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 formal conference dates are July 7 to 9, 2010 but we ask that all international conference delegates arrange to arrive at the conference venue and register by Tuesday July 6. There will also be IPMEN organising committee meeting on Saturday July 10 at the conference venue so international delegates are encouraged to include this fact and in their travel plans.
If funds are available, web conferencing will allow real time virtual participation for educators and others 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.
For more information or to provide suggestions to the IPMEN 2010 conference committee, please contact Ron Vave (Fiji, Conference Convener), Harry Breidahl (Australia) or Sylvia Spalding (Hawaii).
As of the first week of May registrations for the IPMEN 2010 conference are progressing well but there are still a few places available. The conference registration form, the call for papers form and the scholarship application form are still available on this web site. The closing date for second round registration at the current prices is May 15, 2010. The deadline for call for papers and second round scholarship applications is also May 15, 2010.
We encourage you to download the appropriate forms to register promptly and to submit your call for papers promptly as well. Finally, if you are applying for a second round scholarship it is critical that you do this as promptly as possible because a number of last minute scholarship applicants were unable to attend the IPMEN 2008 conference in Townsville.
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.
The USA based NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) have joined the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council sponsors of the IPMEN 2010 conference. Details of two major conference sponsors should be announced soom.
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 the IPMEN 2010 conferenence. They include BriTer Solutions (Australia), Centro AquaSendas-COPAS (Chile), the College of Exploration (USA), the College of the Marshall Islands, the Institute of Applied Sciences at the University of the South Pacific (Fiji), the Lawrence Hall of Science at the 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). There is room for other organizations to actively contribute to the work of this growing network.
The conference theme for IPMEN 2010 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 “Prepare whilst there is time.”
With that theme in mind the IPMEN 2010 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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