Anyone know of any operator running Reef Check/EcoDiver Qualification programm sometime around May/June 2008?

hmm.. i would love to help, but i ve got no idea..
can check with shafi, ridrahim..

paging for mr.ridrahim and ms.shafi!!!
 

Diveixus..u can try to email julian of reefcheck himself..

Contact details: Julian Hyde, Project Manager, Reef Check Malaysia; 03 2164 5407; malaysia@reefcheck.org

do share here if u have updates yeah..thanks

Diveixus :

The contact given by Bijan regarding Reef Check Malaysia are correct.

Do call Julian for further info.

Bijan :

Thank you.

Cheers...

hmm..kinda interesting 

DI, can ask Julian if we MUW wanna do EcoDiver training at Redang Macha's place, what are the chargers like..???

Ask him we only need the training and to be master EcoDivers hehehe... accomodation, diving, meal, we set ourselves la...

If not in Malaysia you also have the options of going to Thailand. I think there are maybe 10 shops around Thailand that can conduct the program.
It is truly an informative and educational experience.
-And the buoyancy-workshop is a lot of fun.   

no la, i better to know your own backyard b4 go looking to others hehehe, sure they can accommodate for us.

Why don't we explore within MUW to see if there is enuf responde to organize a group of our own.  We can approach 1 of the 4 operator to organize it on our own for next year open season.

Quote from: miezegreat on September 21, 2007, 12:21:22 AM

Kinda interested to do this.

Q: To be able to participate for the Ecodiver program, do you have to be an advance diver and above?

You don't have to however there's some criteria that you need to have & good at it.

Criteria
1. Diving experience.
2. Air consumption trends.
3. Good buoyancy control, etc...

These are critical in reef surveys.

If I may follow-up on what my fellow EcoDiver just told you. If you read the report I posted on REEF CHECK - Perhentian Besar, July 2007, you would be able to see that the one key criteria you MUST satisfy would be BUOYANCY. You need to be able to hover close enough to the corals to see, without damaging whatever it is that you are trying to protect in the first place.

Good air consumption trends are also important as you need about an hour to complete the survey. Though you would be surveying in shallow waters anyway (about 5-6m), so it should not be too much of a problem.

The other thing would be to have a good eye for the indicator species. Learn your indicators well so that when you see it underwater, you do not have to spend too much time thinking about it. So pay attention in class!

I am pleased to see that there is growing interest in this field of conservation, so good luck in trying to put a team together. Julian can handle about 6-8 divers at a time. When Rid and I did ours, we paired up and did the substrate ID, while 2 other pairs buddied up and did fish and invert ID respectively. The other two can do photography, so that Reef Check can keep updating their photo library.

If you are Malaysian and dive often in our waters, might as well be a Malaysian EcoDiver. The indicator species you learn elsewhere might differ.

Don't forget to read-up on that report I posted on the other thread. That would give you a good idea of what you'd be experiencing.

Good luck!

$$$ talk here thats why im asking if they can do a course at the place we suggest.

say like, what if MUW can gather 10 divers for the course, we do it at MACHA place (can get discount maaa). so we only pay reasonable price to MACHA and the course instructor.

Ya, for me, the dive center they list a bit $$$ for me la, like SesameFIN, i oso a bit constrain on the budget.

So DI, can u ask them if they can provide the instructor, MUW will fond the place and divers to do it. For a start we find 10 of the members to take up the course.

so can ask them aaa...???

Quote from: shaFIN on September 21, 2007, 11:35:00 AM

Quote from: RiDfIn on September 21, 2007, 07:38:08 AM

Quote from: miezegreat on September 21, 2007, 12:21:22 AM

Kinda interested to do this.

Q: To be able to participate for the Ecodiver program, do you have to be an advance diver and above?

You don't have to however there's some criteria that you need to have & good at it.

Criteria
1. Diving experience.
2. Air consumption trends.
3. Good buoyancy control, etc...

These are critical in reef surveys.

If I may follow-up on what my fellow EcoDiver just told you. If you read the report I posted on REEF CHECK - Perhentian Besar, July 2007, you would be able to see that the one key criteria you MUST satisfy would be BUOYANCY. You need to be able to hover close enough to the corals to see, without damaging whatever it is that you are trying to protect in the first place.

Good air consumption trends are also important as you need about an hour to complete the survey. Though you would be surveying in shallow waters anyway (about 5-6m), so it should not be too much of a problem.

The other thing would be to have a good eye for the indicator species. Learn your indicators well so that when you see it underwater, you do not have to spend too much time thinking about it. So pay attention in class!

I am pleased to see that there is growing interest in this field of conservation, so good luck in trying to put a team together. Julian can handle about 6-8 divers at a time. When Rid and I did ours, we paired up and did the substrate ID, while 2 other pairs buddied up and did fish and invert ID respectively. The other two can do photography, so that Reef Check can keep updating their photo library.

If you are Malaysian and dive often in our waters, might as well be a Malaysian EcoDiver. The indicator species you learn elsewhere might differ.

Don't forget to read-up on that report I posted on the other thread. That would give you a good idea of what you'd be experiencing.

Good luck!

Read the report. Guess i still need to improve my buoyancy still since we have to do inverted diving, i don't want to damage the corals. More dives for me then. Air consumption - OK. Dive experience - OK. 

Thanks, shaFin for the very useful info. Appreciate it. 

I understand that we have some "POOL Session" for MUW member.  Can we not use this avenue to do a preliminary evaluation exercise to see if those of us that wish to do MUW, does infact have good BUOYANCY control.  Maybe other MUWian qualified Ecodivers can be our evaluator.  I think it's important to have trained eye evaluate us, myself for example - I think I'm always right and the best in the world.......obviously the world would disagree.

Kawan, who to approach bout this "Cheras Pool" thingie? 

DI, can ask Julian if we MUW wanna do EcoDiver training at Redang Macha's place, what are the chargers like..???

Ask him we only need the training and to be master EcoDivers hehehe... accomodation, diving, meal, we set ourselves la...

Julian, Bobo had a question for you earlier in this thread, above.
The pool session with Julian's participation sound like a good opportunity. Lemme me do some homework within MUW to see how to set it up. 

Bobo, Harfiez, Santadive, Miezegreat & Bijan - are you guys still tuned in to this thread?

Ok we will set one of the days after raya to have a PPB training at Cheras and DI can proceed to invite Julian to be there how bout that..???

And we can discuss further at Nasi Ayam Kampung for our Eco-Diver course, but I still want it to be at Redang... u notice they dont have redang DC yet for Reef Check Centres. MACHA's place would be appropriate for a start. MACHA have been doing the conservation thing alone for the past few years without any help from outsiders.

This is the time we can do something to Redang and start with something within the community.

For a start i would like to have names those who interested in joining the Reef Check for a Eco-Diver Course. Before we can proceed to the course, we shuld have several training session on our buoyancy. I would like to suggest that we have it at Cheras pool.

Ridrahim and Shafi will be our master for the pre-reef check course and evaluator. They will foresee what we have to do b4 we take up the course.

We have lots of DM's (Holeymasta) in MUW and that can help us on the buoyancy training.

We will have the training after raya most probably on Sunday.

I will post the time and date later.

Can i see some hands?

1. Bobo
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. 

im not taking over, just wanted to get members to participate, you are spearheading this project, i will assist