Welcome to OceansWatch

The website:

The first thing you will notice about oceanswatch.org is that it is a massive site. We suggest you set aside at least a few hours for an overview, or more to completely go through everything. Built over several years, it has a multitude of areas which one can easily find the hours slipping away browsing many interesting topics and links. You will need your membership login to access the members area.

Like most websites, it is a work in progress so you might find “coming soon” or “under development” as a result of clicking on certain headings. One key thing to review prior to spending time exploring the website is the latest Annual Report, which will provide you with significant insight about the aims and experiences of OceansWatch.

OceansWatch is organised into two areas, North America and International. You can switch between the two separate “sites” by clicking on the button and selecting the relevant area. You will notice that each distinct region has a subtly different navigation menu at the top of the page. Note that the website is having a major re-design over April/June 2011.

The most active International region is in the Pacific area of Melanesia, while the Atlantic projects have just gotten underway in the last year. OWNA was active with humanitarian aid to Haiti in 2010 and other Caribbean region projects are being researched (Jan 2011).

OW has, at its core, three key areas of focus…

• Education
• Humanitarian Work
• and Marine Conservation.

While small projects can support only one aspect, OW sees all three aspects as totally interdependent. The brightest forecast for success of a project will generally incorporate addressing the concerns of all three areas.

Videos:

Introduction

OceansWatch 2008 Part 1

OceansWatch 2008 Part 2

"Tasima culture group, Karkar Island, PNG put on a show for Sophie's birthday."

Village Elder thanking OceansWatch

(This is a great video to help understand how the actual communities feel about the OceansWatch visits)

Radio Interview: 51 minutes

(Somewhat long, yet quite insightful, it certainly provides you with an idea of the overall approach, the historical reality and vision of OceansWatch, through the words of Chris Bone).

Key points that I took from interview:

Overall focus and one key end goal is to “help empower others towards self sufficiency in today’s global reality, in a way that enhances their unique cultural identities and provides for realistic sustainability of their natural resources”. One key approach being taken in the islands is to provide educational opportunities that train local peoples to protect and enhance their marine environments through healthy reef/ocean eco-systems.

Most island peoples, whose cultures evolved with a heavy reliance on the sea for sustenance, are negatively impacted by recent climatic challenges with rising temperatures and lack of oceans' stewardship on a global scale by the developed nations. The threats are immediate and intimidating, but successes are many and OceansWatch intends to be a factor in empowering coastal/island people to be proactive in working towards their collective futures.

While OceansWatch is keenly interested and devoted to the issues and challenges facing people coasts and oceans, they maintain a non-confrontational stance. Affiliations with groups that are more focused on managing confrontational opportunities exist at various levels, but OceansWatch remains keenly focused on empowering people now by helping them with their immediate realities.

There is a huge resource of cruising “yachties” that wish to be of use in immediate roles by providing opportunities for science professionals to be transported/housed and supported at various sites along their intended routings. Also, these cruising yachts can provide for the delivery of cargo to and from various islands (could be humanitarian supplies or the exporting/importing of materials/crafts) especially where affordable and realistic transportation options do not exist for the locals.

This tremendous resource is real, yet it requires a massive amount of logistics to marry available yachts and their unique routings/plans with available personnel in meaningful and practical ways. A key role that members can help with (does not matter where you live) is to reach out to yacht owners, whether they are underway or moored in their home marina, by offering them an opportunity to take part in this useful and meaningful program.…in a real and substantial way. It really is about facilitating a model by which people from different economic realities can work together towards a better world and healthier oceans.