Where, When & Why

Marine educators worldwide will gather in the tropical Australian city of Townsville to share resources and to continue ongoing efforts to build a network aimed at ensuring the health of the Pacific and the communities who depend upon it. The conference dates are October 16 to 21, 2008 and web conferencing will allow virtual participation for educators who are unable to travel to Australia.

 Background

The International Pacific Marine Educators Network (IPMEN) is a developing collective of marine educators throughout the Pacific. The creation of this group began with a two day meeting on the Hawaiian island of Maui in July 2005 and gained considerable momentum at a second international meeting, also in Hawaii, in January 2007. This second meeting, called IPMEC, brought together 100 educators from 18 Pacific nations and territories and resulted in the formation of IPMEN.

By piloting a cooperative network of Pacific marine educators, IPMEN is seen as a first step towards the goal of establishing a worldwide marine educators network. Such a worldwide network would aim to share knowledge, expertise and resources to solve ocean related environmental issues.

 Join Us

You are invited to be part of this growing international effort to change the public attitudes towards the ocean and to actively protect this ecosystem that keeps our world healthy. 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.

 Further Information

For more information or to provide suggestions to the IPMEN’08 conference committee, please contact Harry Breidahl (Australia) or Sylvia Spalding (Hawaii)

What's New - Update 5, October 2008

Program details are now available.

An IPMEN’08 conference brochure is now available for download as a pdf.

Note 1: Thank you too all of those who have registered and submitted papers, now is time to finalize your travel and accommodation plans. Please contact Lynn Mazza if you have any questions about travel or accommodation.

Note 2: It is still not too late to register for the conference or submit a paper (see final note below).

Note 3: If you have submitted a call for paper application, these are being processed now and final acknowledgement will be sent out by the conference committee soon (before the end of August).

Note 4: For all international delegates not travelling on Australian on Australian or New Zealand passports please go to Travel to Townsville for details of visa applications.

Note 5: For all scholarship applicants, applications have now closed and are currently being processed. Successful applicants will ne notified soon (before the end of August) and assisted with their travel arrangements.

Final Note: It seems that the increasing cost of travel plus tight budgets is still having an impact on a number of potential IPMEN’08 delegates and their plans to travel to Townsville. The IPMEN'08 conference committee has therefore taken the following actions:

• Registrations and the call for papers remain open up to September 30. If you wish to take up this option of third round registration and paper submission (limited places available in a couple of strands) we ask that you do so as soon as possible.
• If travel to Townsville is an issue, please consider web registration.
• As announced in May, we have created a new category of sponsorship for delegates seeking their own support in the form of travel funding. Go to Delegate Sponsors for details.
  
  

 IPMEN’08 Sponsors

The IPMEN’08 Gold and Scholarship Sponsor is the David and Lucie Packard Foundation. IPMEN’08 Silver Sponsors are the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, Nautilus Educational, the National Marine Educators Association, the Marine Educators Association and the University of the South Pacific. The national Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, Telstra and the College of Exploration are web casting sponsors. Finally, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has signed on as a function sponsor.

IPMEN'08 Supporters

The growing list of IPMEN’O8 supporters (in-kind) includes – Australian Marine Environment Protection Association (AUSMEPA), BriTer Solutions (Australia), Centro AquaSendas-COPAS (Chile), the Conservation Society of Pohnpei, the College of Exploration (USA), COSEE California, Firestarter (Australia), Econorfolk Foundation, the Lawrence Hall of Science (University of Berkeley, California) and the national Marine Sanctuaries Foundation.

IPMEN’08 sponsors, such as the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, Nautilus Educational and NMEA and the Institute of Applied Sciences at the University of the South Pacific (Fiji)are also valuable in-kind supporters of the conference.

Conference Theme, Strands and Keynotes

The call for papers is based on both the IPMEN’08 conference theme of “Sustaining the Pacific: Learning from Elders – Listening to Youth” and the four conference strands for keynote speakers and concurrent sessions are (go to Themes for further details):

• Strand 1: Education for ocean literacy – creating a generation of ocean scientists, educators, citizens and decision makers who will support sustainability of the ocean and its resources.
• Strand 2: Current action on sustainability education in the Pacific – hearing from actively engaged traditional elders, scientists, educators and youth.
• Strand 3: Linking the Pacific – from the coconut wireless (local networks) to broadband (global) webs.
• Strand 4: Capacity building – building/realising the network (making it real).

IPMEN’08 Keynote Speakers

Draft details of keynote speakers on Friday October 17 and Saturday October 18 (for each of the four strands above) are now listed under Keynotes and Abstracts.