Sunburnt Valentines

Kia Ora!
Another holiday, yes while mainly commercial, still reminds me of everyone not here with me that I'm missing and can't be with to show them how much I love and miss them. No bottles of pinot and salads from Hop Deli, no dinners in Little Italy, no homemade brownies and heart candies in a package from mom and dad. Oh well, new country, new traditions. I went on a short roadie up north to Keri Keri with my neighbor Jono and one of my new housemates, Tom. True to form, despite spf 70 AND zinc, my nose and cheeks still managed to get sunburnt...probably just trying to decorate for the holiday.

Work wise here at OceansWatch, things have been going off. OW North America has responded nobly to the earthquake in Haiti, sending a flotilla of boats full with supplies and volunteers eager to help. Read about Sail Aid to Haiti here. In addition, they have recently achieved 501(c)(3) status! While OWNA and OW International are technically two separate entities, we still work very closely together and support each other in our successes and give suggestions for improvement. While our North American counterparts are working on the crisis in Haiti, we cannot neglect the other people and ecosystems in need in the Southern Hemisphere.

I am still furiously working on finding funding for the annual expedition to the South Pacific. As the potential leaving date for the new project lead boat Moksha fast approaches (10 weeks!), we still need more support. The boat is scheduled to visit Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, revisiting some communities Magic Roundabout worked in last year, monitoring marine protected areas we have already set up and creating new ones in new communities, training locals how to look after their own reefs, setting up ecotourism ventures in PNG, and trying to come up with alternative forms of livelihood for these people. This is probably the most important aspect, as we are basically helping these communities set up "no-take zones," solely at their request, where they cannot fish in order to allow time for these marine ecosystems to replenish naturally. Since 80% of their protein and an equal amount of their daily life, culture, and income revolve around fishing, it is our indirect duty to help them come up with other ways of making a livelihood. There are a few ways we have thought about doing this, some involve breeding trocus and green snails and other aquaculture ventures (locals can sell these shells as buttons once they get big enough), building up eco-tourism (an incentive for communities to take great care of their reefs and the ability to showcase their dying culture) and implementing a program called Art for Aid, in which galleries agree to give us a certain section of their space for no cost and sell pieces brought back from the Islands at a much higher price than they could get in their own country. We are also working out some way to build a climate change cirriculum to be able to present to the schools and adults there, as many of these islands are directly affected by rising sea levels. Some of them, specifically the Reef Islands in the Solomons, are quickly losing coast, and in this case, an entire cemetery.

As far as where I come in with regards to all of this, I am right now just the official fundraiser for OceansWatch. I would love to be able to get involved in more of the science stuff, to go out to sea again, to do some field work, but I'm going to need some funding to cover my living costs. No thanks to the recession, lots of funding bodies aren't giving out individual grants or scholarships to non-students doing environmental work this year...most of them are reserving the money for "bingos," Big NGOs that will get them press and such. This now leaves me in the oh-so-fun situation that every volunteer without a trust fund is left in, not having any money. I just yesterday scored a job at a local pizza joint, which will help keep me afloat for some time, but I doubt it will make a serious dent in the project cost, but who knows. If I can't get enough in time and the boat sails without me, watch out '10 grads cause I'll be coming back in May/June job hunting with some fresh perspective.