OceansWatch is looking for enthusiastic yachties to participate in a whale research project in Niue!
Between August & September volunteers are needed to help search for cetaceans and undertake daily sighting surveys from land and sea.
To find out more about this project and how you can get involved Read more here
OceansWatch would like to congratulate Jessica Watson for becoming the youngest person ever to sail around Cape Horn (South America). We would also like to send our encouragement for the rest of her voyage in which she is aiming to become the youngest person to sail around the world. For more information on Jessica Watson and her record breaking journey check out her website 
Ha’apai Islands provide Blue Print for other Communities around the World.
OceansWatch members Gail and David Funk have successfully delivered educational materials and sailing supplies, including canvacon for canoes, to the small islands of Anuta and Utupua in the Solomon Islands. Fellow OceansWatch members Hans and Isabelle have also recently visited Utupua Island, part of the Santa Cruz group in the Solomon Islands, to deliver aid items.
OceansWatch’s Magic Roundabout team has selected three possible Marine Protection Areas (MPA’s) around Karkar Island, Papua New Guinea, for consideration by the local communities. The expedition, led by Chris Bone, saw the team surveying 7km of reef around the north-west of the island, a fishery that services an overall population of about 3,000.
OceansWatch is supporting schools in developed countries to partner with coastal schools in developing countries. The partnering programme has already started with a school in Northland, New Zealand and schools in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.
In February 2009, OceansWatch was approached by Willie Sau Kaitu’u, a member of the Tehakatu’u tribe on the Rennell island at the very south of the Solomon Islands archipelago. Marine resources have depleted in recent years around the Rennell Island due to overexploitation and tropical cyclones, so the local communities began looking into ways of preserving the remaining resources by establishing Marine Protection Areas. Willie volunteers with World Vision in the Solomons and therefore had access to the Internet and found our website. He also approached several other NGOs but only OceansWatch responded. 
OceansWatch members are finalising plans to join together in Vanuatu to undertake reef surveying work with OceansWatch marine biologist Natalie Riddler and others.
