Professor Chris Daniels presents the award to KI Dolphin Watch

The efforts of students, community volunteers and scientists involved in Kangaroo Island Dolphin Watch’s dolphin monitoring and conservation programme in partnership with The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society of Australasia, received local acknowledgement recently when they won the 2010 Local Achievers Natural Resource Management Community Project Award. The presentation was made by Professor Chris Daniels; Professor of Urban Ecology, School of Natural and Built Environments – University of  South Australia, environmentalist and media personality, at the culminating event of the two day “Brush With Biodiversity” NRM Conference on Kangaroo Island. In her speech at the presentation ceremony, KI Natural Resources Management Board presiding member Jackie Kelly paid tribute to KI Dolphin Watch’s outstanding efforts and resultant impact at local, national and international level.

KIDW Presentation in Fiji

The Kangaroo Island Dolphin Watch programme was presented to the recent International Pacific Marine Educators Network Conference in July as a model of building sustainable coastal communities through cooperative effort. It was highly acclaimed and generated extraordinary interest from representatives of the Pacific nations present. Case studies from the local programme on Kangaroo Island, Whyalla and Port Pirie, where it has been successfully established, and including examples from Kenya and the Pacific, demonstrated clearly the ready adaptability and ease of application of the Dolphin Watch model, making it very appealing to all parties, particularly those facing economic challenges and hardships.

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