We are pleased to announce the results of the election of the members of the WIOMSA Board of Trustees. Members have elected six members to serve on the Board of Trustees from 2009 to 2013. These are: Margareth Kyewalyanga (representing the host country); Salomao Bandeira and Rudy van der Elst (representing Mainland countries); Nirmal Shah and Pascale Chabanet (representing Island States) and Nils Kautsky (representing the Associate membership).

Results of the election were announced on Friday, 28 August 2009, during the Fourth General Assembly held at the L’Université de la Réunion in Saint Denis, Réunion Island.

Many thanks to all the members who took time to vote in this election.

We thank the elected Board members, in advance, for their dedication and service to WIOMSA and we are looking forward to working with them.

Read the profiles of the elected Board members in the WIOMSA Newsbrief of June 2009, http://www.wiomsa.org/filearchive/2/2875/Newsbrief-2009-Election%20edition.pdf.

By Gina Macris in The Providence Journal

In the workroom of a master jeweler on Bellevue Avenue, three oceans away from their native Zanzibar, the women in flowing robes crank sterling silver wire through a roller that will stretch and thin it, little by little, to the thickness of a nickel.

With encouragement from Will Drake, the master jeweler at Three Golden Apples, the two women, Safia Ali Jecha and Mwanakhamis Abdalla Ali, will fashion the sterling silver into a tiny web that mimics the structure of Indian Ocean coral.

The silver setting will make a natural complement for a half-pearl, also known as “mabe pearls,” harvested in the waters off the women’s coastal villages by men who support their jewelry-making through the Zanzibar Women’s Pearl Shellcraft Cooperative.

Through a unique program spearheaded by the University of Rhode Island, they are apprenticing at the jeweler’s workbench for several days this summer. They say the opportunity has helped them see the possibilities of moving up in life.

Until a few years ago, the women’s aspirations extended no further than Ali could walk from her native Bweleo village; her world circumscribed by an income of a few hundred dollars a year.

But in 2005, a chance observation made by a pearl expert from the University of Hawaii-Hilo sparked dramatic changes in the lives of Jecha, Ali and others.

Rahma Mussa Mohamed, a mother of three, says she and her husband used to bring home about $40 a month from his fishing and her wood-cutting and charcoal-making.

Today she makes $100 to $300 a month from the shells of oysters, which she pries from the mud flats under her feet at low tide in Menai Bay

Read the full article from http://www.projo.com/news/content/Zanzibar_meets_Rhode_Island_08-22-09_SJFFJ4T_v30.38b07ee.html

For the first time, arts and science exhibition is organized during the WIOMSA Scientific Symposium. The exhibition will be held during the Sixth WIOMSA Symposium which begins on 24 August 2009 in Reunion.

You are all invited to visit the exhibition.

Displays will be in both French and English. Here is the flier of the exhibition.

Zwazo, the Seychelles conservation magazine ( issue 19) is now online  on the following link where it can be viewed as if you have the magazine in your hands and also downloaded.

http://issuu.com/natureseychelles/docs/zwazono.19

Global Marine Programme IUCN is pleased to announce that the website for the Seamounts Project is now up and running.

Please go to: www.iucn.org/marine and click on the “seamounts project” on the right. The freshly updated version of the promotional brochure for the project is also downloadable on the site.

Comments are invited and suggestions are invited. Send your comments to Sarah Gotheil, Programme Officer (Sarah.Gotheil@iucn.org)

Journalists and scientists must guard against policymakers selecting science to legitimise pre-chosen and politically-motivated policies.

In the final session of last month’s World Conference of Science Journalists, Britain’s chief scientific advisor, Sir John Beddington, made a revealing confession.

Read the full article from: http://www.scidev.net/en/editorials/the-curse-of-policy-based-evidence-1.html

Tanzania is set to increase its funding for science research and development (R&D) from 0.3 per cent to one per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year — six years ahead of schedule.

Expenditure is expected to total around 311 billion Tanzanian shillings (approximately US$235 million) in the 2009–2010 financial year and will be overseen by a directorate established under the prime minister’s office.

Read the full article from: http://www.scidev.net/en/news/science-r-d-enjoys-a-windfall-in-tanzania-1.html

The world’s fisheries are in bad shape. Not only are most of them in decline but other problems such as illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, pollution and environmental destruction are mounting. The collapse of all commercial species within the next 50 years is expected if action is not taken. Customers all over the world have now become wary, even paranoid, of purchasing sea food.

But now the Labeling Program of the Seychelles Hook and Line Fishermen is up and running. This is a first-of-its-kind program in Seychelles that targets international markets to assure customers that the fish are caught responsibly and keeping to the highest standards.

Read the full article from: http://theenvironmentinseychelles.blogspot.com/2009/08/sustainable-fishing-in-seychelles.html

The Fourth Announcement of the Sixth WIOMSA Scientific Symposium to be held in Reunion from 24-29 August 2009, has been posted in the WIOMSA website. We are urging all of you to read it carefully as it does contain very useful information as you prepare to depart for Reunion, either this week or next week. This announcement contains information about airport transfers, transport to and fro the hotels to the Symposium venue, what is the legal currency in Reunion; climate; presentation modalities; social functions and security issues.

Read the full announcement from: http://www.wiomsa.org/?id=2793

Please note that the following information has also been posted in the website:

i) Symposium venue – http://www.wiomsa.org/?id=2794

ii) Symposium programme include programme for oral presentations and list of posters – http://www.wiomsa.org/?id=2795

iii) Abstracts of keynote presentations – http://www.wiomsa.org/?id=2806

iv) Special sessions and side events – http://www.wiomsa.org/?id=2807

v) Special events – http://www.wiomsa.org/?id=2809

For the updates on the Symposium, please regularly visit WIOMSA website and Blog. 

By Charles Mkoka

Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania are set to benefit from affordable communications services following a US$151 million funding boost from the World Bank. The sum marks the third phase of the Africa Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (RCIP 3), which aims to connect eastern and southern Africa to reliable and high-capacity communication services.

Since the project started in 2007, US$424 million has been injected into communications infrastructure for the region and, under RCIP 3, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania will receive US$20 million, US$31 million and US$100 million respectively.

Read the full article from: http://www.scidev.net/en/news/more-east-african-countries-to-benefit-from-broadb.html