Dear members, partners, supporters, and friends of the Coral Sea Foundation. Welcome to the July 2022 edition of Coral Sea News! Our teams in Australia and Papua New Guinea have been super busy over the last 6 months and kicking goal after goal in their marine conservation work, and we are thrilled to share some of those great outcomes with you here.New Sea Women of Melanesia Website
The outstanding work of our award-winning Sea Women of Melanesia teams is now showcased on a new website, designed by Mohea Moana from Gypseawave. 
The site gives the Sea Women of Melanesia a fresh new platform from which to tell their stories to the world – check it out!
The site gives the Sea Women of Melanesia a fresh new platform from which to tell their stories to the world – check it out!
We are very excited to announce the next phase of the Sea Women initiative, with the creation of the Sea Women Great Barrier Reef program. This training program, initially based from Yunbenun (Magnetic Island), will provide First Nations women from Australia, the Kulkalgal Nation of Zenadth Kes (Torres Straits), and Papua New Guinea with advanced training in scuba diving, maritime operations, and marine conservation science, as well as facilitating collaboration, networking and cultural exchange between Indigenous women from the Sea Country around the Coral Sea arc. 
Three early leaders from the program, Laure Senor, Zillah Midire, and Tishiko King, recently joined us on Jiigurru (Lizard Island) on our most recent expedition, and we made good progress in setting out the aims of the program while delivering the women ongoing training in marine science and discussing their hopes for the development of Sea Women Great Barrier Reef. 
We thank our program partners the Jock Clough Marine Foundation, the Hughes Charitable Foundation, the Good Beer Company and Sobah Brewing for their kick-starter funding support of the program, and we anticipate commencing the first 6 week intensive training residency in early September.
Three early leaders from the program, Laure Senor, Zillah Midire, and Tishiko King, recently joined us on Jiigurru (Lizard Island) on our most recent expedition, and we made good progress in setting out the aims of the program while delivering the women ongoing training in marine science and discussing their hopes for the development of Sea Women Great Barrier Reef. We thank our program partners the Jock Clough Marine Foundation, the Hughes Charitable Foundation, the Good Beer Company and Sobah Brewing for their kick-starter funding support of the program, and we anticipate commencing the first 6 week intensive training residency in early September.Papua New Guinea
Marine Conservation Operations Update
Kimbe
SWoM Training and Reef Surveys The Kimbe Sea Women team, led by Naomi Longa, has had a very busy 6 months, completing numerous reef survey training sessions on the Mangana Reefs in Stetin Bay, hosting Government representatives, responding to a palm oil spill on the shoreline, and working with the landowners from Buluma and Mai villages on the development of the Pelelua Reefs LMMA Management Plan.
We thank Daughters of the Deep for their ongoing support of the Kimbe Sea Women training program, which also now includes freediving! 
Community Development Workshops at Lavongai During June, Naomi also took part in a 10-day Community Development and Training workshop at Tunnung, which was organised by our partner Angela Pennefather from Melanesian Luxury Yachts. This workshop was the first of its kind in the New Ireland Province, and aimed to stimulate sustainability initiatives within the Lavongai Community. 
290 women and 100 men took part, and workshop programs included permaculture gardening, solar panel installation, sewing, cooking for market, and outboard motor maintenance. Naomi delivered lectures on marine conservation and the benefit of Locally Managed Marine Areas, and also distributed 150 sustainable period pad kits to the local women, as part of our collaboration with Days for Girls. This workshop was a fantastic success, with the benefits directly or indirectly impacting 12 villages and 830 households, and we will be supporting Angela in her efforts to replicate this work in other areas of PNG.
Milne Bay
Ferguson Island The Milne Bay SWoM team has been active across all our marine reserve areas over the last 6 months. Thanks to a generous donation from the Hughes Charitable Foundation, Lorie Pipiga and the team at Ferguson Island are in the process of constructing a new Sea Women office and training house at Sebutuia Bay to service the needs of our flagship Nua Marine Reserve Network.
This building will provide a secure storage for our equipment and a safe location for the local women to come and take part in the reef survey training that Lorie is running, which is critical for building capacity of the program in this important conservation area. Engineer Islands At the Engineer Island group, local landowner and SWoM leader Roselyn Elijah has been doing great work with her community engagement activities, with significant medical aid delivered to the villages and a new Locally Managed Marine Area or “gwala” created at her home of Tewa-tewa Island. Milne Bay Sea Women team leader Martha Eimba and Roselyn have just completed another week-long visit to the Engineer Island group, with surveys of the LMMA’s at Tewa Tewa and Skelton Island completed, and materials purchased for the repair of several 9,000 litre community water tanks which have become dysfunctional. She also brought another 6 local women into the Sea Women training program. 
Port Moresby
Reef Survey Training at Gabagaba Our PoM team have been working with the community at Gabagaba Village, 50km south-east of the national capitol, to survey local coral reefs as part of our ongoing training and capacity building program. Coral cover was high, especially on the reefs close to the coast, and the women have collected hundreds of geotagged survey images to support the community conservation efforts.
MOU signed with CEPA An official Memorandum of Understanding between the Sea Women of Melanesia Inc. & the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) of Papua New Guinea was signed on 17th May, 2022. This MoU commits us to work together more closely towards our common goal, the pursuit of marine conservation through the establishment & management of locally managed marine areas (LMMAs) in selected maritime provinces across Papua New Guinea. 
Madang Expeditions SWoM Directors Evangelista Apelis and Isrealah Atua both have clan connections to the Madang province of PNG, and both women completed community engagement and reef survey expeditions here in the last few months, with visits to schools, coastal communities and also Karkar and Bagabag Island. There was also a distribution of sustainable period pad kits to the local women, as part of our collaboration with Days for Girls. 
Great Barrier Reef Operations Update
Big thanks our participants Jimmy Tarte, Dr Andrew Coates, Marta Arroyo-Zufia, Nicole McMahon and Emily Horton for their hard work and positive energy while they were here with us – we miss you all! 
Lizard Island Expeditions The Coral Sea Foundation team have made two expeditions to Jiigurru (Lizard Island) already this year. The first trip in April was to deliver the Lizard Island Coral Reef Study Tour in partnership with the Lizard Island Research Station and the Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation. This program took 16 high-achieving young people from the NSW public high-school system and immersed them in a 9-day reef ecology education program at the station. The program was an outstanding success (see LIRRF blog post here) and has laid the groundwork for the LICRST to become an annual event. Video highlights below.
Lizard Island Expeditions The Coral Sea Foundation team have made two expeditions to Jiigurru (Lizard Island) already this year. The first trip in April was to deliver the Lizard Island Coral Reef Study Tour in partnership with the Lizard Island Research Station and the Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation. This program took 16 high-achieving young people from the NSW public high-school system and immersed them in a 9-day reef ecology education program at the station. The program was an outstanding success (see LIRRF blog post here) and has laid the groundwork for the LICRST to become an annual event. Video highlights below.Coral Sea Foundation at UN Oceans 2022
As a result of our Sea Women of Melanesia program winning the United Nations Champions of the Earth Award last year, we received an invitation to attend the UN Oceans conference in Lisbon, Portugal in June.
Our European team members Barbara Lainz-Quintana and Lucie Guirkinger attended the event, and did a fantastic job of spreading the word about the Coral Sea Foundation and the Sea Women of Melanesia program at this important global conference.
Thanks to our supporters
