"Sheree Marris on ABC's Catalyst program" by Admin
Last night (April 8, 2008, Catalyst featured Sheree Marris, Parks Victoria Board member, Kama Seatra writer, the Octopus... Read More
MESA is a national organisation that brings together people interested in the study and enjoyment of coastal and marine environments.
MESA provides a forum for sharing ideas to facilitate the development of leading environmental education and interpretation programs.
MESA also promotes the sustainable use of marine and coastal environments through education.
Seaweek is a national initiative conducted annually to focus community awareness, provide information and encourage an appreciation of our marine and coastal environments. Each year a different theme is chosen.
Seaweek is a celebration of the uniqueness of our "Ocean Planet"
Our aims are to:
Support educators in delivering best practice marine education in the Australasian region
Promote networking through the MESA website, forums and the MESA newsletter "Undercurrents"
Facilitate training, workshops and conferences for members
Develop community understanding, appreciation and action for the marine and coastal environment through activities.
Encourage and contribute to national and international marine education initiatives.
May 2008
World Environment Day Webcasts
On June 5th we are running a day of webcasts. We have two excellent presentations on sawfish as a followup to Seaweek 2008 and also Charlie Veron will talk about climate change and the future of the Great Barrier Reef.
From the Gulf to Las Vegas
Cairns Marine has collected juvenile sawfish under permit from tidal waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria since 1998. Find out how sawfish get from the Gulf to the United States.
Getting to the POINT with sawfish
An overview of sawfish biology and ecology from one of Australia's leading researchers.
A Reef in Time
Former Chief Scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and author of A Reef in Time, Dr J.E.N. (Charlie) Veron, draws urgent attention to the devastation waiting in the wings for our beautiful Great Barrier Reef.
Information Sheets, Sawfish videos,Teaching activities and more online
In 2008 Seaweek’s theme is "Extinction - a Saw point" highlighting the plight of the declining sawfish.
“Sawfish populations have declined over the years because of pressures imposed on them from fishing and modification of their habitat. Sawfish are vulnerable to most forms of fishing in particular net fisheries as at any size their toothed rostrum is easily entangled in the mesh“
Your school's task is to design and construct a banner highlighting some aspects of this year's theme relating to threatened Australian marine species.
The International Sea Turtle Society convenes an annual symposium to bring people together to promote the exchange of information that advances the global knowledge of sea turtle biology and conservation
The International Youth Coastal Conference 2008 19th to 22nd October 2008
Townsville, Queensland, Australia
The International Youth Coastal Conference is the culmination of a process. Students prepare 40 minute workshops to present to their peers at the conference on a marine or coastal topic, relevant to their local area.
Lloyd and a student holding
a model BioSUB.
Photo: Border Mail
Atlantica Expeditions A working group known as the Atlantica Expedition has set the goal of establishing the first undersea colony for permanent human habitation. A crew of former astronauts, NASA engineers, aquanauts, medical personnel, filmmakers, educators, and people from other walks of life has been assembled to participate directly.
The crew includes Australian Lloyd Godson. Lloyd recently won the $50,000 Australian Geographic "Live your dream" wildest adventure competition for his BioSUB project. The project was an international sensation, resulting in Lloyd being named as the Australian Geographic Society's "Adventurer of the Year Award" for 2007.
International Pacific Marine Educators Conference '08 Marine educators worldwide will gather in the tropical Australian city of Townsville to share resources and to continue to 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.
