Education on Marine Environment to Create Sustainable Society

Copyright The Ocean Family Marine and Nature Activity Center

The Ocean Family Marine and Nature Activity Center, a non-profit organization headquartered in Japan, provides marine education programs to school children. With their slogans, "The ocean is a place for fun and wonder" and "The ocean is of great importance to us," the center conducts various activities to conserve the global environment and create a sustainable society for future generations.

The programs started on Miyake-jima Island, located southeast of Japan, by the late Dr. Jack T. Moyer, a marine biologist who dedicated his life to the studies of fish and environmental issues, especially of the ocean. Dr. Moyer saw the endangered marine ecosystems in the waters around Miyake-jima Island and felt the urgent need for educational programs to protect the marine environment. The events and programs run by the center are designed to allow many people, especially children, to learn about the wonder and pleasure of the ocean, value its resources, and thereby come to protect its environment.

Following a volcanic eruption on Miyake-jima Island in 2000, which forced residents to evacuate the island, the Center moved its base to Hayama, Kanagawa prefecture. Since then, a wide range of programs and activities have been offered both locally and nationwide, including hands-on environmental education programs and seashore sport classes for local children, camps on remote islands to learn about the marine ecosystems, training for marine education leaders, and corporate training programs and lectures to raise awareness of the environment.

Posted: 2009/04/13