Our voluntourism project is year-round as every day is a marine adventure at Marine Dynamics. Our volunteer intake arrives every Monday for orientation.

We prioritise your time at sea, but note we are affected by weather, tide, sea conditions and seasonal demand. You will form part of our crew assisting guests on board and tasks on land. Some of the tasks can be quite physical so a healthy degree of fitness is required. You will receive educational talks from our team of marine biologists and have experiences as related to their work and our research, conservation, and community projects. You will also support the team at the African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary – we have two feeding times a day. Marine animal rescues and strandings happen in the area. Wherever possible we ensure you are part of all the action.

No. We will teach you some basics, but the responsibilities remain with Marine Dynamics. You will no doubt get your sea legs after a few days, but you may need motion sickness tablets initially if this is something you are concerned about. We ask that you always respect the skipper’s decisions and listen to the instructions from the crew.

On your first day, you will enjoy the cage diving experience as if you were a guest so that you understand how things work. Your assistance on our boats and on land is greatly appreciated and provides you with a great overview of eco-tourism in action. We ensure you have some cage time and fun too. As space and time allows, the skipper will let you know if you can get in the cage so always be ready. And if we have been busy and there has not been a chance for volunteers to dive, we try to plan an exclusive volunteer trip, again depending on weather/time etc.

This depends on the number of trips and number of volunteers to assist. So, you could work one trip for the day and possibly a second. Some volunteers like to pick up on the second trip, if possible, when space allows to get more sea time, so anything from half a day to a full day’s work. We fit in presentations and other activities, including fun excursions when you are not at sea.

The short answer is at least two weeks, to ensure you get sufficient time on sea and exposure to as many of the projects as possible, plus a little free time to see this incredible area as we arrange excursions when weather and sea conditions keep us off sea. Four weeks is best, so you get more time for everything, and hopefully some rare and unique experiences. We also have time to get to know you better. Many of our volunteers return and some stay for months. Some have gone on to do research and guiding experiences with us. We aim to give you a good overview of all we do, and perhaps inspire your career path.