Marine Discovery Centres Australia

Sap­phire Coast Marine Dis­cov­ery Cen­tre staff and Board mem­bers were proud to show off our beau­ti­ful coastal waters when host­ing the recent Annual Marine Dis­cov­ery Cen­tres Aus­tralia Net­work Meet­ing.  As well as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of MDCA, the group were joined by Fiona Ewing, SeaNet Offi­cer with Ocean­watch.  Fiona is based in Tas­ma­nia and has been work­ing closely with Wood­bridge MDC recently.

Per­fect autumn weather was the back­drop for a week­end packed full of activ­i­ties, meet­ings and of course some social inter­ac­tion.  The group had a com­pre­hen­sive tour of our own Dis­cov­ery Cen­tre and par­tic­i­pated in one of the many new Edu­ca­tion Pro­grams devel­oped by Marine Teacher Steve White.  A spec­tac­u­lar snorkel tour from Mer­im­bula Wharf to Bar Beach was a pop­u­lar part of the week­end, with two huge rays and many beau­ti­ful trop­i­cal fish being seen.  A tour of Pelagic Fish Proces­sors was also included; CEO Stan Soroka is also the Chair of SCMDC and is well-known for his thor­ough knowl­edge of Aus­tralian fish­eries and their man­age­ment and he ably fielded many ques­tions about this hot topic.

MDCA was formed in 2005 when a small num­ber of Dis­cov­ery Cen­tres met at Bal­lina to dis­cuss shar­ing of ideas and resources as well as seek­ing spon­sor­ships as a group.  It has now grown to include mem­bers from every state in Aus­tralia except for the North­ern Territory.

Fund­ing for trans­port and accom­mo­da­tion for this meet­ing as well as the last 2 was gen­er­ously pro­vided by the Aus­tralian Fish­eries Research and Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (FRDC).   FRDC was rep­re­sented at the meet­ing by Julie Hal­dane.  Thanks also go to Leanne Barnes (BVSC) for facil­i­tat­ing a ses­sion for the group.