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Courtney Weatherburne reporting
It can't get any better than this - chilling on the beach as the gusts blow strong and steady unto shore. But these volunteers only get to enjoy this seaside siesta after

A day of learning about lionfish and different species of corals. The practical sessions are done in the sun, sand and of course sea

While the survey planning and theory portions are done in this makeshift classroom. It's part of a series of expeditions that Blue Ventures offers at their Bacalar Chico Dive Camp.

It's not much with these small thatch roofed huts as sleeping quarters, but it's the best immersive marine experience one can ask for.

Andreina Acosta, Science Officer, Blue Ventures
"This is the Bacalar Chico Dive camp. This is where the volunteers and field staff come to do our work we stay here for…depending on the expedition, sometimes it is a 10 days expedition, sometimes it is 6 week expedition."

"So the 6 week expedition is usually set aside for the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef Synoptic System monitoring so MBRS and also for the LFS, the Lionfish Focus Search Surveys. They are two different types of surveys so we don't merge them we do different expeditions for them. For that expedition, the MBRS or the LFS, we have the volunteers go to Sarteneja where we are based and they do 10 days there and they visit other NGO's in the same area, they get an experience of local living by staying in the home stay program that Sarteneja women have set there. They also receive more computer training there because they get more power point presentation, they get an overview of Blue Ventures and after that we come out here and we do our 6 weeks, I am sorry, 4 to 5 weeks and so for the first 3 weeks we do dive training for those who are not certified, we do survey training, so that is computer tests, we do in water tests, we do on land survey practice and then we do in water survey practice all of this is just to get high quality data so our data can be credible."

"The data that they contribute goes to the network that we have for the MBRS system or for Belize, everything for Belize, data that is collected for Belize."

Courtney Weatherburne
"So it is really training them to help us."

Andreina Acosta, Science Officer, Blue Ventures
"Yes, basically yeah."

And the trainees also get exposed to real hands-on, field experience in a reef system - which they could never find in their home country:

Anna Frey, Volunteer - Baltimore, Maryland
"I have always been interested in environmental science, I am a high school senior this year so I really wanted some hands on experience on field research before I went to college and decided my major and I think this is given me a really good opportunity to pursue that."

"So we have been learning about different competing predators for the lionfish, how to ID them and how to lay fish transits to be able to ID them in the water."

Finlay McMunn, Volunteer - Dover, London
"I think Belize itself and the Belizean people are very environmentally aware, I noticed that at the various places that I have traveled so far and everyone seems to be pro-conservation and I think that is absolutely brilliant and I don't think the buck should stop there. And I think we need to be promoting these things as much as we can. For myself, I am going into medicine and this is the thing I would like to do to be so be a medical on various conservation expeditions and it is a kickstart for my career here."

There are at least 7 volunteers at a time on these expeditions. You can find out more about Blue Ventures on their website or on their facebook page.