IPMEC Background

The International Pacific Marine Educators Conference (IPMEC) is an outcome of the One Ocean Marine Forum (OOMF), held in July 2005 at Kahului, Maui, Hawaii. This initial international meeting was, in turn, the result of long time associations between Marine Education Society of Australasia (MESA) members and the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) in North America.

There have been many cross-cultural visits over recent years and these visits have exposed the challenges in both knowledge and resource sharing on the international scene. The 2005 Forum, which was the first formal international meeting of marine educators, was the next logical step in this process of exposing the challenges in knowledge and resource sharing. The upcoming Fiji conference will further that goal by piloting the Pacific Ocean.