The stars appear to have aligned. It looks like our Marine Conservation Course (offered by Duke and usually taught on Oahu) will be taught at Midway Atoll, at the far end of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands within the newly created Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.

Andy Read and I are the instructors for the course, and we'll be bringing 10 masters level students to Midway for 10 days to learn about marine conservation issues in this remote island chain. We'll work through seabird and coral reef conservation, and conduct active work on marine debris removal and invasive species. The Dean of the Nicholas School of the Earth Environment Sciences - Bill Chameides - will be joining us, as well as Eugene Linden, an author who works on environmental issues. Bill will lead the students in their discussion about climate variability and global change, and Eugene will lead their discussions in regards to writing about conservation issues. Both modules will be wonderful additions to the schedule.

It will be good to have Bill there. He is new to the Nicholas School, and was most recently the Chief Scientist at Environmental Defense. This NGO outfit has been extremely problematic in Hawaii. They have been pushing a no-research-in-the-monument agenda since the proclamation, and this has made it difficult for those of us involved in the science for management stream as well as those in academia. Having to go to the Land Board meeting and hear their staffer boldly mis-represent my research as "bio-prospecting" was absolutely ridiculous - not to mention a huge waste of time for everyone. The most surprising thing is that Environmental Defense was actually formed by scientists. Go figure. I'm keen to bend Bill's ear about this. Perhaps this anti-research message is simply a personnel/personality issue, as opposed to dogma at Environmental Defense.

I'm also intrigued about meeting Eugene Lindon. I bought two of his books and will hopefully crank through those this X-mas holiday season. He has written a book on climate change that looks interesting, as well as a book about intelligence and emotion in animals. He might be a good person to ask the question "What do you believe but cannot prove?"

Duke has set up a student blog for the site, you can get it here.  Check back on this link in the new year to see how things are developing.