OCEANA'S BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETS IN BELIZE

Oceana's Board of Directors is hosting its first ever international meeting in Belize which is taking place from December 6th to 9th. The meeting will have the participation of 15 board members and internationally recognized actor Ted Danson who is a marine advocate and founding member of Oceana will make a presentation on issues affecting humanity globally. The working session of the meeting is being held today in San Pedro; Audrey Matura-Shepherd is the Vice President of Oceana Belize.

Audrey Matura-Shepherd; Vice President, Oceana

"For Belize our plan would be we would be reporting what is accomplished in this area and looking forward to our campaign next year which will be the issues of off shore drilling exploration and the issue of gillnets. Those are the issues we are looking at to see where we can work with the government and to move forward for the development of Belize. We actually have a cocktail being hosted by the mayor and the town council of San Pedro, Mayor Paz is hosting us at a cocktail and that is just so that the members of the board get to meet the members of the San Pedro Town council. As you all will recall the San Pedro Town Board under the leadership of Mayor Elsa Paz have been very supportive of Oceana and its call for a ban on offshore drilling and exploration. It is time for members of those two organizations to meet in a very social setting and just have very informal dialogue."

As part of the activities marking Oceana's first international meeting, the board will be approving its global strategy and budget for 2011 and learning more about the pressing marine issues in Belize. Oceana in Belize will be presenting awards to honor two outstanding Belizeans for their work in Marine Advocacy.

Audrey Matura-Shepherd

"The first award is the Ocean Hero award. This goes to someone who is long standing in the field of marine advocacy, conservation, education and sustainable use of our marine resources. Then, we have the Wave Makers award which is a special award because we at Oceana the way we recruit members is through a program we call Wave Makers. When you sign up to become an Oceana member you become a Wave Maker. The award is being given by one of our supporters and that supporter is a person who when we call for assistance, voluntary work, organizing anything it is always there and the recipient is literally always there; the person who is getting the award. We will be having a signing ceremony with Minister Rene Montero on a very important legislation that that Minister Montero is going to be signing into law and Oceana supports and that is a ban on bottom trodding throughout the waters of Belize. We have some big surprises there and it is going to be a fantastic presentation and that really will wind up Oceana board's activities here in Belize."

Shepherd says the highlight of the Board's visit to Belize is the public forum at the Bliss Institute on Wednesday evening beginning at five o'clock. The forum is free of cost and will be held under the theme 'Learning from the US Oil Disasters - Can this be us?" Key presenter will be marine scientist Dr. Jeff Short who has worked and researched the Exxon Valdez Oil Disaster in Alaska and the recent BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

LOVEFM