Cook Islands Marine Park Steering Committee Visits Palmerston Atoll

Cook Islands Marine Park

The Cook Islands Marine Park will be a multi-zoned park, allowing some activities, like local fishing, while excluding others. During their time on Palmerston, the committee held a public meeting to discuss the plans, and then went door to door to collect feedback from the islanders. Armed with the thoughts of the Palmerston islanders the committee will now take their findings about the marine park proposal back to the government in Rarotonga.

Some of the scientists from the Golden Shadow sitting with a resident of Palmerston Atoll curious about the marine park proposal.

(Photos by Alison Barrat)

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World Oceans Day: Protecting the Ecosystems That Protect Us

This World Oceans Day, the global community is being challenged to think differently about the ocean.

The 2026 World Oceans Day theme, “Reimagine: Beyond the World We Know, A New Relationship With Our Ocean,” invites us to recognize that the ocean is not something distant or separate from our lives. It regulates our climate, supports our economies, provides food for billions of people, and sustains the natural systems that make life on Earth possible.

Few places illustrate this connection more clearly than the coastal ecosystems that protect our shores and support marine life. While coral reefs, mangrove forests, and seagrass meadows are often…

After the Storm: Standing with Our J.A.M.I.N. Family in Jamaica

There are moments in this work that feel heartbreakingly familiar.

Two weeks after we completed our Jamaica Awareness of Mangroves in Nature (J.A.M.I.N.) programming, Hurricane Melissa made landfall. A powerful Category 5 hurricane, Melissa is now tied with Hurricane Allen in 1980 for the strongest winds ever recorded in an Atlantic storm. Like Hurricane Dorian, which devastated The Bahamas in 2019, Melissa will be remembered as one of the strongest hurricanes on record in the region.

For 11 years, the University of the West Indies Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory and William Knibb Memorial High School have been more than program partners. They have welcomed us into their classrooms and labs, shared meals and laughter, and committed themselves to educating their students about mangroves and coastal resilience. These colleagues and students are not distant collaborators. They are family.

And they were hit hard…