We launched our Ocean Campus on World Teachers' Day!

On World Teachers’ Day, 5 October 2024, the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation launched its new Ocean Campus with a celebration of teachers and the ocean. Given the multiple threats facing the ocean and the importance of protecting its health, the Foundation’s Ocean Campus launch has come at a critical time to oversee the expansion of its educational work across the country and the continent.

Ocean Campus was introduced to teachers, students and sponsors with a full day of activities, including free access to the Aquarium and a behind-the-scenes tour for over 400 teachers, sponsored by the Two Oceans Aquarium. The striking venue also played host to a Marine Sciences Career exhibition, followed by a Blue Tie event, with guest speakers sharing their life-changing experiences as a result of having participated in the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation’s educational offerings.

“Ocean Campus is an exciting next step in the Two Oceans Aquarium’s long journey in marine education. The launch event reflected this excitement as invited guests embraced the day of celebrating education and our ocean. We were able to reflect on the work that got us here and share our ambitious plans for the future with guests,” exclaimed Leigh Meinert, Head of Ocean Campus and previous co-founder of TSIBA, a free-to-student business school.

“We are excited that, with Leigh’s experience and leadership, together with the support of the Two Oceans Aquarium and the V&A Waterfront, we will be able to respond to the need for urgent action to address the negative human-driven changes to the ocean. We need to address this as a matter of urgency if we hope to pass on to our children a thriving and productive ocean that can support people” said Ann Lamont, Executive Chairperson of the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation.

The Two Oceans Aquarium has offered curriculum-aligned education programmes for almost 30 years. Its Foundation reaches over 100,000 learners annually across its early childhood development and school programmes. In addition, it offers a wide range of enrichment courses for children and adults, job shadowing and internship opportunities, and outreach via its mobile vans and puppet shows for those who cannot visit the Aquarium. In 2019, Marine Sciences was introduced into the curriculum and currently, 110 Grade 10 to 12 learners are enrolled in the Marine Sciences online school.

“Over the years many young people who have come through the Aquarium Foundation’s educational programmes have gone on to become scientists, environmental educators, conservationists and activists, all of which has been made possible with generous support from the Aquarium and numerous donors,” explained Bianca Engel, Deputy Head of Ocean Campus. “Imagine the possibilities for future marine careers now that Marine Sciences can be taken as a Matric subject!” she continued.

In 2019 the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission made a call for “urgent and effective action to address the unprecedented, unsustainable and growing impacts on wild species from human activities.” The Commission called on aquariums and other such organisations “to scale up their commitment to species conservation.”

The Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation’s Ocean Campus is poised to respond to this global call which places people at the centre of conservation. “People are the primary direct and indirect drivers of almost all of the current threats facing the ocean. But they are also our only solution. Like many other conservation organisations, the Aquarium is furthering its understanding of the relationship between people and the ocean” said Meinert.

Aquariums can provide unique platforms to build empathy, reconnect people with nature, and mobilise them to become powerful advocates and activists for species and the environment. “We recognise the need to further invest in conservation education to ensure consistently high quality and impactful audience-appropriate programmes. We are answering the call of the IUCN to invest resources, capacity and expertise to ensure the right messages reach the right audiences to leverage the most effective changes” she explained.

“Through the Ocean Campus, we will refocus our conservation education to ensure we encourage and catalyse both individual behavioural and broader social change. We are already a leader in South Africa in marine education and ocean literacy – and with the launch of the Ocean Campus, we will enhance our capacity for more action and solution-focused approaches. This will help compel our audiences to address and act on behalf of urgent ocean issues,” Meinert concluded.