The Foundation that makes a difference!

On World Environment Day, the 5th of June 2004, a new environmental foundation was established on the tiny twenty-eight square mile Caribbean island of St Maarten. The foundation, called Ocean Care, is the brainchild of foundation president Jesus Ruiz-Lopez and his wife Eliane Ruiz Lopez-Polack, the foundation’s secretary. " Our main purpose is to raise awareness of the ocean and in particular the coral reef environment. We try to educate the public on the value and vulnerability of our marine ecosystem," comments Ruiz Lopez, an experienced diving instructor.
The foundation comes at a crucial time for the island; St Maarten is a heavily developed tourism based island, and many environmental concerns are being put aside for the sake of development. St Maarten has seen a disregard for many areas of its ecosystem, and a foundation such as Ocean Care is playing an essential role in representing and protecting the environment in general and the ocean in particular.
"One of our main goals is to start educational programs for schools as well as courses for dive operators, dive schools, and divers on how to treat and take care of our reefs," says Elaine, the foundation secretary.
Ocean Care has already been involved in numerous activities and projects within the local dive community and the island’s public in general. On World Environment Day June 5th 2005, on the foundation’s anniversary, Ocean Care organized a simultaneous underwater and above water clean up of the island’s coast. Some 80 volunteers and like minded foundations, including dive schools and commercial diving companies, cleaned beaches and reefs and collected some 80 kilos of trash, including a sailboat which sank on a popular reef.
The foundation is also involved in bringing ocean conservation awareness to primary school children by being the distributors of the Aware Kids educational magazine. Tadzio Bervoets, Board member of the Foundation, explains that the magazine is offered free to any primary school who requests them; "The Aware Kids magazines have a very large educational value, and are free for up to 50 copies per class. The magazines are also complemented by a teacher’s guide and a DVD containing all the material handled in the magazines. These magazines are an excellent accompaniment to any school curricula, and are excellent in stimulating interest in the aquatic environment in the island’s youth.," says Bervoets. Two schools have already receives the magazines so far, and numerous others have requested them.
One of the main projects currently being conducted by the Foundation is Reef Check, for which it is the island’s supervisory organization. Reef Check is a community based monitoring protocol designed to measure the health of coral reefs on a global scale. On January 28th, Ocean Care held an introductory workshop on the Reef Check process, and since then, numerous reefs have been monitored by some 80 volunteers around the island. A set group of experienced divers have now formed a Reef Check club which will continue to monitor the reefs on a bi-monthly basis.
Another project in the works by Ocean Care is an underwater documentary in conjunction with a local television producer on the island. The program will seek to educate the public on the plight of the seas around St Maarten, and will compare the way the seas around ST Maarten are managed compared to the other islands.
In addition to the above mentioned projects and activities, the foundation regularly conducts monitoring exercises and dives, educational projects, and special programs for the diving and general public. One of these projects is the creation of an educational documentary about St Maarten’s surrounding underwater environment. The documentary is planned to be aired on local television starting in the fall of 2005.
Ocean Care is continuously seeking to bring awareness of the importance of the ocean to dive operators, the local diving and non diving population, and visitors to the island. Ocean Care has and is living up to its philosophy of protecting and enhancing the quality of our oceans and fostering a closer relationship between man and the sea.