EDUCATION PROGRAM

Cultural immersion and ocean curriculum development Education Strategy

Introduction Objectives

Children are the future of our oceans and engaging the youth of Indonesia in conservation and marine science can alter the course of their lives and create lifetime ocean advocates.

We have been welcomed into schools and villages in our areas of study to assist the students in learning english, staying active, and take part in ocean themed education curriculum developed by Indo Ocean Project

It is an incubator for young conservationists and provides youth of Indonesia with entry level training in marine science and conservation efforts in their region.

Through engagement with the community schools we are providing a foundation for Indonesia's youth to take part in marine science and conservation at an early age. It also provides a cultural immersion experience for both Indo Ocean Project interns and the students, breaking down cultural barriers and developing cross border relationships.

By introducing an ocean themed curriculum we help to foster respect and passion in coastal communities across Indonesia in the hopes that these children will grow up with a more sustainable lifestyle. Creating a space to share knowledge and discuss conservation issues in schools and establishing a local 'think tank' to create local solutions for global problems.

Become a Research Diver and Divemaster at one of our three projects in Indonesia.

Nusa Penida Bali

Raja Ampat West Papua

Bira Southern Sulawesi

Although the foundation of our training program is the same across our different locations each project has something special!

Locations were chosen based on varying degrees of MPA status, from no marine park in Bira to well established and managed marine park in Raja Ampat.

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Penida Project

Nusa Penida, Bali

Reeflex Dive Resort

Opened 2017

Bira Project

Tanjung Bira, Southern Sulawesi

Blue Planet Dive Resort

Opened 2019

Raja Ampat Project

Waigeo, West Papua

Scuba Republic - Basecamp Raja Ampat

Opened 2022

Location: Jln Sakti, Nusa Penida, Klungkung, Bali

Dive Partner: Reeflex Divers

Established July 2017

Number of interns: 12

Number of staff: 4

Key highlights: Manta rays, mola mola (sunfish), currents and corals reef

Project Mission

The head office and 'hub' of Indo Ocean Project. A space to develop new projects and manage the implementation of updates to our other locations

To collaborate with local NGO's and government organisations in monitoring the effectiveness of the local MPA and provide data driven solutions and management strategies.

How We Achieve Our Goals

Nusa Penida's marine park was first established by the local community in 2010 with the help of the Coral Triangle Centre and recognised as a Mission Blue Hope Spot in 2020 Since its creation the management of the marine park moved from local to provincial government and clear enforcement of its zoning laws has yet to be implemented. The Penida Project assists in providing regular ecological monitoring and strategy reports to the marine park officials and NGO's to track decline and identify areas of risk. Providing science and sociological solutions to update practical zoning solutions. It is also an excellent region to facilitate research, collaboration and publication.

BRUV's and Roving Survey Dives are used in monitoring the existing MPA zones and their efficiency This ongoing projects helps to provide feedback on ecological changes in the MPA, highlighting zones which require policy updates. It also tracks population dynamics and habitat use of the resident elasmobranchs and fisheries targeted species in the region and identify key habitats and endangered species in the region

Penida is home to our oldest coral restoration nurseries with multiple locations around the island and over 20,000 corals planted. Nusa Penida has the highest level of tourism compared to our other locations, and the damage created by both human and environmental impact has left large areas of reef destroyed. Our nursery sites are bridging healthy ecosystems and securing coral rubble areas to provide a foundation for a healthy ecosystem to regrow. It is also the area for our most advanced research in benthic survey and monitoring the effectiveness of our coral nurseries and its impact on the surrounding ecosystems.

Roving Benthic Surveys are conducted across all Nusa Penida dive sites to track live coral coverage. It is also assisting in monitoring the impact of a high tourism area on sessile creatures and reef growth over time, and identifying high risk areas and reef decline from the bottom up.

Our Mangrove Restoration program is implemented in partnership with the coastal community of Semaya Together, we are working to reestablish a green belt on the North East coast of Nusa Penida Mangrove nurseries are located at Reeflex Dive Resort with the plan to expand the nursery sites to local stakeholders and schools to further engage the community. We are also conducting optimal growth and success rate studies and compare our strategy with other mangrove NGO's in the region.

Regular marine debris assessments are conducted across three areas, 1) underwater clean ups, 2) beach and coastal clean ups 3) community/in land clean ups. This project has a direct impact on the marine environment and the community of Sakti All debris is sorted, weighted and submitted to global databases.

Indo Ocean Project's internal citizen science project (UNITE Penida) is being rolled out exclusively in Nusa Penida in 2023 The development of an online course and standardised testing engages ocean industry workers in Nusa Penida to take an active role in our research. After completing the online training and in house workshop, marine industry workers are certified to collect and input their data to Indo Ocean Project. This engages the local community and their guests in citizen science while deepening local stakeholders understanding and involvement in our research process. Subsequently, we create a local network of ocean allies when working to enact policy change while contributing more sightings to our abundance data logs. This data is managed and analysed in house by Indo Ocean Project interns under the direction the the the science team

Ocean Water Quality Testing is conducted across all of our regions of study. In Nusa Penida we are tracking ocean acidification in respect to the impact of high levels of human interaction and tourism. Coastal development in Nusa Penida has left areas of the island vulnerable to flooding and high levels of unfiltered run off. Using our testing parameters we are able to track this run off's effect on the ocean chemistry.

Photo Identification project is utilised to correctly identify individual turtle, manta rays, and ocean sunfish sightings in the Nusa Penida MPA. These photos are collected by researchers during all dives and submitted by the community. These photos are added to our internal data base and shared with researchers at Marine Megafauna Foundation to assist in the understanding of megafauna dynamics within the marine park.