I just received an email from Diego our marinebiologist we have been working with him for a very long time. Now he is doing a lot of fieldwork in the Philippines and is traveling on the 13th of April. So unfortunately he needs to postpone his webchat to the 27th of April - but hey all more things to chat about when he is back online.

Our team of volunteers have done a great job during the kid expo in Shanghai in the weekend of March 28~29th
Place: Shanghai Exhibition Center

Around 10,000 people visited the exhibition and we got 120 kids photographed with “I want to protect the ocean” background. To view them just follow this link: www.aqualife.org.cn.

Our young marine biologist contest will keep running till the end of April in the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium.

we were invited by the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium to share their booth, because their focus is on shark protection as well. During the exhibition they brought live shark eggs and one of them hatched during the kidexpo ..

That’s all.
Hope to see you on our next event,
Annie

Three more days and you can find us on the kidexpo in shanghai exhibition center (Yanaan lu/Tongren lu). Shanghai Ocean Aquarium invited us to share their booth and make it into a weekend of shark protection Look for booth E10

We are progressing with our shark project as Ken Ching one of our loyal volunteers keeps popping up with great ideas and the workshop on the 12th of April hasn’t even started.

For all you sharklovers read this website:
http://southernfriedscientist.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/thoughts-on-shark-finning-from-around-the-blog-o-sphere/

More news after the weekend!

At the end of last year Julie asked me if I would like to join the Aqualife Xplore project. I said yes.

When I went for my first sea dive, I was completely blown away by all the fish and coral I saw. The moment you go below sea level is like entering into another world. It’s hard to imagine the under water world when you’re looking down from above. It’s terrible that this beauty is being destroyed. On the other hand I understand some people depend on sea life to make a living. However, there are other ways that they can still benefit from the sea.

At the beginning of this year I contacted several schools to get in touch with students who would also like to join the Aqualife Xplore project. Nine enthusiastic people signed up. Five of them study Coastal Zone Management, another studies Environmental Sciences, there’s a student of International Business Study and two people are doing an Oriental study.

On March 12 I got the news that we did not get the grant for this project. The plan now is that the Dutch students research the Rotterdam harbour while the Chinese students will do the same in the Sjanghai harbour. In the meanwhile we’re looking for people who are willing to help with the Beach Clean Up on the 21st of September somewhere in the Netherlands.

I will keep you posted!

Hi everyone, this is Annie, an intern in Marinedream. I’m a new comer for this NGO and I’ve been trying to cultivating affection for “fearful” marine beings like sharks.

For the present time Julie is busy processing the Marinedream and Aqualife website. This is the 2nd  post in the blog because in the last few days we were changing the server but unfortunately lost the entire data base   T_T. We will keep finding bugs in the website in the coming weeks so if you meet a few mistakes it will be appreciated very much if you can contact us by sending problems or suggestions to annie&marinedream.com(change the “&” to @ to avoid spam mails O(∩_∩)O !~)

Yesterday Julie and I went to a sighing ceremony at Shanghai International Study University. Julie held a presentation about Marinedream in the hall and signed a contract with the College of English literature about long-term cooperation between each other. It’s a great experience because we did feel the enthusiasm from the students’ shining eyes. Julie was really excited to see so many passionate students who wanted to get involved and make a change for the environment. After the presentation, a group of 50 students came with us to a smaller classroom to discuss the projects in more detail. We’ve received application forms far more than we had expected. It’s really glad to see that~~~ We will inform you of the result by email or cell phones. I look forward to seeing you again in April!

After a few weeks’ work here, I realized what a “strong” superwoman Julie is —– if you take a glimpse at her working schedule you must think that it is a group’s monthly plan. She’s a writer, a programmer, a also the executive director of Marinedream. She hasn’t had any day off for more than a month 囧… I wish I can be as hardworking as she one day…

PS:

A serious flu is spreading across the office. Both Julie and I are in lack of energy especially during the sleepy spring afternoon…~

A new website, more bloggers, more info on what’s happening in China to create a better and more beautiful environment for all creatures on Earth.

More and more people knock on our door to help out. So we have setup 3 new exiting projects for the next three months with among others the volunteers of the Shanghai International Language University.

 I am very happy to introduce to you my fellow bloggers. Annie our young intern who will stick around the office before she will go to the US. Bella who is the leader of the green volunteer group of Shanghai Language University.  Greetje Huzen who will keep track of our aqualife xplore project in Holland!

ENJOY READING OUR STORIES!