March/April 2011 newsletter

March/April 2011

A warm welcome to all Friends Of the Last Ocean (FOLO)

This is the first of our bi-monthly newsletters, aimed at keeping you up with latest news and events around the Last Ocean campaign. We hope you’re still passionate about protecting the last intact open-ocean ecosystem on earth. We certainly are; our campaign is gearing up and we are pleased to have you on board!

In this newsletter you can read all about our new website, recent Last Ocean events, news from the Ross Sea, and meet some of our team. Please note we are on Facebook and Twitter now too.

Wellington website launch - March 16 2011

We’ve got a great new website, www.lastocean.co.nz. The site will act as the centre-point of our campaign and is a good place to visit if you want to learn more about the Ross Sea. The site was officially launched on March 16 at Logan Brown Restaurant, in Wellington.

At the launch Last Ocean Trust founder Peter Young gave a short presentation about the threats facing the Ross Sea and what the Trust is hoping to achieve. Watch excerpts from his talk here.

FEATURE - Ross Sea season update from Dave Ainley

Antarctic ecologist Dr. David Ainley is the scientific advisor to the Last Ocean Charitable Trust. He has visited the Ross Sea region for several decades to conduct research on the charismatic Adélie penguins of Ross Island.

This summer he visited colonies at Cape Royds, Crozier and Bird. David sent us a report on his busy season. More...

Take action!

We have a petition running on our new homepage. We are lobbying the New Zealand Government to change their stance on commercial fishing activities in the Ross Sea. It only takes a minute to sign and we will be presenting the signatures to the Government next year. The success of this depends on spreading the word - PLEASE share this with your friends and colleagues!

Meet the team - Kate Beer, NZ Coordinator

The Last Ocean Charitable Trust consists of a small, passionate team. In the next few newsletters we will be bringing you a short profile to introduce you to the faces behind the Last Ocean. As the newsletter editor, I'm first up!

My name is Kate, and I'm the new part-time campaign coordinator for the Trust. I'm based in the Christchurch office and joined the Last Ocean team in February 2011 after completing the Postgraduate Certificate in Antarctic Studies at the University of Canterbury.