Dr Kim Prochazka officially became the new Director of IOI-Southern Africa in November 2001. 

Professional career:
Kim attended Rustenburg High School in Rondebosch, an all girls school nogals. She describes herself as a “very naughty girl” at school. She completed her degree in the Zoology Department at the University of Cape Town. Kim's PhD concerned the “Ecology of cryptic fishes on reefs in False Bay”. This stemmed from her interest at a young age, in little fish that hide away e.g. klipfish. Her family had a holiday home in Betty's Bay and from the age of 7, Kim knew she had to become a Marine Biologist. Since she froze to death, a little wetsuit had to be made for this 7 year old Marine Biologist in the making.

It would take her 20 years to do a legitimate, scientifically 
sound study of her favourite fish. Kim had 3 career choices in mind: 
firstly to pick up leaves in the parks with a stick which she 
considered an important environmental task, secondly as a go-go girl in a band, and finally (when she got to her senses) as a Marine Biologist. She spent 3 years teaching general biology to 1st year students at UCT. 

Current work: 
Kim is currently involved in “10 million” IOI-SA projects! Besides that, she is also the focal point for the International GIWA project. She organizes all work related to GIWA for the Benguela region. Kim is still involved with her klipfish by investigating their genetics in collaboration with Wits University and the University of Santa Barbara in California, USA.

What is her vision for IOI-SA:
Kim wants IOI-SA to be a happy place (which we can say has been so since she's been in charge). She would like to see IOI-SA try to swing more towards policy issues rather than just concentrating on practical work. This will mean higher level involvement.

Where does she see IOI-SA within the next 5 years?
The same as now, but with a greater structure.
Programmes will operate more autonomously.
IOI-SA will act in an advisory capacity and assist
on issues related to ocean governance and 
management.

Personal life:
Married to Prof. Phil Hockey who is an ornithologist. They have been married for 15 months and live in Tokai. They have 2 dogs, a golden retriever named Teal (with nicknames such as tea-leaf, pie-face and potato-bake) and a Collie cross named Ivy (or skydiver or bagpipes). Please ask Kim where
these nicknames come from.

Final comments:

• Kim loves working at IOI-SA,

• She thinks the environment is cool,

• The people are outstanding,

• And we all have a good sense of humour. (Tell us about it!).

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Global Ballasting in Manhattan

What comes to mind when you think of New York or more specifically, midtown Manhattan? Well, how about global ballast water management programme and the United Nations? So you might ask yourself what does the UN and global ballast (also referred to as GloBallast) have to do with such a trendy destination? Faghrie Mitchell, IOI-SA's Course Developer spoke in an interview about his Train-Sea-Coast (TSC): Global Ballast training hosted by the UN from 18- 28 March 2002 in the oh-so stylish Manhattan.

The ten-day extensive training was presented by TSC programme staff namely, Stella Vallejo who is the co-ordinator and Alice Hicuburundi the course developer who assisted. 
The aim was to familiarize the international participants with the Train-Sea-Coast Methodology and started promptly at 9am until 6:30pm. However, Faghrie claimed that the time was limited and judging from the training materials he trudged back to the IOI SA office, voluminous is the only word that sufficiently describes the volume!

According to Faghrie, it was a good experience and he not only had the wonderful opportunity to attend the training that he hopes to apply to other future IOI programmes, but also met professionals in his field from various countries. The participants were from Brazil, Fiji, Netherlands, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and United States of America. 
So what happens next? I was informed that there are two pilot sites for the study, one in Brazil and the other in South Africa. Faghrie will be working together with Emlyn Balarin (the only other South African participant who attended the training), who
Is also the operations manager at the Centre for Marine Studies at UCT, to develop the Global Ballast Course.
Faghrie concluded as I sat listening, green with envy, 'It was great going over…the training…the whole experience.' So, when do the rest of the IOI-SA staff get to go?

From left to right (back):
Ms Alice Hicuburundi (Course Developer, UNDAOLOS), Mr Erik de Ruyter (Netherlands), Mr Merih Kerestecioglu (Turkey), Ms Marli Bergesch (Brazil), Mr Robert Bechtloff (Germany), Mr Faghrie Mitchell (South Africa), Mr Emlyn Balarin (South Africa).

FLTR (middle):
Mr Paulo Soares (Brazil), Ms Aysegul Aksoy (Turkey), Ms Alanieta Lesuma (Fiji), Ms Duangrat Meekeaw (Thailand), Mr Pita Tuisawau (Fiji).

FLTR (front):
Ms Maria Adela Corpuz (Philippines), Ms Stella Maris Vallejo (Coordinator Train-Sea-Coast, UNDAOLOS).

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Projects @ IOI-SA

The 4 Programmes are listed below and the projects as a sublist.

1. Education through Technology

• International Ocean Institute Virtual University (IOIVU),

• South African Coastal Information Centre (SACOAST),

• GloBallast,

• Train-Sea-Coast,

• KEWL,

• SA-ISIS.

2. Biodiversity, Conservation & Environmental Assessment

• SeaWaste,

• Seaweed Africa Database,

• GIWA,

• Corallines,

• Marine Pollution.

3. People, Oceans & Coasts

• Seaweed Mariculture,

• West Coast Cookbook Project,

• Worms Research,

• Kenya Seaweeds,

4. IOI-SA Online Services

IOI-SA Open Day

IOI-SA will be having it’s first Open Day on Friday 7th June 2002. 

The primary goal of the Open Day is to raise the profile of IOI-SA, and to create greater awareness of the existence of IOI-SA and the work that we do. 

Programme Co-ordinators will showcase the work that has and is being done within each of their programmes:

People, oceans and coasts; Education through technology; Biodiversity, conservation and environmental assessment; and Online services.

Guests will be invited from a range of institutions, including national and local government, universities, NGO's, and the private sector. The press will also be invited to cover this event.

Details for the Day’s proceedings as well as the venue will be posted at a later stage via e-mail.

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PiM 2002 Conference

The Pacem in Maribus (PiM) conference is held every year under the auspices of The International Ocean Institute (IOI). The new economy and the current trend of globalization exacerbate existing problems, and bring new challenges for the Ocean. At no time in history has the Ocean been under the pressure it is today, but also at no time has the Ocean been such a source of exciting opportunities. It is vital that we accept the challenge not only of creating opportunities, but also of using these in a wise and sustainable manner to bring benefits to coastal communities in both the developed and especially the developing world.

“The Ocean in the New Economy”