This year, as every year since more than 13 years, the organization Te mana o te moana (founding member of the Ocean World End) celebrated World Ocean Day in French Polynesia. For this 2017 edition, we were very happy to invite more than 50 persons (including 28 children) directly at our organization.
The first class invited was a primary school class that had won the 2nd price of the contest Mata ora no Tetiaroa organised this year in favour of polynesian children. The objective of that day was to award the students for the beautiful work they realized.
The second group was made of 3 representants of the class from Moorea, that have created a beautiful sea turtle mascot named « Moana » in favor of our organization. We give many thanks to Rangiroa’s pearl farm for the donation of the 80 pearls that have been used to decorate our new beautiful turtle.
Finally, we have welcomed 8 youth in training from Moorea, along with Tavana Hinano, the representant of the environment of the municipality of Moorea.
The day started with the inauguration of our beautiful mascot realized by the students of Moorea. After the aknowledgments to this group for their incredible work, they were all invited to participate to the release of Vaiana Iti, a young green sea turtle in care at our rehabilitation center since february 2016. This turtle had been rescued at the emergence of a nest during the nesting monitoring program undertaken by the organization for the past 10 years on the atoll of Tetiaroa. After more than a year of cares, Vaiana Iti, that has reached a size, weight and health sufficient to survive in the wild, was now ready meet her older friends in the big blue…After a visit of the center, Vaiana Iti was measured, weighed and tagged. Then, all children came aboard the boat that had been gracisoulsy lended by the company Mahana Tours, to reach the deep sea and help her to choose her path.
After the release, the children participated to many activities orientated towards sea turtles, marine mammals and coral reefs before returning to Tahiti, with their heads full of memories from their day on Moorea. Each student was given a sea turlte booklet made by the organization and a passport made for « Ocean citizens » as a commitment to the protection of our beautiful blue planet.
This day was organised thanks to the support from the companies Vilebrequin and Nature & Découvertes.
