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The Aegean Marine Life Sanctuary

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The Aegean Marine Life Sanctuary

Background

The Aegean Marine Life Sanctuary (AMLS) aims to provide expert care and rehabilitation to sick and injured marine animals in and around the Greek islands and a place where formerly captive dolphins can thrive in a natural environment. The AMLS aims to be the first-of-its-kind veterinary clinic and rehabilitation centre for sick/injured marine animals (dolphins, sea turtles, monk seals). Providing critical clinical care and rehabilitative treatment in a “teaching marine mammal hospital” far from human impacts. The sanctuary will offer long-term care and refuge for dolphins displaced due to closure of marine parks providing expert care, comfort and compassion for animals physical and mental needs and setting future standards in animal welfare at marine sanctuaries. Currently the building and the bay pomote applied biodiversity conservation research through innovative habitat enhancement techniques such as artificial reefs and replantation of seagrass meadows.

The AMLS team

Interns who join this project will take part in numerous research and communication projects related to the creation of the AMLS, while they are also welcomed to take part in the actual construction process if interested. As the facility is not yet fully operational as a rehabilitation centre, this internship will not involve animal care but instead will be focusing on the crucial tasks in preparation of its operation. Thus, the interns would be involved in helping with a variety of activities focusing on the developmental stages.

Examples of recent internship projects

• The mapping of seagrass meadows through cost-efficient kayak-based methods using single beam sonar.
• The mapping of coralligenous assemblages through boat-based surveys using the multibeam sonar and the ROV, aboard the Aegean Explorer.
• Monitoring the spatial distribution of floating marine litter in the Aegean Sea with Sentinel-2 imagery.
• Mapping the coastal habitats along the Aegean islands with drone surveys and classification via GIS and programming software.
• Supervised classification of bottom-scan sonar data for the detection of seagrass absence / presence with Python algorithms.

Your role

The internship will consist of both fieldwork and office work. Applicants will ideally come from a background in marine science, project management, education, social sciences, art, media and communications, and/or related fields. You will be providing support to different aspects of the AMLS which may include protocol development, working with the project manager on the environmental impact assessment. This also includes some work in the sanctuary bay with the implementation of artificial reefs and fish biodiversity assessments.

Technical skills

At least one of the following requirements is needed:
• Working towards or completion of a scientific degree
• Experience with scientific surveying
• Expertise or desire to work in marine consultancy

Other skills

• Fluency in English
• Good communication skills
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment
• Motivation to live in remote places with simple facilities
• Sincere desire to work towards Archipelagos’ conservation efforts

What we offer

We offer an internship at an inspiring institute with experts on coastal conservation. You have the opportunity to collect data for writing a thesis, scientific publications or increasing your skillset within the marine conservation sector. Internships range from 3 - 12 months, although shorter or longer internship periods may be arranged to cover the needs of groups or individuals. As Archipelagos is a non-profit research institute, the internships we offer are unpaid. The experience requires an internship weekly fee of 163 - 195 euros to cover living and research expenses (e.g. housing, 3 meals a day, public liability insurance and other research facilities). Students and recent graduates and researchers are advised to search for possible funding through their universities, by getting in touch with the International Office/ Placement/ Erasmus+ Offices at their Universities or other relevant grant providing organizations in their region.

Procedure

To apply for this internship, please send an email to our admissions team outlining your program of interest and requesting an application form - [email protected] We will get back to you within 2 working days.

Read more +18 August 2021 By Dimitris Fekkas in Intern Experience, Marine Conservation Team, Work Journal

Kayak based-mapping of Posidonia seagrass meadows

Read more +02 August 2021 By Dimitris Fekkas in Marine Conservation Team, Work Journal

Assessment of microplastic accumulation on Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows

Read more +10 July 2021 By Dimitris Fekkas in Intern Experience, Marine Conservation Team, Work Journal

Monitoring Diurnal Variation in Marine Macroinvertebrates

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