Page 21 - OM Newsletter - Issue 43 - 2020

DEVELOPMENT IMPACT REPORT
Andrew Fong (8.98-00), sporting his OM blazer in Singapore, with Malvern parents David Mercurio and Jonathan Selvatore.
Malvernian Society Sponsorship
for study visit to the Cayman
Islands – Pupil report
Over the summer, I had the great good fortune to be able to take part in the Science trip to the Central Caribbean Marine Institute in the Cayman Islands. Of course it was fun, but more importantly, I came away with a greater knowledge and understanding of how the health of the oceans is of great importance to everyone and how we can help to reduce the impacts of global warming, how to avoid the problems of over-fishing and how to conserve our marine environment as much as possible.
Every day we had a lecture about the wildlife around the island and how to sustain it, followed by a couple of hours of beach cleaning. After lunch, we would then have a short scuba dive. These dives were extraordinary, diving down to depths of 52 feet, searching the reefs for fish and coral to identify and check whether any of the coral was bleached. We got to snorkel with wild stingray, visited the Blue Iguana sanctuary and also went on a bioluminescence tour in the night, where we witnessed the amazing effect of the phytoplankton reacting to being agitated by lighting up our paddle strokes as we kayaked in the dark.
As well as learning to identify fish and corals, we also learned that lights from hotels can disrupt the events of turtle hatching, causing turtles to follow the light from the hotels instead of the light from the moon which can lead the turtles into roads. Also, how tourism can destroy the mangroves and seagrass which subsequently leads to the corals being put under significant stress from which they may never recover. We also learned that noise pollution from cruise-boats and barges can disrupt marine life because sound travels much further underwater.
Featured here at the recent OM reception in Singapore are Yi Chu (8.85-89) and Andrew Fong (8.98-00)
And, of course, we saw the devastating effect of single-use plastics and styrofoam packaging.
I would like to thank the Malvernian Society for giving me the opportunity on this truly life-changing trip!
Sam Hughes (2017 – 2022)
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