23/01/2006 - Hong Kong,
China – As part of its Ocean’s 10 initiative
in Hong Kong, WWF has launched an awareness
campaign to educate students about the ocean.
Through a design competition and website,
WWF hopes to further raise public awareness
about the diversity of Hong Kong’s marine
life and habitat. Ocean’s 10 provides interactive
education programmes based on ten selected
marine species living in Hong Kong waters:
brain coral, Chinese bahaba, Chinese white
dolphin, green turtle, Hong Kong grouper,
horseshoe crab, mudskipper, sea grass, purple
sea urchin and yellow croaker.
The bus design competition is open to primary,
secondary and public groups, with participants
invited to draw upon themes that reflect
underwater wildlife of Hong Kong, marine
habitats and marine conservation. A judging
panel will select the winning design based
on theme-matching ability, creativity, artistic
quality and ability to convey a marine conservation
message. Winning designs will be displayed
on the Ocean’s 10 bus to further promote
marine conservation to the general public.
In addition, a website will focus on fun
facts, threats and conservation status of
Hong Kong’s marine life.
The first project under the Ocean's 10 campaign
was the Theatre & Visual Arts Project
for Hong Kong school children, co-presented
by WWF and HKYAF, and supported by Morgan
Stanley. The project involves 100 local
schools and close to 5,000 students, and
reaches out to the community with an estimated
impact on 70,000 people.
“The future of Hong Kong’s marine environment
depends on how we handle our natural habitats
and resources today,” said WWF-Hong Kong
CEO Eric Bohm. “We have an obligation to
protect these marine habitats and treasures
to leave our children a living planet.”
END NOTES:
• Deadline for entries submission to the
Ocean’s 10 bus design competition is 7 April
2006.
• The following are supporting the competition:
Solomon Systech Limited, Education Manpower
Bureau of Hong Kong SAR Government, Hong
Kong Federation of Youth Groups, Citybus,
Olympian City and TBWA Hong Kong.
