Created by Ocean Revolution and financed by a grant from The Christensen Fund, The Seri and Traditional Owners from the Northwest and Torres Straits areas of Australia participated in Phase One of a year long Knowledge Exchange. There will be a return visit of the Seri to Australia later in the year. This exchange began with a gifting ceremony. The Seri presented sculptures of leatherback turtles and the Traditional Owners presented a headdress symbolizing unity and solidarity and a didgeridoo, a traditional aboriginal instrument. The exchange aims for practical biocultural outcomes. The Seri are seeking skills that allow them to become well funded, independent and to work more effectively with the Mexican Government. They are modeling a newly created debris removal plan on the “ghost net” program brought to Loreto by Traditional Owner groups from Hammond Island. The Australians seek from the Seri information on monitoring techniques for freeswimming turtles and support in introducing a discussion about eliminating turtle meat from their tribal diets. The Exchange as a group is collaborating on reducing monitoring costs and providing more safety for ranger teams and turtles by developing an ultra low impact monitoring method based on software programmed and refined by the groups themselves. With this software they will be able to notate habitat, species, and human impact events (pollution, fishing effort, illegal captures) that will allow them to effectively monitor and protect their Traditional Knowledge Exchange home waters. They hope to trademark and license this system to other groups. During the course of the week they also visited ancestral caves of the Seri and Isla Coronado together as a group. It is expected this “Knowledge Exchange” and its programs will expand to other turtle cultures in Central and South America, Africa, Australia, and Melanesia.
Many of the Native Oceans communities have made significant contributions to achieving a sustainable future for both turtles and their own communities by preserving and nurturing relationships with the sea, collaborating globally, and working to fortify the values and traditions relating to the sea turtle that preserve their cultural identity. To help them understand and collaborate with each otherʼs work, and, to expose this work to the Symposium as a whole, several council events were held. The public session in the town plaza where the Seri formally welcomed each indigenous nation and the participants exchanged music, art, stories, questions and information about their homelands and projects was the highlight of the weekʼs events for many of the Council members. The Council reflected on the historical and contemporary realities of indigenous coastal communities where the sea turtle has great economic, cultural and spiritual significance. They described their relationships with the oceans, the land and sea turtles, and how changes in the ocean have required them to make cultural and economic adaptations. They compared notes on how their knowledge has been integrated into western scientific understanding. In some cases, this has been a healthy exchange, and in others it has not. There have already been quantifiable outcomes. The Seri are well established in their Native Oceans Council conservation efforts and have made a formal decision to eliminate turtle from their diet. This sacrifice of their most significant source of tribal protein made a huge impact the Tobians and Australians that still rely on the sea turtle as a nutritional source. The Seri themselves have determined to work toward a unification of their conservation efforts and recently made the tribeʼs first formal presentation (with multi-media equipment given to them by ISTS) to CDI, Mexicoʼs federal indigenous support agency. They are applying for over $200,000 in additional support for their community development and conservation programs.
Mozambique offers a classic study in conservation. The Madagascar Channel, long untouched because of intense civil strife, is one of the world's most fertile and diverse ocean environments. Undeveloped and prisitne, much of the southern coast now faces pressure from development and commercialization.The three tenets of ocean conservation are on the minds of Mozambiquans and the world conservation community alike.
Less in: assuring that development does not mean the sea surrounding this rich region will become a dumping ground. Less Out: regulating fishing practices. Protecting the edge: stewardship of that fragile boundary between land and sea. Ocean Revolution along with The Manta Ray and Whaleshark Trust are joining forces with the newly formed BiTonga Diver to initiate and promote a program based on conservation awareness, economic opportunity and an informed and empowered community in the Tofo Beach region of Mozambique. Untouched because of intense civil strife, this is one of the world's most fertile and diverse ocean environments. Undeveloped and prisitne, much of the southern coast now faces pressure from development and commercialization.
It's Getting Hot In Here is a community media project created and sustained by leaders of the youth climate movement as a place to speak out about an issue that threatens our livelihoods and future generations and the actions that we are taking to create a more just and sustainable future. Click on the Image to be taken to their website!
If you wanted to choose the perfect location for capturing the ocean's energy, you couldn't do much better than the Oregon coast…Starting in 2007, those massive, ceaseless waves will help light homes and businesses along the West Coast…
Shinnecock ShellfishHatchery and Environmental Center is an environmental and economic program run by the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton, New York. By reseeding Shinnecock Bay with over 250,000 Oysters, SSHEC is working to develop an ecologically superior shellfish hatchery as a source of tribal income, a focus for training in marine aquaculture and environmental studies for Shinnecock youth, and as a way of monitoring and improving the health of traditional tribal waters. Pictured here are Barbara Joseph, Director of the project and Ocean Revolution members Tohanash Tarrant of the Shinnecock Nation and Mayra, Erika and Hap, Comcaåc (Seri) Indians from Sonora, Mexico. The Comcaåc are starting their own aquaculture project and were guests of the Shinnecock Youth Council and the SSHEC. Check out the 50 Ways column on our website to see more about the amazing work SSHEC is doing. BTW, they recently received $35,000 from the Long Island Community Foundation and the Henry Phillip Kraft Family Memorial Fund to continue their work.
one laptop per child, a project of MIT's Media Lab, is a non-profit association created by an amazing consortium of world organizations to make and distribute a $100 laptop—a technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world's children. OLPC Chairman and MIT Media Lab Chairman Emeritus Nicholas Negroponte and OR Co-director Tim Dykman met at the Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts along with OR kids Angus Dykman and Noah Salaway.Ocean Revolution links young people from all over the world in a network of information sharing and mentoring and links environmental action to their computers. The collaboration between OLPC and OR will extend that link to remote areas of the world where much our the world's most important conservation work is needed and is being done. Check out the OLPC Website.
Satellite tracking at Seaturtle.orgMichael Coyne of Duke University has created one of the most innovative and fun tools available to researchers, educators and students interested in the life of the sea turtle. Unprecedented advances in tracking techique and equipment enable us to follow turtles as they cross the oceans in search of food and nesting sites. Be sure to check out the work of Grupo Tortuguero when you check outthe Seaturtle.org tracking site: Ocean Revolution founder J Nichols is also a founder of Grupo Tortuguero. OR mentor Hoyt Peckham runs the tracking program there. You should also check out the University of Santa Cruz tracking site: where Hoyt's work is freatured.
Get involved and be part of the solution. Help us put LESS IN to the oceans by getting trash before it’s too late. Visit the ICC site to find out exactly where you can help…go there now!
Many of the Native Oceans communities have made significant contributions to achieving a sustainable future for both turtles and their own communities by preserving and nurturing relationships with the sea, collaborating globally, and working to fortify the values and traditions relating to the sea turtle that preserve their cultural identity. To help them understand and collaborate with each otherʼs work, and, to expose this work to the Symposium as a whole, several council events were held. The public session in the town plaza where the Seri formally welcomed each indigenous nation and the participants
Mozambique offers a classic study in conservation. The Madagascar Channel, long untouched because of intense civil strife, is one of the world's most fertile and diverse ocean environments. Undeveloped and prisitne, much of the southern coast now faces pressure from development and commercialization.The three tenets of ocean conservation are on the minds of Mozambiquans and the world conservation community alike. 
