Lost in Papua New Guinea: The Inside Story of Seasmart's Sudden Demise

For those of you who attended ORCA's MACNA last year, you'll recall the PNG Raffle prize of an all expense paid trip for two winners to go to PNG.

I've attached a link to CORAL Magazine's article detailing the events that have ultimately led to Seasmart loosing it's funding and support from the local government. It's a lengthy but interesting read.

Just as the world's reefs and Eco-system's are fragile and delicate, as are the governments and organizations that are required to protect and guard these beautiful resources.

Thanks to CORAL Magazine for the linked article.


http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/cont...-sudden-demise

Sad...

I did read about this in the CORAL Magazine's article sometime back..and it sucks..hopefully someone will revive the program very soon. Just can't forget the image of the clown with the crown shaped marking on it..:)

Interesting article. Just saw the post and read it.

Matt I heard the bad news too. I also talked to a wholesaler in Florida whos brother looked into Papau New Guinea before Seasmart. He found it would not pay off in the long run. Seasmart had and admirable biz plan. It may not have been viable, but it may still provide a great guideline in the future. Matt Pedersen that just spoke at SRC has the only Lightning clown pulled from PPN. Hopefully he can keep it going.

I found this ReefBuilders this article to have some interesting tidbits.

In my mind, the really sad thing about SeaSmart is that it seems governmental corruption and greed is the problem. The business model was untested so we won't know if that was the problem. The PNG officials who were involved with the program honestly believed that they should own the sales channel and have the right to cut their partner out of the loop. Ultimately, this decision will kill their reefs and way of life. The same people who'd been trained to sustainably collect ornamentals will now fall back to more traditional fishing and PNG will be forced to again allow more and more international commercial fishing.