MBA Student Member and Mentor Kym Yarwood took part in the Field Studies Council Dale Fort Camp in August. Kym shares the highlights and memorable moments from her experience.
“This summer, I had the rewarding experience of being the MBA mentor at a ‘Snorkelling for Marine Biology’ Field Studies Council’s Duke of Edinburgh residential held at Dale Fort Field Centre, Pembrokeshire.
Throughout the week attendees and I worked through a BSAC snorkel diver qualification, as well as taking part in various marine activities such as identifying animals on the rocky shore and investigating plankton with a microscope.
The BSAC course taught me useful safety skills including dive planning and rescue tows. Attendees picked up skills very well, so practical lessons ended with a free-snorkel around the various sites we visited.
I think my and many attendees’ favourite lesson was ‘entering the water’ – everyone reacted with delight when our tutor Catherine demonstrated the forward-flip entry off Dale pontoon, and when each of us successfully performed the manoeuvre.
A personal highlight was the guest talks by people currently working in the marine field. This included Paul Naylor’s great underwater photography and his aim to raise awareness of Britain’s marine fauna, often overlooked compared to tropical reefs for example.
His descriptions of the colourful lives of individual blennies made me appreciate these little fish much more. Emma Williams from the company Celtic Deep gave us a talk on the sharks that live in British waters, which included amazing dive footage of trying to gather blue shark genetic material with a toothbrush!
We also heard from Mark Burton, the Skomer Marine Conservation Zone Warden about monitoring and conservation in the area, where we had earlier watched grey seal pups on the shore.
Dale Fort Field Centre staff were extremely welcoming, and I got to see some ‘behind the scenes’ of field courses. I gained valuable experience by learning to engage with attendees and delivering a short presentation about my own marine experiences.
This was a great week, and I would highly recommend being an MBA mentor.”
