The first Solomon Island community to request assistance from OceansWatch to help them manage their marine resources has had their MPA recognised by the Provincial Government. OceansWatch Solomon Island's director Willie Sau Kaitu'u reports: "The Rennell Bellona provincial Executive agreed in their meeting today, to recognize the Marine Protected Area on Rennell Island."
This was a result of a lot of hardwork by Willie, Derek Pongi and others on Rennell, especially Joseph and the Reef Guardians. To those of you such as Gardner, Alison, Cleo, Noelle, Bara, Joetta, Irene, Katherine and Emily who helped in the field a big thank you. As OceansWatch followers know we are a community driven organisation, here to serve people and their environment but it's also great to get our work recognised at higher levels too.
The second OceansWatch yacht for 2013 is now on its way to Vanuatu. Onboard Cat Knapp are Glenn Edney, the skipper and Shelly Feduniw and Amick Houssaune. Read more in our latest Newsletter.
This is shaping up to be a big year for OceansWatch as we make progress on our goal of “Saving the Ocean – one reef at a time."It is thanks to the sponsorship of UAEs bid to host the World Expo in 2020 that Magic Roundabout is on her way to the Pacific with Helen Beswick, Carla Deane, Andy Clarkson and Shannon Hurley.It is that time of year when all our volunteers are working like crazy to get the last minute things ready for the departure of the two OceansWatch vessels which will be working in the Pacific during the New Zealand winter.
It can be very hard to show that we are actually achieving success towards sustainability, especially to hard nosed grant making bodies. They want the hard facts, comprehensive surveys costing thousands of dollars that frankly OceansWatch would rather spend on grass roots conservation. Yet there are other ways to show our impact................