the vision of the late Elisabeth Mann Borgese, founder of the International Ocean Institute (IOI), the objectives of the training programme are to create an increased awareness of the oceans and their real and potential role in sustainable development, to assist developing countries in building capacity for ocean management, and to help developing countries to maximize the benefits to be derived from the United National Convention on the Law of the Sea. The training programme established in 1981, is geared towards a multi-disciplinary approach to ocean management, and strongly encourages stakeholder involvement in ocean management issues.

The training programme is targeted at mid-career professionals active in ocean management and governance in developing countries and promotes the role of women by accepting classes with at least 50% representation by women. Nineteen participants attended the 2003 class, of which ten were women and nine men. These participants represented 17 developing countries, including Vietnam, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Tuvalu,

Training Programme Participants

Dr.Awni Behnam & Dr. Noel Brown

Dr. Noel Brown        Dr. Kim Prochazka

Prochazka to gain insight into aspects of ocean governance and make important contacts. The course consisted of lectures by scholars and prominent people involved in ocean management and governance, a round table discussion with members of the United Nations, field trips, and group exercises. The most challenging exercise was a simulation exercise to develop national and regional ocean management policies for fictitious countries, using all the knowledge gained during the course.

IOI-SA and Dr Kim Prochazka wish to extend their thanks and congratulations to the Course Director Dr. Noel Brown, the IOI staff involved in the course administration, and all the lecturers on facilitating a highly successful and inspiring course.

    IOI Training Programme     p.1
    IOIVU                                  p.2
    West Coast Cookbook        p.4
    Staff profile: Jody Munnik   p.5
    Upcoming Events               p.5
    Seaweed man                    p.6
    SADC RFIS Project            p.7

THE INTERNATIONAL OCEAN INSTITUTE VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY (IOIVU)

THE VISION
The development of an interdisciplinary and integrated culture of knowledge, inclusive and accessible to all, focusing on Ocean Affairs where knowledge must be interdisciplinary and comprehensive.

The enhancement of the abilities of developing countries in particular to enhance and govern their own marine and coastal resources and environments in a sustainable manner for the benefit of their peoples in harmony with pertinent international conventions and agreements.

THE MISSION
To promote education, training and research that enhances the peaceful use, management and regulation of ocean spaces and resources as well as the protection and conservation of the marine environment.

THE IOIVU
The IOIVU is an independently incorporated University, and aims to grant a Masters Degree in Ocean Affairs. The IOIVU is subsidiary to, but independent of the International Ocean Institute, which was founded in 1972 by Elisabeth Mann Borgese as an independent non-profit, non-governmental organisation headquartered in Malta and registered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The IOI currently has 25 Operational Centres around the world, and one Regional Centre located in Townsville, Australia.

The IOIVU is co-located together with IOI's Regional Centre for Australia and the Western Pacific (IOI-Australia) at the Marine Project Activities Centre (IMPAC) in Queensland, Australia.

Its technical centre is located at the office of IOI-Southern Africa, located at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

Its academic courses are delivered through partnerships with other IOI Operational Centres around the world, or in collaboration with other academic and training institutions.

PRODUCTS & SERVICES
The IOIVU is located at the Marine Project Activities Centre (IMPAC), founded in 2001 as a company limited by guarantee (not for profit ABN 200956 64565) which provides a location and networking service for international marine research project developers.

The IOIVU is the only Virtual University dedicated to the delivery of a Masters Degree in Marine Affairs. IOI-Southern Africa and the University of the Western Cape developed and manage the Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning (KEWL) system through which the courses for the IOIVU are delivered.

The KEWL Platform offers many advantages over commercially available software because it is open-source in nature and is distributed at no cost and can be customized and expanded according to specific needs. The software is particularly user-friendly, participatory and student-oriented. These characteristics render KEWL ideologically well suited for the IOIVU, and also provide the IOIVU with a sound and economically technical solution for on-line course delivery.

The IOI-SA staff will be developing and facilitating the online IOIVU course developers training.

The administrative centre for the IOIVU will have the advantage of sharing support services with staff of the

CRC Reef Research Centre in the same office complex, including fast internet services, secretarial, administrative and financial support and access to the CRC Reef and IMPAC partner organizations, which include James Cook University, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the Great Barrier Reef Research Foundation, and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. These partners are located in Townsville, which is host to the largest centre for tropical marine science and resource management expertise in the world. The international links of these partner members are extensive, and include 80 countries.

The University of the Western Cape, South Africa will host and maintain the IOIVU Website.

