Welcome to The Young Champions of Palau

FROM THE YOUNG CHAMPIONS BLOG NETWORK
PALAU: Welcome to the Ladies!
April 30, 2012, KORROR, PALAU

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 Hello everyone! We're the young champs from Palau and you can call us, Dilu and Lyan (or as Dan Ho would put it--the Ladies.....LOL). 

As you might tell we haven't had the chance to blog earlier because we got on the program late in February. Anyway, let us tell you all what we have been doing for the past weeks or so. We've been helping out at the Aquarium at Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) with informational posters and touring school children around the aqaurium. 

Touring kids from Ngeremlengui Elementary School
With the informational posters, we picked out a sea creature and basically did a background poster. For example, for our first poster we did a background poster for the lobster. We found out that there are 38 different types of lobsters found in the world and then named the different types found in Palau which are Panulirus vesicolor (Painted Spiny Lobster), Panulirus penicillatus (Pronghorn Spiny Lobster) and Panulirus longipes femoristriga (Longlegged Spiny Lobster). Out of those three, the painted spiny lobster is the least common in Palau. As for the tour guide business, we help out as much as we can. We had to read a manual on the proper ways of doing a tour guide of course. Luckily one of us--Lyan to be precise--had the chance to act as co-tour guide for the Ngeremlengui Elementary School during Awareness Week for public schools. A tour with students is fairly easy to do. It could last for an hour or may be less. The only difficult part of it is speaking loud and simple to understand, and trying to keep the kids' attention at the same time. When we do not have any school kids to tour around the aquarium, we pitch in and help the aquarists clean up the aquarium. We want to keep those tanks nice and shiny for the visitors! :)

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MICRONESIANS IN CONSERVATION...the band?

April 25, 2012, Saipan, CNMI
Here's a fun video of the attendees of the 14th MIC Retreat held this month in Chuuk.

Yap's Young Champion blogs on 3rd MC Marine Measures Group

FROM THE YOUNG CHAMPIONS BLOG NETWORK
CHUUK: Report on 3rd MC Marine Measures Group
April 21, 2012, COLONIA, YAP

Sharing our  outcomes.

The 3rd MC Marine Measures Group Workshop was held in Palau in February, 2012.  Among the topics discussed in the workshop were: MC jurisdictions came into agreement on MPA monitoring protocols; in unison on the services provided by the Database Management and the MPA Effectiveness Tools; and regional collaboration as an on going goal.


It was a great experience to be able to participate in the MC Marine Measures Workshop. I took a lot in from the trip and met a lot of inspiring people from the different jurisdictions. Getting to know some of them and the work they are involved in, in conservation, further inspired and stirred my soul.

Read the rest of Jonathan's post here.

Chuuk's Young Champion blogs about her groundwork on Chuuk's Shark Sancutary

FROM THE YOUNG CHAMPIONS BLOG NETWORK
CHUUK: Groundwork for Chuuk's Shark Sancutary
April 17, 2012, WENO, CHUUK

People tend to think that sharks are harmful predators that harm both aquatic life, as well as human beings who dare enter dark waters. How wrong they are! Today sharks are in danger from their most terrifying predators, us humans. Humans tend to forget that a shark only attacks a person when it is being provoked or senses that it is in danger, while we continuously fish them nonstop for profit or just for the heck of telling friends or others about a shark that one caught.

A White Tipped Shark here in Chuuk
Sharks have really slow growth and low reproductive rate, because of this their number is rapidly depleting. Today their population has really declined to the point where they are not able to fully perform their roles as top predators in the marine environment, causing possibly unchangeable damage to the marine environment.

Here in Chuuk, The Chuuk Conservation Society has started a petition on a Shark sanctuary. So far I've gotten more than hundreds of signatures from students, faculty and staff from the different schools in Chuuk who support the idea of having a shark sanctuary here. After collecting all the signatures, my boss, Mr. Wisney Nakayama, the director of CSS, presented it to a few of the government officials of Chuuk. The director met with Willy Kostka, the Director of the Micronesian Conservation Trust, on this matter. We are optimistic about how the idea is moving, because although it’s a bit slow the end results will be immense!

