A SCHOOL trip proved to be a once in a lifetime experience for a group of pupils from Bolton.

Pupils from Bolton School visited the unspoiled Caribbean island of Dominica finding out more about the animals which live there and experiencing the Champagne Reef, a natural phenomena of which there are only four in the world where carbon dioxide bubbles up from beneath the reef so it is like swimming through Champagne.

The trip was organised so the pupils could carry out their own research into biodiversity as part of Operation Wallacea, where academics organise biodiversity and conservation management research expeditions.

Pupils spent the first week was spent in a terrestrial forest camp, working with an international team of academics, who are collecting data.

Projects included catching lizards to collect data on the effect an invasive species of lizard was having on the native lizard as well as transects were carried out at Champagne Reef. The reef is said to offer a glimpse into what the future may be like if oceanic carbon dioxide continues to rise due to man’s activities. Groups also collected invertebrates as those on the island are understudied and there are many new species being discovered. And the students helped to collect and pin samples which were sent to the Natural History Museum in London for analysis.

A spokesman for the school said: "During the second week of the trip, the pupils were based in a different part of the island as they took part in a marine ecology week. Their accommodation was in the beautiful Fort Shirley, a fully restored old colonial fort dating from the 1700s built by the British and the French."