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© 2010 Ocean & Coastal Care Initiatives
© 2007 Ocean & Coastal Care Initiatives
WORLD WETLANDS DAY -
WETLANDS PRESENTATIONS
2nd February -
Erina Fair, Erina
OCCI is holding an event to celebrate world wetlands day. This will include a series of talks on wetlands including the historic perspective of how wetlands are influenced by sea level change, a talk on freshwater wetlands and a talk on surveying and protection of wetlands. A static display will also be exhibited. Venue is
Erina Library and talks begin at 11 am.
GENERAL MEETING-
OCCI LAKE MACQUARIE
4th February -
Awabakal Centre, Boundary St, Dudley
OCCI Lake Macquarie is a new arm of OCCI Central Coast that started last year. If you live in the Lake Macquarie area, and care about your marine environment. Please come along to the meeting to see who we are and what we do, and help this new group get started.
SNORKLING @ FLY POINT
OCCI PORT STEPHENS
6th February -
Fly Point, Nelsons Bay
OCCI Port Stephens is having a day snorkeling at Fly Point. If you would like to join in and explore this great snorkeling site please book on 0404713113. Beginners welcome, some gear supplied if necessary.
PROJECT AWARE
INFORMATION SESSION
17th February
Port Stephens
‘Project AWARE on the Coast’ is a community marine education course run by OCCI over a number of weeks to teach about the fantastic marine life in our coastal waters. Ecology, safety, regulations, cultural considerations and field trips form part of the course. If you want to learn about marine life, come along to the information session to find out what its all about. For details about the Port Stephens course contact 4980 0251.
PROJECT AWARE
INFORMATION SESSION
18th February
Lake Macquarie
‘Project AWARE on the Coast’ is a community marine education course run by OCCI over a number of weeks to teach about the fantastic marine life in our coastal waters. Ecology, safety, regulations, cultural considerations and field trips form part of the course. If you want to learn about marine life, come along to the information session to find out what its all about. For details about the Lake Macquarie course contact 4921 0724.
GENERAL MEETING-
OCCI CENTRAL COAST
24th February -
Marine Discovery Centre, 11 Terrigal Dr, Terrigal
OCCI Central Coast is now meeting at the new Marine Discovery Center at Terrigal.
The general meetings will include a guest speaker on a marine topic. This months
speaker is Sarah Huscroft on ‘The origins of sustainable development and how it applies
to the marine environment’. Supper provided. Members, please come along and get involved.
Non-
PROJECT AWARE PORT STEPHENS COMMENCES
3rd March
Port Stephens
‘Project AWARE on the Coast’ is a community marine education course run by OCCI over a number of weeks to teach about the fantastic marine life in our coastal waters. Ecology, safety, regulations, cultural considerations and field trips form part of the course. For details about the Port Stephens course contact 49800251.
PROJECT AWARE LAKE MACQUARIE COMMENCES
4th March
Lake Macquarie
‘Project AWARE on the Coast’ is a community marine education course run by OCCI over a number of weeks to teach about the fantastic marine life in our coastal waters. Ecology, safety, regulations, cultural considerations and field trips form part of the course. For details about the Lake Macquarie course contact 49210724.
CLEAN-
OCCI-
7th March
Avoca Lake
OCCI members will be getting together and taking to the water in kayaks to clean-
SEAGRASS WALK
OCCI PORT STEPHENS
7th March
Bagnals Beach 9am
OCCI Port Stephens will be giving a Seagrass walk and information session at Bagnalls Beach. If you would like to come along and learn about seagrasses please phone 0404713113 for bookings
EX-
OCCI DISPLAY
27th March
Avoca Beach
The long awaited ex-
HERITAGE AFLOAT FESTIVAL
OCCI DISPLAY
11th April
Toronto
OCCI will once again having a display at the Heritage Afloat festival. Heritage Afloat
is an annual event held at Toronto, Lake Macquarie NSW. The festival includes the
participation and exhibition of traditional and classic boats -
Rock Pool Walk for St John Fisher Catholic School
On 10 December, Jeannie conducted a Rock Pool Walk at Shelley Beach for approximately 48, Year 1 children from St John Fisher Catholic School, Tumbi Umbi. Judy and Isabelle assisted and the children were accompanied by their teachers and enough parents for one adult per five children. The six and seven year olds had been studying conservation of the marine environment and came with some knowledge and lots of enthusiasm. The large group was divided into two and took turns on the rock platform with the OCCI ladies. While one group was peering into rock pools and finding the creatures, the other stayed on the beach doing other activities. Jeannie explained about several of the marine animals and how they adapt to living on the harsh rock surface and in the pools and crevices of the platform. The children were able to identify a number of creatures and algae, such as the zebra top shell, the black nerite, the variegated limpet, the mulberry whelk, the cunjevoi, Neptune’s necklace and kelp from their worksheets. The outing was a great success due to the excellent organisation of the teachers and the keen interest and excellent behaviour of the students.
