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Since 2004, SEVENSEAS Media has fostered an informal and non-partisan platform to promote understanding of key issues and challenges while building partnerships across an increasingly diverse group of marine conservation professionals and students.

Our mission is to promote communication and build partnerships across the global marine community and to identify and address gaps in the community’s work. SEVENSEAS Media achieves this through multimedia promotion and partnerships. The community consists of a diverse and growing group of participants, including non-governmental organizations, government agencies, foundations, bilateral and multilateral agencies, fellowship programs, independent consultants, and academia/students.

If you are interested in contributing or getting involved, email us Here. 

Writing by Kevin Majoros

Inspired by nature and built through community, Eco Escape Travel has produced a platform where travelers can share, explore, and contribute sustainable travel and purpose-driven adventuring content.

Following the thought process that collaboration over competition is the path to raising awareness, they are utilizing the globetrotting community to build a database for like-minded travelers.

Their mission is to provide reliable ecotourism and adventuring content that is filtered through four unique pillars.

Ecotourism Content Filtered Through a Pillar System

The sustainability content in the database is supplied by contributors who have had an eco-experience or volunteer experience, ecolodge, product or other content to contribute.

It is then filtered through the following pillar system:

Environmental Stewardship is protecting the environment for those after you by implementing conservation and sustainable practices. It is committing to the protection and responsible use of the surroundings for future enjoyment.

Ecological Connection is immersion and engagement with land, flora or fauna in the environment. This is disconnecting to reconnect all while being responsible and conscious of the impact that is being made.

Community Empowerment is having a direct socioeconomic impact on the community by diversifying, donating or employing locals. Community Empowerment grows community leaders and is change leading, bold and entrepreneurial.

Cross-Cultural Engagement is having a direct interaction with the culture you are visiting. You are learning from them, whether it be textile skills, about their history or staying with a local family in a homestay. Cross-cultural engagement with another culture will have a lasting impact long after a trip.

“The pillars are alignments for me and anyone I work with to make sure I stay true to my values and brand,” says Jonny Bierman, founder of Eco Escape Travel. “I want to drive awareness with content and use storytelling to inspire purpose-driven travel.”

The Path to Ecotourism and Destination Marketing

After graduating from high school in Okotoks in the Province of Alberta, Canada, Bierman was given the opportunity to travel before attending college. His parents put him on a plane to Thailand and four months turned into 18 months. He found himself working in Australia after visiting multiple countries.

When he returned, he knew that his path would be tourism and travel. Bierman points to a memory from that trip that has significant meaning regarding his own road to sustainable tourism.

“I will never forget standing on a beach in the Philippines and finding a plastic water bottle with Thai writing on it,” Bierman says. “Nine years later, I look back and think about the crisis we are currently in. I would view that bottle differently now.”

Bierman graduated from Vancouver Island University with a degree in Tourism Management. His interest in ecotourism came from a professor that was spearheading a community empowerment project in Costa Rica that diversified farming communities through the introduction of sustainable agritourism.

After completing his college studies, including a co-op in Mexico, Bierman launched his career with Banff and Lake Louise Tourism. After years of formulating and evolving a plan, he coupled his passions for media, content and ecotourism to create Eco Escape Travel.

“I saw an opportunity to start a media hub in the industry I love that has purpose, and an impact on the community,” says Bierman. “The result is an actual feeling of doing something good for the environment.”

Raising Awareness and Promoting Purpose-Driven Travel

Bierman recently spent a month in Ecuador working in the media marketing aspect of Eco Escape Travel.

He provides responsible guiding on social responsibility and worked with ecotourism operators to help them produce content through filmmaking, photography and storytelling.

EcoAndes Travel runs multiple ecotourism adventures including yachting, Galapagos Islands tours and a hotel built in the Puerto Ayora harbor with a focus on sustainability and protecting the environment. Their Yacuma EcoLodge in the Amazon rainforest is an initiative run jointly with the Kichwa Indigenous Community of Chontayacu.

Tren Ecuador is a train tour experience built on a model of social co-responsibility in which communities and natural heritage are at the heart of the experience.

“All the operators I worked with in Ecuador have incredibly high employee retention and are run like ‘mom & pop’ shops with great heart,” Bierman says. “Everything is locally sourced, education driven and operated with sustainability measures. They have created companies that people are inspired to work for.”

Travel with Purpose for a Better Tomorrow

When Seven Seas caught up with Jonny Bierman, who is based in Vancouver, he was preparing to leave for Victoria in British Columbia, Canada to participate in the Impact Sustainability Travel & Tourism conference.

The programming explored ecology and the environment, community and sense of place, culture and heritage, and the economy.

“This is a personal journey for me, and I want to do more in a tangible way including having a physical presence,” says Bierman. “Meeting real change opportunities will help lead the work I do with purpose. I want to drive change that will result in a better tomorrow.”

Check out Eco Escape Travel online.

Eco Escape Travel on Instagram.

