CONNECT THE OCEANS
Kahi Kai (‘one ocean’ in native Hawai’ian) is a non-profit organisation committed to illustrate the connectivity of the worlds ocean by promoting communication and interaction between scientists, artists, watermen, fishermen, journalists, politicians and everyone who is interested by the fascinating, mysterious and endagered marine world.
Join the Kahi Kai community to connect to people from all around the world sharing one and the same passion… our fragile oceans.
VALUES & VISION
Raise awareness of our shared responsibility to preserve the oceans
Kahi Kai is a non-profit organization founded in 2009 in Hawaiʻi and in France by biological researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi (USA). The original mission of Kahi Kai was to facilitate the exchange of data/images and foster international collaborations between scientific researchers through a web-based community on the Kahi Kai website. In parallel, we begun to portrait sea creatures from the Pacific Ocean (Hawaiʻi) and the Mediterranean Sea (France) to illustrate the scientific research that was carried out in two marine stations. The initial success of Kahi Kai, its user-friendly interface, and the conversation-provoking images shared on the website and conferences led us to revisit our original mission, and expanding it to include outreach projects aimed at educating Hawaiʻi’s and french students about the importance of the marine environment.
Kahi Kai strives to raise awareness of our shared responsibility to conserve our oceans by introducing students, children and the general public to the fascinating and diverse organisms found therein. Educating our youngest generation will have the greatest impact as children have a dual role as current consumers and future policy makers. By providing them with a basic understanding and respect for the ocean, and fostering a passion and interest in marine science, we ensure that our future leaders will be capable of making informed decisions regarding ocean conservation.
Normally, when one draws a classical world map the Oceans are distorted, in order to obtain a terrestrial-focussed projection of our planet.
The illustration below is a Athelstan Spilhaus projection that reflects the core idea of Kahi Kai (‘unique ocean’ in Hawaiʻian) as it represents our blue planet by distorting the terrestrial regions to highlight to what extend all Oceans and Seas are inter-connected.
Kahi Kai was founded by marine-related scientists that spend a shared part of their lives on Oahu (Hawaiian Islands, pacific Ocean). All of them hold doctorate degrees in Biology and have outreach experience at the K-12 level as well as with the general public. Initially developed and self-funded by a few enthusiastic scientists leading a few outreach workshops, Kahi Kai has since grown to include 13 board members from Europe, French Polynesia and the USA, dozens of volunteers, conducted over 50 workshops and community events reaching over 2500 students throughout Hawaiʻi and France and formed collaborations with other non-profit groups.
Do not hesitate to contact us if you want to join our project, want us to participate in your event, project, expédition or simply share your ideas or experiences. Only as a community we can make a change that will long-lastingly benefit the Oceans that play such a crucial role on our daily live.