Fred and Maya go to Hawaii!

Well Easter came with some wonderful news for Learn To Sea and the project manager Maya Plass. In June of this year, Maya will be taking Fred back to his homeland of Hawaii and Midway Atoll. In December, I applied to go on the marine education leadership program in Hawaii and Miday atoll. It all came about thanks to the magic that is Fred the Monkey & his creator Ron Hirschi. He had visited Midway on the same program last year and suggested that I apply for a place. I feel very honoured to be the first international representative of the program.

You can read all about the program at http://papahanaumokuakea.gov/education/teachers_midway.html

It is an amazing opportunity. Here, I will see first hand the impact of marine litter on our marine wildlife and particularly the albatross nesting here. I will also get the chance to see the incredible marine wildife in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument - corals, spinner dolphins, green turtles, tiger sharks and great variety of nesting birds including the beautiful Fairy Tern. One of the most interesting aspects of the trip will be the people I will share my journey with. They are all (12 individuals) involved in marine eduaction or conservation and have some amazing and inspirational experience to learn from. I know that this trip will be an incredible journey in so many ways. Learn to Sea will benefit hugely from such a wonderful opportunity. It will allow an international perspective on our seas and oceans and offer an opportunity to learn from a culture that is so closely linked with the marine world.

On return, I will be starting a program of school twinning with a local primary school Blackawton with one in Hawaii and then Learn To Sea hopes to work on this with other schools in the future too.

So exciting times ahead for Learn To Sea. Before all of this takes place in June - more locally, on Thursday nex week. Learn To Sea will start it's program with the children of Aveton Gifford of taking them on a very special journey "The Avon from source to sea!" . I will blog details of this 5 week program as it happens!