Partnerships
The IOIVU works in partnership with a selection of IOI Operational Centres and their host institutions in the development and delivery of courses. Partners include:

• IOI-Southern Africa and the University of the Western Cape, South Africa
• IOI-India and the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India
• IOI-Costa Rica and the Universidad Nacional, Cost Rica
• IOI-Pacific Islands and the University of the South Pacific, Fiji
• IOI-China and the National Marine Data and Information Service, State Oceanic Administration, China
• IOI (Australia) and the International Marine Project Activities Centre, Australia
• IOI-Canada and Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada
• IOI-Ukraine and the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, Sevastopol, Ukraine

Other potential partners include:

• IOI-Germany and the Centre for Marine Tropical Ecology at the University of Bremen, Germany
• IOI-Brazil and the Centro de Estudos de Mar da UFPR, Brazil
• IOI-Caspian Sea and the Astrakhan State Technical University, Russia
• The UNDOALOS TRAIN-SEA-COAST Programme

The IOIVU is an identified participant of the Nippon Foundation’s Global Network for Ocean Governance.

Quality Control
The IOIVU will implement a stringent quality control

process, whereby courses will be thoroughly evaluated by international experts during the first offering (validation).

Competition
IOIVU has no direct competition. It is the only virtual university dedicated to the delivery of a Masters Degree in marine Affairs. The IOIVU will counteract brain drain and migration, and will build local confidence.

The Market
The IOIVU’s market targets young and middle-level professionals working in the ocean sector. With the enforcement of the United Nations Law of the Sea in 1994, and following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, nations are faced with enormous challenges in the management of their coastal and ocean spaces, and there is an urgent need for a cadre of trained professionals who will be needed to implement the many conventions and agreements. The degree program offered by the IOIVU through web-based learning will enable these professionals to continue their training with the least interruption.

The IOIVU will also serve the growing market for short-courses in many aspects of ocean governance, by offering them face-to-face or through web-based learning. These training programs are expected to come online following the initial start-up of the IOIVU during 2003-2008.

Marketing of the IOIVU will be conducted through the Internet, through the IOIVU and the IOI Websites, through the IOI participating members, through personal contacts and the mail.

The IOIVU Team
Professor G. Robin South, who is a highly qualified marine scientist, educator and administrator with more than 35 years work experience in Canada, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and Australia will lead the IOIVU. He also has ten years experience working with the International Ocean Institute. Professor South is a Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, and a Chartered Marine Scientist.

The Rector will be assisted by the Registrar, who will be located in the same office complex in Townsville, by the support staff of the CRC Reef Research Centre and by the IMPAC Coordinator, Dr. Clive Wilkinson, Australian Institute of Marine Science. The IT team at the University of the Western Cape is led by Prof. Derek Keats, who is Executive Director of IT Services at UWC, Dr. Kim Prochazka, Director, IOI-Southern Africa, Ms. Lucille Oliphant, IOIVU Project Coordinator, and by a team of IT specialists in web-based learning. The CRC Reef Research Centre IT specialist will oversee the IOIVU website in Townsville.

The IOI Headquarters in Malta and IOI Executive Director, Dr Iouri Oliounine will also provide support to the IOIVU operations.

Benefits
Donors will benefit through their support of capacity building needed as a result of the many initiatives arising from the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the action plans emerging from Rio, Barbados and Johannesburg. The ratification of UN Conventions and Agreements places enormous burdens on developing countries, and the IOIVU approach will assist these countries in developing the necessary cadre of professional decision-makers, and modest cost.

Students will benefit through their participation in a truly global education and training initiative that will provide minimal interruption to their careers, and minimal time away from their employers. The students will relate with like-minded professionals during their participation in the IOIVU courses and Internships, and this will lead to long-term collaboration in Ocean Affairs between countries. The quality control measures to be put in place by the IOIVU will ensure that the qualifications they receive will be acceptable in the global marketplace.

Finances
Funds being sought are for the core operations of the IOIVU for the next 6 years, to a total of US$2.7 million, with up to 25% (US$0.7 million) of this amount generated in fees (including face-to-face training courses), and US$0.5 million by the Ocean Science Research Foundation based in Zurich, Switzerland. The IOIVU is seeking the support of at least one other core partner for the initial six years of operations, to the amount of US$1.6 million (including scholarships).

Contact Details:
Northtown Shopping Centre
280 Flinders Mall
Townsville
Queensland
4810
Australia
robin.south@impact.org.au

The West Coast Cookbook

The West Coast Cookbook was launched on the 30th August 2003 and has thusfar sold 1300 copies!!!

The success of this IOI-SA/Bergrivier Vissersvroue Vereeniging collaboration could only be possible through the hard work of the project management team and ultimately the contributions from the West Coast community, who so generously gave of their poignant histories and “historical” collection of recipes of which many were passed down from generation to generation and reflects on how the community survived with only salt and pepper to season their foods.