/s/ Kriz in Chuuk


Majuro's Young Champion Blogs: Earth Hour 2012

FROM THE YOUNG CHAMPIONS BLOG NETWORK
YAP: Earth Hour 2012
April 15, 2012, MAJURO, RMI 

What were you doing two weeks ago?  On March 30th around 8:30 PM the world joined hands in turning off all lights for an hour, The Earth Hour. This day has been celebrated around the world for numerous years for the sake of our Mother Nature.The Marshall Islands was one of the proud providers for this day. Many nature lovers turned off their lights for an hour on this day, I along with my extended family members were part of this movement as well. as soon as the clock hit 8:30 PM we all turned off all our lights and chit chatted in the dark. We felt great doing something for our Mother Nature. GO GREEN!

Workshop Report from PACMARES

April 13, 2012, PACMARES, CNMI

Read the workshop report for the combined Coral Reef Monitoring and 4th MC Measures Group Workshop (2nd Marine Measures Working Group Meeting) which occurred February 6-9, 2012, in Korror, Palau.

Yap's Young Champion Blogs: Water Works in the Nimpal Channel

FROM THE YOUNG CHAMPIONS BLOG NETWORK
YAP: Water Works in the Nimpal Channel
April 12, 2012, COLONIA,YAP

"Bravo" pickup...
It has been a busy start in the new year of 2012. Nimpal Channel MCA has gone into a lot of works with Water Quality monitoring with technical support provided by Dr. Peter Houk and Dr. Yimnang Golbuw, and the Yap State EPA. Conservation and the whole science aspect of it is a fairly new idea in Yap and to effectively conserve we must learn the science and methods and incorporate it with our traditional knowledge. When the Nimpal Channel MCA first sprouting as a no-take zone, new studies and science has brought to the attention of the community the need to further monitor not only the no-take zone, but also adjacent areas and other elements such as water quality, current flows, etc.

And so begins our Water works.

Read Jonathan Gorong's full post here.


A YOUNG CHAMPION FROM MAJURO BLOGS

FROM THE YOUNG CHAMPIONS BLOG NETWORK
MAJURO: My Micronesian Youth Services Talk
April 9, 2012, MAJURO, REPUBLIC OF THE MARSHALL ISLANDS


During the month of March 2012, I was asked to attend the annual meeting of the Micronesia Youth Services Network and it was hosted in Palau. MYSN is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that focus' on our island's problems and different ways of solving them.

Our motto for this year's conference was 'Carve it for a healthier lifestyle'. 

The main goal of the conference was to focus on ways our Micronesian community can reach out to our people in reducing the numbers of Non-communicable diseases.

I had the opportunity to talk about where the Marshall Islands is at within the healthy lifestyle range. I also had the opportunity to talk about the Micronesia Challenge and the Programs that I work with which are the Jo-Jikum Environmental Organization and the Young Champions internship program. After the conference we were given the opportunity to go out and look around the Beautiful Rock Islands.



Palau adopts Monitoring Protocol for Marine Protected Areas

APRIL 9, 2012, KORROR, REPUBLIC OF PALAU

On April 2, 2012, Minister Harry Fritz formally adopted a monitoring protocol for marine protected areas that have been incorporated into the Protected Areas Network (PAN). These PAN sites are required by regulations to implement monitoring activities in order to gauge the status of resources within the site. Since the inception of the PAN act, however, states have not been given any guidance on how to initiate and develop monitoring programs.


The monitoring protocol is intended for site managers and conservation officers. It is a step-by-step guide to establish a monitoring program at the state level. It includes a minimum set of indicators, including fish, invertebrates, corals and seagrass. It also includes standardized methods for counting and/or measuring these indicators. The protocol was developed by the Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) in collaboration with JICA "Capacity Enhancement Project for Monitoring Coral Reefs" (CEPCRM) and has been tested in pilot MPAs here in Palau and Micronesia. It anticipates the growing need for assistance by states to meet reporting obligations of PAN and therefore continue to be eligible for PAN funds.  

SOURCE: PALAU INTERNATIONAL CORAL REEF MARINE CENTER, Carol Emaurois, Contact
PHOTO: Front L to R:  Sitting : Mr. Taiji Usui, JICA Palau Office, and MNRET Minister Harry Fritz signing the adoption of the monitoring protocol for PAN sites; witnessing the occasion are members of the environmental agencies and national and state representatives.