the environment.

This blog is a brief summary of all the bodacious activities and events which are so easily filled into our daily lives here at the Whale & Dolphin Conservation project in Tenerife. It’s a fun mix of hard but hugely rewarding Marine Conservation research work and some pleasantly relaxing ‘downtime’ activities.