Project Jonah - Marine Mammal Medic Course

Recently my mum and I participated in the Project Jonah Marine Mammal Medic Course. Project Jonah is a registered charity that works with New Zealanders to protect and respect our marine mammals. They run solely on the help of their volunteers, whether they're helping with a stranding or simply just picking up rubbish on the beach. Their work can fall into three categories. 

1. Rescue - We deliver essential first aid to stranded or injured animals via our nationwide network of trained and passionate Marine Mammal Medics.
2. Action - Through our public education and awareness campaigns we inform and educate people, and encourage them to get involved.
3. Protection - We act as a watchdog to expose marine mammal suffering and help create and enforce laws that will protect these animals.

Project Jonah run Marine Mammal Medic Courses that teach you how to give basic first aid to a stranded marine mammal. This is a one day courses that is split into two parts. The morning is a classroom session where you learn about the anatomy of whales, social and behavioural structures and reasons into why they might strand. You will also learn basic stranding rescue techniques, roles and responsibilities and personal health and safety. 

In the afternoon you will able to test the skills you've learned on the life weight life size dolphin and pilot whale models by practicing first aid and learning how to use a dolphin lifting mat as well as a rescue pontoon. 

By the end of this course you will be able to:

1. Assist in the rescue of stranded whales and dolphins
2. Act as a role model to untrained rescuers
3. Understand the roles and responsibilities at a stranding
4. Avoid potential hazards for people and whales

I thoroughly enjoyed this course and learnt a lot. The staff were amazing and it was really cool to be able to test our skills with life models. While whale stranding's are a horrible event, I am glad that I now have the knowledge to be able to help protect our marine mammals. I would 100% recommend this course to everyone in NZ as it is a great opportunity to be able to make a change in the world because this is universal knowledge, you would be knowledgeable about how to help out at any whale stranding around the world. 

If you want to learn more about Project Jonah and what they do, you can check out their website here.

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