A Marine Life Education and Monitoring Program for Intermmediate and High School Students

Part of the innovative nature of this program is the cooperative relationship we have forged between our charitable nonprofit foundation, the local schools and the Waimea Family YMCA. Our students come from several public schools (Waimea Intermediate, Honoka‘a, Kohala and Kealakehe high schools) and also include home-schooled students. Our partnership with the local YMCA ensures that the students and the staff are all current in their water skills and in the latest safety procedures. This allows us to provide a level of direct experience in ocean research that is not available through most programs in Hawaii.

Description of Ocean Explorers Program

• Tidepooling, dolphin and whale watching boat trips, snorkeling, tours of aquaculture facilities and traditional Hawaiian fishponds.
• Introduction to computers for data entry and analysis; Internet research and website development.
• YMCA swimming and water safety training.
• Long-term monitoring of 2-3 coral reef sites as part of community based management of Fisheries Replenishment Areas (FRAs).
• Marine mammal censusing from both shore station and boats.

Our education programs focus on Marine Protected Species. Our initial projects have studied Marine Mammals and Coral Reef Fishes. We seek to bring both the children of this island and students from all over the world out into the marine environment to experience directly the diversity and beauty of our ocean ecosystems. In the process of doing this, students come to develop a greater respect for the marine animals that they are studying and a better understanding of the challenges that these animals constant face in making their way in the world.