Film crew join Mauritius and marine tours start promoting responsible tourism

No two days are ever the same here and each task brings its unique rewards. So far this month the dolphin sightings have been everything we could hope for with spinners being seen each time we go on a monitoring trip and sightings of both bottlenose and spotted dolphins in the open sea.

We have also had regular sightings of both species of turtle when monitoring them in the Black River Bay.

This month has also seen a return of last year's film crew who presented a 20 min documentary last year covering the research activities of the project. The documentary was a great success and they asked whether they could do another, this time about the actual dolphin monitoring programme — needless to say, we jumped at the chance!

So, on the 24th of January, the Mauritius Marine Conservation Society President Jacqueline Sauzier took a two-man film crew out on the boat with herself and two of the current volunteers. It was a hugely successful morning with the cameraman getting some amazing footage of spinner dolphins and a very comprehensive overview of the issues surrounding dolphin-watching tourism which still, despite our best efforts, continues to grow unchecked.

To finish on a positive note, many of the regular tour boats now actively promote responsible dolphin watching, a lot of the crews have even begun wearing T-shirts bearing the words “Respecté ban Dofins, Protez nou Lenvironmen!"