The West Coast Cookbook incorporates some of the culture and history, but mostly, the cuisine of the Saldanha Bay and surrounding region. Since this town has traditionally been identified as the heartland of the South African fishing industry, it was our contention that these women and their preceding generations know more about seafood and how to prepare it than anyone else in the country. The work put into this Cookbook therefore aimed to document a significant South African tradition, restore a sense of pride and recognition amongst the participants and harness the extensive domestic and culinary skills of the women in the region.

The community members also generously contributed their photographs, many of which were black and white, for inclusion in the book, and so, supporting the stories and recipes we also have a photographic history of the region. Other features of the cookbook include facts on the different fish found in the regional waters and used in the recipes and a section on local idioms and nicknames used on the West Coast.

Positive reviews have appeared in the local newspapers and on the local and national radio stations and further exposure will soon extend to television and magazines.

Picture courtesy of Struik Publishers

STAFF PROFILE: Jody Munnik

Creating and producing flyers, posters, advertisements, handbooks, drawings, flash presentations, websites and adding animation to websites using computer graphics software. Basically this is the job description of Jody Munnik, the graphic designer at the International Ocean Institute of South Africa (IOI-SA).

Jody hails from Windsor Senior Secondary School, from which he matriculated in 1996. His love for drawing and sketching, combined with his curiosity to learn more about computers led him to pursue a career in graphic designing. He first completed a graphic design course in 1997 at Ruth Prowse, which was followed by a full time graphic design course at Peninisula Technikon in 2001. In addition to this, Jody completed a HTML course part time at City Varsity in the year 2000 as well as a diploma in Multimedia; Macromedia Flash; Macromedia DreamWeaver; Director and Premier at Concept Interactive in 2001.

Although Jody has only been employed as a graphic designer at IOI-SA since May 2003, he is involved in quite a number of projects. These include designing brochures for the Public Awareness campaign, designing and creating wallpaper for UWC’s Biodiversity and Conservation Biology (BCB) computer laboratory, producing graphics presentations, designing the Ukuvuka newsletter, creating the West Coast Cookbook and the Benguela Coast Large Marine Ecosystems (BCLME) websites and producing Virtual Cape Town advertisements.

In his spare time, Jody enjoys spending time with his friends, dancing and listening to hip-hop, deep house and R&B music. He also loves playing paintball and is a fast food junkie! Jody also admires any form of visual art, including photography. Some of these photographs can be viewed on his website: http://www.hybrid-media.co.za.

     - Dr. Kim Prochazka (Director, IOI-SA) is
       the new Chair of the SANCOR steering
       committee and Ms. Jocelyn Collins
       (Deputy Director, IOI-SA) is on the
       SANCOR Capacity-Building task team.

     - The South African Institute for Aquatic
       Biodiversity, the University of Cape
       Town and IOI-SA are hosting a Marine
       Biodiversity in Sub-Saharan Africa
       Workshop from 23-26 September 2003

     - IOI-SA has moved to new offices located
       within the Biodiversity and Conservation
       Biology Department in the Old
       Science Building - Science Faculty

    IOI-SA would like to congratulate
    Dr.Yazeed Petersen for obtaining his
    Doctorate in Science Education.

A. Upcoming Conferences
THE 5TH ASIA-PACIFIC CONFERENCE ON ALGAL BIOTECHNOLOGY
18 - 21 October 2003: Ba Da Guan Conference Center, Qingdao, P.R.China

Global Change and Regional Sustainability in South Africa, Cape Town, 27-29 October 2003

Oceanology International 2004
March 16-19 2004
Excel, London, UK

The XVIII International Seaweed Symposium
20-25 June, 2004; Bergen, Norway.
Contact: Project Manager Kari Holmedal at
iss2004@plus-convention.no

B. Upcoming Workshops

GEOHAB - Global Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms
17-20 November 2003
E-mail: scor@jhu.edu
The Johns Hopkins University-http://www.jhu.edu/scor
Baltimore,MD 21218, USA

Seaweed Farming Project and the "Seaweed Man"

Joseph Wakibia laughingly reveals that he is known in his native Kenya as ‘the seaweed man’. He is a marine scientist from the Kenyan Marine and Fisheries Research Institute where he is responsible for seaweed (or marine algae) research and development. Wakibia is currently carrying out a seaweed farming project as part of his postgraduate studies at the University of the Western Cape where IOI-Southern Africa (IOI-SA) is housed. The project is part of the IOI Women and the Sea Programme established with the aim of enhancing the capacity and participation of women in developing countries in ocean and coastal affairs and is supported by the Ocean Science and Research Foundation of Switzerland. The seaweed farming project in Kenya is therefore a joint venture of two regional centres, namely, IOI-Eastern Africa and IOI-SA.

