This weekend, our students headed over to Berry Head for their second active conservation day. After we parked up, we hurried over to the headland because Sarah Matthews from DolphinZone was waiting for us and there was a pod of common dolphins offshore! This was incredibly exciting and Sarah was able to tell us all about the dolphins’ behaviour and give us advice on how and went to spot them. Sarah is a passionate conservationist who started DolphinZone out of a love for the dolphins and she is an inspirational character who we have studied as part of the John Muir Award. It was great to hear her passion and her amazing ability to communicate that to the young people. At one point, a group of jet skiers approached the dolphins just after Sarah had been telling us how disturbing this is for them, and the group responded by shouting at the jet skis to keep their distance! This was an important moment because we really saw the young people’s passion for conservation and for supporting the wildlife we were watching.
After this dramatic intervention we went and got a hot chocolate from the café and watched the Gilmore colony on the southern cliffs of the headland. Then the group split into two, some did some plant surveying using I record while the other group went on an insect walk with Amy, and after lunch the group of swapped over activities.
This was an incredibly inspiring day where everyone got to experience a number of assets of conservation. Special thanks to Sarah Matthews from DolphinZone for being so generous with her time and knowledge.
