Club Mer
Club Mer is an environmental education programme for young people. The French-derived name (which means “Sea Club”) comes from Club Mer’s origins on the Creole-speaking island of Rodrigues, where this unique programme has been running since 1999. This highly successful club (which has attracted over 600 members), is run by local NGO, Shoals Rodrigues, and was devised and designed by MET’s founder, Tara Hooper.
Club Mer is centred around a marine ecology course, but that does not mean it is centred around the classroom. Club Mer does aim to teach young people about species and habitats, marine resource use, pollution and conservation, but it does so by taking them out to their shores, lagoons and reefs. Getting the young people into the sea through swimming, lifesaving and snorkelling lessons is just as important, and Club Mer members are also encouraged to participate in carnivals, festivals, beach clean-ups and other initiatives that take marine environmental education into the wider community.
The club has produced two teams of Volvo Young Environmentalist competition finalists, and the high standard of the programme as a whole was recognised with fourth place in the youth category of the international Energy Globe competition in 2004. The real success of Club Mer, however, lies in the pride that the young islanders now have in their environment, which has been translated into the active role many of them now play in marine conservation.
The huge potential for Club Mer in other coastal communities has led MET and Shoals Rodrigues to begin work on a joint project to expand and develop the model as the basis for a coordinated programme of marine environmental education across the western Indian Ocean region.
To learn more about Shoals Rodrigues other work in marine research and education, please click here.
The reason I love the sea I cannot explain - it's physical. When you dive you begin to feel like an angel. It's a liberation of your weight.