OCCI recipient of ABC Radio auction
The group was contacted a few weeks ago by ABC Radio in Newcastle. They have had a campaign called ‘Hit The Bottle’ running since March where they have asked their listeners to collect PET bottles from out of the local creeks and bring them in to the studio. They then had some artists collaborate with local TAFE and schools to create an artwork from the bottles. The art work was then auctioned off over the air on 7th Aug. The highest bid was $1,000 and OCCI has pledged to use this donation to start an OCCI group in the Lake Macquarie area. An unexpected but welcome windfall! Check out the details by going to: www.abc.net.au/hitthebottle
WHALE DREAMERS FESTIVAL – August 2009
Official attendance numbers are estimated at 4,500!
That’s an official SUCCESS! Even though we had last minute hassles about traffic
arrangements and the police would not let us open the road even to our shuttle bus,
everyone was in great spirits. The whales began breaching as the drumming started
– what an amazing opening ceremony! Our OCCI ‘Whales and Whalers’ game was a big
hit, the entertainment and guest speakers were superb and the weather was very kind
to us. Thank you so much to all our volunteers who helped out on the day, and a HUGE
thank you to Nikki, Colette and Roberta for all their co-
OCCI – PORT STEPHENS!
OCCI is on our way to having a new ‘arm’! The group will be based in the Port Stephens
area and is currently coined as OCCIps. A bunch of very enthusiastic people attended
a recent public meeting in Port Stephens on 16th May and voted to form an OCCI group
in their area. The meeting was organised by founder of OCCI, Jeannie Lawson, and
Jo Thompson, who has recently completed a ‘Project Aware on the Coast’ course sponsored
by OCCI and Port Stephens Council. The first official meeting will be held next Wednesday
night, 10th June, at 5.30 -
Home found for the MDC -
The Central Coast Marine Discovery Centre was officially given a new home on the 20th of May. The old Terrigal Tourism Office located on Terrigal drive. OCCI was at the official announcement to show our support for the scheme as one of the supporting organisations along with the CEN and Newcastle University. It is scheduled to open by November ready for the Summer holidays.
Pride of Workmanship Awards -
Jeannie was recently the recipient of a Pride of workmanship award for her work with OCCI helping preserve our marine environment. Click here for more details and photos.
OCCIs Telstra Environment Award Nomination UPDATE
Well, we were beaten by a koala! The $2,000 grant for October went to a group who are planting food trees for koalas. A worthy cause anyway.
OCCIs Telstra Environment Award Nomination
OCCI is in the running for the October 2008 Telstra environment award and was recently featured on Channel 10 news with Tim Bailey’s weather. Click here to check out the clip.
Whale Dreamers Festival -
This years whale dreamers festival was held at Norah Head and was a huge success with over 2000 people attending the day and a great variety of whale and marine themed displays and entertainment. Click here to read more about the Whale Dreamers Festival and some photos from the day.
Whale Poetry Competition -
There was great interest in the whale poetry competition this year with 99 entries received from schools and the community. The winning entries were announced on 29th June, where some were performed at the Whale Celebrations at Copacabana by national champion Bush Poet, Peter Mace. Click here to read the finalists poems.
World Oceans Day Coach Tour -
The marine educational couch tour, organised by OCCI to celebrate world oceans day proved to be extremely popular with bookings filling the bus almost as soon as it was announced. Due to the success of this event, OCCI intends to run a similar tour at a future date, so stay tuned. Click here to read more and for some photos from the day.
