One of Dr Ava Maxam’s first memories was of the sea, of being submerged in Jamaica’s waters by her mother. Since then, she has been fascinated by the ocean.
As the new director of the Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA), she intends to do all she can to keep the ocean safe and make a difference for those whose livelihoods and lives depend on it.
Appointed on September 4, Maxam said her role is to ensure the growth of the institute meets the goals of both the government and what is mandated in the IMA Act by advising the government on managing and protecting marine resources so it can create policies based on data.
She plans to ensure the organisation’s goals and objectives keep up with the time, that projects are practical and can be implemented, and to make an impact on the world.
One of her primary directives, she said, is looking at how the IMA could collaborate regionally and use its research to lead the Caribbean in the field.
"It's not enough nowadays to say, 'Oh, we're doing research on the macrofauna or zooplankton of our oceans.' But now we have to take a deeper look at how it affects people’s livelihood. How does it make what we do more valuable? How does it make that impact to what we're doing?
"And not just at our local level for government, but we have to start thinking regionally as well. TT, our islands, we're a part of the Caribbean system. And when it comes to oceans and marine dynamics, currents and waves don't care that we're a different jurisdiction. So as island nations, we're all affected by the system that we're in."
She believes it is important to modernise how services are distributed, to improve on information technology and infrastructure and strengthen digital systems, thereby improving efficiency and communication.
Innovation is also important so the IMA’s research has a broader reach.
For example, she said TT could introduce carbon trading. It is a system in which companies are allowed to produce a certain amount of emissions and, if they stay below their limit, they can trade the extra to other companies that want to produce more.
TT could also establish green bonds, in which companies with large carbon footprints could contribute financially to building the environment by helping to fund green or environmentally-friendly companies and projects.
Maxam said her vision for the IMA is not just about traditional environmental monitoring and stewardship, but how the organisation could lead the region in the way it operates, which would call for supporting regulations and legislation.
Maxam told WMN the IMA’s areas of focus is biodiversity and ecology, oceanography and coastal processes, environmental quality, marine governance and policy, and fisheries and aquaculture.
“We might not traditionally see how doing environmental work impacts our everyday lives, our assets and so on. But it really does, because the environment is something that is always dynamic. You could have a hurricane passing through, we could have a storm surge or tsunami that impacts the coastlin
