In July 2020 the International Pacific Marine Educators Network (IPMEN) was planning to hold its eighth biennial conference. This conference was to be held in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, in conjunction with the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) 2020 conference. However, because of the limitations that the COVID-19 pandemic placed on international travel and large gatherings the IPMEN 2020 conference committee was reluctantly forced to cancel the IPMEN 2020 conference.
This was a most regrettable outcome because it was 20 years ago that the concept of developing an international marine education network centred on the Pacific was first discussed at the NMEA 2000 conference in Long Beach, California. That initial discussion resulted in Australian and USA based marine educators collaborating to deliver the One Ocean Marine Forum (OOMF) in association with the NMEA 2005 conference in Hawai’i. OOMF resulted in a second international meeting in Hawai’i in 2007. It was at this second meeting, which was conceived, organised and hosted by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, that IPMEN was formed.
The news was, nevertheless, not all bad because we were able to facilitate a Pacific-wide web-based strategic planning forum in September 2020. The results of this forum were used to create the following IPMEN 2020 Action Plan.
