Marine educators worldwide will again gather, this time in Fiji, to share resources and to advance a network aimed at ensuring the health of the Pacific and the communities who depend upon it. The conference dates are July 7 to 10, 2010, and, if funds are available, web conferencing will allow virtual participation for educators who are unable to travel to Fiji.
The International Pacific Marine Educators Network (IPMEN) is a developing collective of marine educators throughout the Pacific. The idea for this group was one of the outcomes of a two-day meeting (One Ocean Marine Forum) on the Hawaiian island of Maui in July 2005.The aim of the Forum was to create a global network of marine educators to share knowledge, expertise and resources to solve ocean related environmental issues. It was decided to further the Forum goal by first forming a network of Pacific marine educators as a pilot.
The International Pacific Marine Educators Conference was held in 2007 in Hawaii to create the Pacific network. The conference successfully concluded with the creation of IPMEN. The network gained considerable momentum with the convening of its first biennial conference, held in Townsville, Australia, in October 2008.
An IPMEN ’10 conference brochure will soon be available for download.
You are invited to be part of this growing international effort to safeguard the health of the ocean and the communities who depend upon it. Marine educators – using the widest sense of the word – are encouraged to participate, either in person or virtually via the web, in this conference focused on the Pacific but with worldwide implications.
For more information or to provide suggestions to the IPMEN’10 conference committee, please contact Ron Vave (Fiji, Conference Convener), Harry Breidahl (Australia) or Sylvia Spalding (Hawaii).
The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council has again provided valuable initial sponsorship for the IPMEN conference.
Any potential conference sponsors or supporters should contact Ron Vave (Fiji, Conference Convener), Harry Breidahl (Australia) or Sylvia Spalding (Hawaii).
Many IPMEN ’08 conference supporters (in-kind) are now involved in planning for IPMEN’10. They include – the Australian Marine Environment Protection Association (AUSMEPA), BriTer Solutions (Australia), Centro AquaSendas-COPAS (Chile), the College of Exploration (USA), COSEE California, Institute of Applied Sciences at the University of the South Pacific (Fiji), the Lawrence Hall of Science (University of Berkeley, California), the Marine Education Society of Australasia, Nautilus Educational (Australia), the National Marine Educators Association (USA) and the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Hawaii).
The College of the Marshall Islands and the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology (University of Hawai'i at Manoa) are also providing in-kind support for IPMEN ’10. There is room for other organizations to actively contribute to the work of this growing network.
The conference theme for IPMEN ’10 is Vakarau ni se siga toka - Marine education in the new millennium. Vakarau ni se siga toka is something Fijian elders used to say (and still do today, but rarely), which translated means “Start preparing while we’ve still got daylight.”
With that theme in mind the IPMEN ’10 conference committee will call for papers in the following four strands.
Strand 1: Key Challenges in Ocean Literacy.
Strand 2: Building Healthy Sustainable Coastal Communities.
Strand 3: Women in Fisheries - Partnerships for Change.
Strand 4: How Does Climate Change Affect Children of the Pacific?
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