Seaweeds are cultivated world-wide for food and industrial purposes and several countries, such as Kiribati, Indonesia, the Philippines and Tanzania have succeeded in developing seaweed farming as a major

source of income for their local coastal community. Seaweed farming is a simple labour intensive industry that produces dried seaweeds and/or seaweed extracts for domestic and export markets. The uses includes the extraction of certain chemicals which are used as gelling, emulsifying and thickening agents in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical purposes, which has promoted the need to expand seaweed production world-wide. Therefore, based on this need, the project was born and is geared towards the development of seaweed farming as a means of broadening the livelihoods for the poor coastal communities with emphasis on women along the Kenyan coast.

The Kenyan seaweed project involves seaweed farming methodology training and the establishment of demonstration farms. Here farms of 0.1 ha have been established where the seaweed species Eucheuma and Kappaphycus are farmed. These farms are situated at three fishing villages in the southern coast of Kenya, namely, Gazi Bay, Kibuyuni and Mkwiro. Each of these villages has a population of about 400 people with over 45% being women according to a preliminary socio-economic investigation carried out in these areas by Wakibia. This forms a significant core of potential seaweed farmers and the farms are sources of planting material for future seaweed expansion in the neighbouring villages and also acts as training centres.

The education component involves training of the local community (mainly women) and IOI-EA seaweed personnel. The community-based seaweed farming training has been conducted at the three aforementioned villages or sites in collaboration with the Kenya Wildlife Services (mandated with the management of marine protected areas in Kenya) and the Fisheries Department. Wakibia, the project leader conducted the community-based training, which involved three stages:

1. Introduction to uses of seaweeds (ecological and economic importance of seaweeds) and concepts, principles and methods of seaweed farming;
2. Field work at the experimental sites such as: identification of seaweeds, preparation of planting ropes and plastic straws, selection of good seedlings and tying them on ropes; and selection of potentially suitable locations for seaweed growth;
3. The harvesting and post harvesting treatment of the seaweed material. A total of about 60 participants (90% women) have been trained on the protocols in seaweed cultivation and participated in the growth trials. These persons form a core of trainers for the local villagers on seaweed farming operations.

Alex Kimathi, a technical staff member from Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute has been trained on the various seaweed farming aspects from selection of farming sites to post-harvest handling procedures. He has also been trained in an open-water diving course and is in charge of the seaweed farming activities when the project leader is committed in other assignments, including when away to South Africa.

IOI-SA and the SADC-RFIS Project 

The Southern African Development Community-Regional Fisheries Information Systems (SADC-RFIS) held its first workshop entitled, “Workshop to Develop a Distance Learning Course to Provide Training in the Collection, Analysis and Use of information in Fisheries Management” at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in February 2003. This workshop was called to address the lack of skills relating to the collection, analysis and the use of fisheries information in the SADC region through the use of distance learning courses. One of the outcomes of the workshop was the designation of the International Ocean Institute-Southern Africa (IOI-SA) to develop a pilot module on fisheries data analysis by the end of July 2003.

During the course development process, it became clear that a module on data analysis would have to be preceded by a more basic module on fisheries management and fisheries statistics. The completion of this basic module led to the start of the development of the data analysis module. Data analysis was found to be too vast to condense into a pilot module, and instead the course development focused on a single analytical method called length frequency data analysis (LFDA).

In July 2003, IOI-SA’s content development reached a satisfactory stage and the material was presented to Chris Ninnes, the RFIS Team Leader. He was impressed by the standard of the course material and called a meeting, which was held in Johannesburg, 17-19 September 2003. The main aim of the meeting was to give direction to the course development, in terms of designating coordinator/s and content developers, material to be covered, accreditation, delivery method, and so forth. The report of the Johannesburg meeting is still pending. The outlook on this project is quietly optimistic at this stage.

IOI-SA:  Mission statement

The International Ocean Institute, Southern Africa (IOI-SA) promotes the peaceful and sustainable use of ocean space and resources in a southern African context by facilitating sustainable livelihoods of coastal people through awareness creation, education, information dissemination, research, and community initiatives.

Our goals include:

Environment research, awareness,
Sustainable livelihoods supporting research, community initiatives, mariculture,
Awareness - computer technology
Education, training, capacity-building

IOI-SA achieves its goals through its 4 programmes:

Education through Technology,
People, Oceans and Coasts,
Biodiversity,Conservation & Environmental Assessment
IOI-SA Online Services

Contact:

The Secretary:Tanya Potts
Tel: +27 21 959 2594
Fax: +27 21 959 1213
Email:tpotts@uwc.ac.za

Enquiries:
Editors:	Tanya Potts Tel. +27 21 959 2594 tpotts@uwc.ac.za Lucille Oliphant Tel. +27 21 959 2075 Deidre Bester Tel. +27 21 959 3782 dbester@uwc.ac.za
Graphic Design:	Jody Munnik Tel. +27 21 959 2074 jmunnik@uwc.ac.za