Kevin Majoros shares stories on sports, ocean adventuring and conservation. He is based in Baltimore/Washington and travels the world as a competitive swimmer.

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Traditional navigator Peia Patai has trained Pacific Islanders from more than seven countries to become open ocean sailors since the Auckland-based Okeanos Maritime Training Program first began in February 2018. Captain Peia’s work is core to Okeanos Foundation for the Sea’s mission to empower islanders to regain control of their ocean transportation and create a network of fossil fuel-free sailing canoes operated by Pacific people servicing their remote island communities.

The Okeanos Vaka Motu, which translates to “boat for the islands,” was specifically designed for inter island transportation of people and cargo such as food, medicine and disaster relief. Okeanos Foundation currently operates vaka motus in Vanuatu (shown above), Marshall Islands, and the Northern Marianas; with more headed for Yap, Pohnpei, and Palau in 2019. Photo credit: Yorick Nicholls

Pacific countries such as Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Vanuatu, Palau, and Kiribati are all threatened by sea level rise but are also heavily dependent on expensive and infrequent diesel-powered cargo ships.

Many outer island communities in the Pacific, such as this Vanuatu village, rely on subsistence agriculture and fishing. Many populations do not receive imported goods for months at a time. Photo credit: Natalia Tsoukala.

That is why Okeanos Foundation for the Sea is dedicated to building and transferring traditionally based, open ocean sailing canoes, called Vaka Motus, to Pacific islands where they will be operated with locally trained crews. Okeanos is also planning on transferring the open ocean sailing program to a Pacific island next year.

Captain Peia works tirelessly as Okeanos’ fleet commander and crew trainer preparing sailors to professionally and safely operate the vakas across the open ocean. Some crews have successfully ventured more than 4,000 nautical miles from Auckland, sailing Okeanos vakas to the Northern Marianas, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Micronesia.

The fifty-foot vaka motus are inspired by Captain Cook’s 18th Century drawings of Polynesian sailing canoes. Like the vakas of Peia’s Maori ancestors, the canoes have traditional crab-claw sails and double hulls bound together by rope lashings. For safety, efficiency, and reliability, the vaka motus are outfitted with modern hybrid engines that run on a combination of solar power and coconut biofuel. The vessel is even equipped with a desalination unit that produces 60 liters of potable water per hour.

All Okeanos sailing canoes are equipped with solar panels that power electric propellers when winds are low. Photo Credit: Natalia Tsoukala

“These vakas are a combination of traditional design and modern technology, merged together so that our people can run them,” says Captain Peia, who seeks to bring economic independence to islands that are otherwise reliant on expensive, imported fossil fuel. “That’s why I’m working so hard to get this opportunity – so that my people can benefit from it.”

The Okeanos vaka motus can carry up to three tons of cargo and 12 passengers, offering safe transportation to and from outer island communities.

Unlike western ships, the shallow draft of the vaka motu’s hulls can dock directly on the beach providing immediate access to remote or cyclone damaged communities.

Captain Peia Patai (right) works with crew from Okeanos Vanuatu (from left to right) Willy Dane, John Damilip, Joshua Tavo, Edwin Jeffery & Melvin Tom. In addition to instructing at Auckland’s Maritime Training Program Peia does regular “check ups” on crews to ensure they are operating according to Okeanos Procedures. Photo Credit: Dena Seidel.

A LEGACY IN VOYAGING Rarotonga-native Peia Patai was first introduced to traditional voyaging in Hawaii in 1991. He was taught by Nainoa Thompson, the first Hawaiian to captain a traditional Polynesian canoe on the open-ocean in centuries, along with Pwo Master Navigator Mau Piailug, the Micronesian seafarer who is credited for sparking the Pacific voyaging renaissance after successfully sailing the maiden voyage of Hawaiian canoe, Hokulea, in 1976.

Peia training on Hawaiian canoe, Hokulea, the first traditionally designed Pacific vaka to sail the open-ocean in over a century. Photo provided by Peia Patai.

Under Nainoa and Papa Mau, Peia trained in Wayfinding, the ancient art of navigating the open-ocean using only the stars, clouds, wind, waves and other patterns of nature. Since the sacred practice of Wayfinding had been lost for centuries throughout Polynesia, Peia’s chance to learn traditional navigation was an opportunity of a lifetime.

In 2011, Peia put his Wayfinding skills to the test and captained Cook Island traditional canoe Marumaru Atua during the Okeanos-sponsored Te Mana o Te Moana voyage – an unprecedented two-year voyage where hundreds of first time sailors traversed hundreds of thousands of nautical miles around the Pacific. Peia served as one of the lead navigators to teach young sailors in Wayfinding, some of which had never before stepped foot on a vaka, let alone sailed one without compass or map.

