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• Department : THUPR
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• Date : 2020-03-24

Between November 27th and December 3rd, 2019, the Tunghai University International College (Marine Ecology Economics class, Sustainability Science and Engineering Program) completed its fourth research excursion to the Mactan/Olango Marine Sanctuary in Cebu, Philippines with the main goal of continuing an underwater marine ecology survey into the macroalgae assemblages in that region. As previously done, the trip also offered International College students from Tunghai University the opportunity to be certified in underwater SCUBA diving at two levels, beginning and intermediate. This excursion also fostered an opportunity to establish international cooperation with researchers from the University of San Carlos-Biology Department, the KPGreen-Japan Corporate Responsibility group, and the Innovative Infrastructure Investment (in3) Group from Oxford University in an attempt to device future projects in macroalgae research, the impact of global warming in the ocean, and the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change) initiative for carbon credit budgets from marine phytoplankton, seagrass meadows, and mangrove coastal forests in the region.

There were several key aspects of this trip that made it uniquely special. First, this was the first time that students from the International Program in International Business Administration attended in numbers larger than their counterparts in the Sustainability Science and Engineering Program. Most of these students came to obtain a basic diving license but also ended up exploring alongside the SSE students the wonders of the underwater world in Mactan/Olango Marine Sanctuary and gained a taste for underwater marine research. Another important accomplishment of this excursion included the opportunity to the participating International College students to understand and partake in the social aspects involved in devising community biodiversity plans to protect potential blue carbon sinking areas, and the logistic aspects of making plans to research simultaneously macroalgae, seagrass meadows and mangrove forests. Finally, the students had a chance to intermingle with the local communities making their livelihood from the marine resources in Mactan. This inspired some of them to want to return to the Philippines in the future and to want to get involved in community projects in coastal marine ecosystems, to address the problems of human waste and pollution in the oceans-including the massive problem of microplastics floating in and about the Mactan Island, and to want to get together with scientists from the region and abroad to research and discuss these issues.

In conclusion, research excursion to the Mactan/Olango Marine Sanctuary in Cebu, Philippines succeeded in attracting International College students from the Sustainability Science and Engineering and the International Business programs in very unique ways that not only provided opportunities for marine research, but also for Scuba Diving training and social involvement into the challenges the world is facing now as we try to educate to reduce waste into the ocean, to change behaviours towards sustainable living in a global climatic changing world. We only hope these excursions can continue both with the goals of conducting underwater research and to expose students to marine conservation.

(For pictures and videos, please refer to the THU International College Scuba Diving Club page in Facebook at https://reurl.cc/1xY8ZG)

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