PHILIPSBURG--Throughout this week St. Maarten PRIDE Foundation will be recognizing World Environment Day and World Ocean Day.World Environment Day is observed on June 5 and has been recognized by the United Nations since 1972 to stimulate worldwide awareness on environmental issues and encourages political action.
The United Nations as of this year will officially observe World Ocean Day on June 8. For years several countries around the world have been recognizing this day unofficially, while lobbying the United Nations to adopt World Oceans Day.
St. Maarten PRIDE foundation will be highlighting both of these important days by carrying out activities in the community. A poster contest has been organized in partnership with the Kid's Herald.
Learning Unlimited fifth graders will be boarding the Freedom of the Seas this week to learn about recycling aboard the cruise liner. The grand event for the public will take place at the Philipsburg Theatres this Saturday, June 6.
The event scheduled for the afternoon hours starting at 4:00pm will feature guest speakers Jessica Koelsch who is the Florida Marine Wildlife Project Manager employed with the Ocean Conservancy and St. Maarten born Tadzio Bervoets currently the Marine Park Manager in St. Eustatius.
Koelsch's position entails science-based advocacy for marine wildlife including manatees, sea turtles, right whales, and other marine mammals. One of her goals is to reduce marine wildlife entanglement in trash.
In Florida, she organizes, coordinates, and conducts underwater fishing-line clean-ups and line recycling programmes, removes derelict crab traps, has developed a Pier Walker programme using volunteers to do angler outreach and is Chairperson of a multi-agency Entanglement Working Group.
Prior to joining The Ocean Conservancy in 2000, Koelsch worked at Mote Marine Laboratory (MML) from May 1991 through August 2001, serving as a Senior Biologist/Manatee Research Programme Manager in the Marine Mammal Programme.
Her manatee research projects included aerial surveys, behavioural studies, photographic identification, habitat investigations, and telemetric tracking of radio-tagged manatees. Koelsch has her Master's of Science in Zoology from the University of South Florida and a Bachelor's of Science in Marine Biology from the Florida Institute of Technology.
Both speakers Koelsch and Bervoets will enlighten the audience on the importance of marine and conservation issues, pointing out how we can manage the challenges with marine entanglement and marine trash as well as how we should change our behaviour towards the environment in general.
This event is open to the public. There will be no entrance fee. Organizers said the Coast Guard and local fishermen along with dive shops are especially welcome as they will find the presentations interesting.
The highly acclaimed movie "Shark Water" will be shown as well. Koelsch will be paying a visit to the Learning Unlimited School to give a presentation to middle and high school students for World Ocean Day on Monday, June 8.