The seven vakas of Te Mana o Te Moana collectively traveled 210,000 nautical miles around the Pacific. Above the fleet crosses under the San Francisco bridge to spread messages of Pacific cultural revival and ocean conservation. Photo Credit: Mark Hoffman

During Te Mana o Te Moana, Peia received the sacred position of Pwo – the sacred Micronesian ceremony that deems sailors as master navigators; a highly coveted title only shared among a handful of Wayfinders in the Pacific, including Peia’s mentors, Nainoa and Mau.

Captain Peia Patai receiving the sacred Micronesian title of Pwo in a ceremony performed in Hawaii. The coveted role comes with duties to care and protect one’s community and environment. Photo Credit: Rui Camilo.

“Receiving Pwo comes with responsibility,” explains Peia. “The responsibility is to pass this knowledge on to future generations so that our traditions are never lost again.”

Peia and the hundreds of sailors ended their two-year Te Mana o Te Moana voyage at the Pacific Arts Festival in the Solomon Islands where the crew was greeted by a number of traditional performances, including these Easter Island Rapa Nui dancers. Photo Credit: Natalia Tsoukala.

SAILOR, NAVIGATOR, TEACHER

The responsibility of Pwo is what drives Peia through his seemingly daunting workload in Auckland today. As the commander of the Okeanos vaka motu fleet and head of the Okeanos Maritime Training Program, Peia is ensuring the future of traditional Pacific sailors.

When Peia is not overseeing the construction of the next vaka motu, he is teaching seamanship courses to an international body of students. The Okeanos Maritime Training Program offers a range of trainings to ensure the safety and quality of vaka motu operations. It was created with the intent of giving compulsory training for all crew working on Okeanos Vakas with a secondary course dedicated to comprehensive knowledge of Okeanos standards, procedures, and leadership.

According to Okeanos Foundation’s philosophy, the trainings are based on hands-on practical learning on the vaka, backed up by a theoretic approach in the classroom. The theoretical training also includes the study of the Okeanos Safety and Training Manual; participation in firefighting classes; knowledge of basic knots and anchoring, beacons (e.g. marks and lights of boats at night) and basic route rules; a glossary of nautical terms; and preparation for rough seas, including emergency procedures and safety practices.

“This training gives us a solid basis on which we can build up our knowledge and skills” says Winnifa Mael, crew member from Vanuatu and among the first to graduate with a certificate in Seamanship from the Okeanos Marine Training Program. Winnifa and her crew members spent three months in Auckland to complete the course.

Captain Peia Patai (left) and Okeanos Foundation Chairman Dieter Paulman (right) celebrate Okeanos Vanuatu crewmember Winnifa Mael (center) receiving her Seamanship certificate at the Okeanos Maritime Training Center. Photo Credit: Dena Seidel

The Okeanos Maritime Training Program also supports sailors wishing to become captains of the vaka motus. At the end of 2018, sailing students from Vanuatu, Marshall Islands, Yap, Pohnpei, and the Marianas joined Captain Peia at the Okeanos Maritime Training Center to become captains of their respective Okeanos Vakas.

(From left to right) Captains-in-training John Damilip of Okeanos Vanuatu, Andrea Carr of Okeanos Marianas, Jerry Joseph of Okeanos Marianas and Okeanos Waa’qab, Elmi Juonran of Okeanos Marshall Islands, and Joshua Tavo of Okeanos Vanuatu. Photo Credit: Christine Biesgen

The team sailed and serviced the new vakas currently in construction at Lloyd Stevenson Boatbuilders – the site where students learn everything from traditional lashing to the carving of the vaka’s paddle, or hoi, with the leadership of Captain Peia.

Vanuatu crew John Damilip (left) and Joshua Tavo (right) at the bow of the Vaka Motu during a training sail with other future Okeanos captains. Photo Credit: Christine Biesgen

Among the captains-in-training was Papa Mau’s very own grandson, Jerry Joseph. Once his training with Captain Peia is complete, Jerry will be responsible for delivering a newly constructed vaka back to the Federated States of Micronesia where it will stay to service outer island communities.

“It means a lot to bring the vaka motu to Micronesia – the place that has given me the gift of traditional navigation,” says Captain Peia, who is honored to train the grandson of his former mentor into Okeanos captainship. “Papa Mau would be very proud to see us passing on this knowledge to the next generation.”

Okeanos Marianas Watch Captain Jerry Joseph sails to Poluwat atoll – one of the old stomping grounds of his grandfather Mau Piailug. Jerry – along with other Okeanos Marianas crew – received Pwo on Poluwat, joining the ranks of master navigators Peia & Nainoa. Photo Credit: Steve Holloway

With the introduction of new captains to the vaka motu fleet, Peia hopes Okeanos Foundation will continue to support its pan-Pacific network of traditional canoes to service outer island communities and regain the ancient searoads for future sailors to come.

All Okeanos Training Courses require the students to pass theoretical exams of the different units and practical assessments at sea. The courses typically take 3 months for students to complete.

To learn more about the Okeanos Maritime Training Program, visit: https://okeanos-foundation.org/maritime-training-centre/

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