CORE sea

Center for Oceanic Research and Education | South East Asia

CORE sea

is a framework for marine environmentalists, scientists, divers and other passionate people which would like to preserve our biosphere, with a strategy based on reason and the scientific method.

It stands for Center for Oceanic Research and Education | south east asia

We are open for everyone, given that you have common sense or at least some humor. It’s necessary if you are thinking about volunteering with us.

Our Mission

We work with a simple mission statement, that is probably impossible to achieve in a lifetime:

To understand and protect the marine biodiversity of south east asia

Yes, it’s a bit silly, but we’ll try anyway

What we do

CONSERVATION | RESEARCH  | EDUCATION

We conduct curiosity driven, and conservation oriented research with international and local students, and universities. We offer internships, volunteering opportunities and courses for research and conservation. University credit available.

What we are

CORE sea is a international non governmental organisation of scientists, naturalists, environmentalists and other amazing people with a peculiar passion for water. CORE sea’s field stations are organized as ‘company limited’. Generated funds are transferred to the mother NGO, which can distribute between stations and projects as needed.

 

CS-structure

Who we are

Eike Schoenig (1975-2019)

Eike Schoenig (1975-2019)

Founder

There could be a great many words written about “The Big Fella”. Most of them would probably be reasonably accurate. He had a tremendous and infectious passion for the marine environment that he caught diving in Koh Tao in 1994. He honed this into a fierce and encyclopedic knowledge at the University of Bremen and the Centre for Tropical Marine Ecology in Germany. It ridiculously involved him wading around in the muddy waters of Indonesia’s estuaries, which surprisingly wasn’t all that pleasant! Not perturbed by this too much he travelled to Koh Phangan and almost completely unexpectedly set up what we know and love as COREsea in 2011.

“He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius & naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.” – Douglas Adams

Janina Schoenig

Janina Schoenig

Director

Janina studied educational sciences in Hamburg and worked in adult education, before she was dragged to Thailand by her husband. Since then, Janina dived extensively in South East Asia and is fascinated with aquatic wonderland in front of her door step. A lot of her experience in adult education found its way into the courses. Today, Janina manages COREsea’s logistics, accommodation and temper tantrums from Germany.

Victoria Fahey

Victoria Fahey

Director of Research & Operations

Vicky is a coral reef ecologist from New Zealand, who first found her love for tropical corals when she did her internship with us at COREsea in 2015. What was meant to be a 3-month internship turned into 3 years at COREsea as a research assistant mentored by Eike, Vicky eventually went off on her own to do her MSc in marine biology at James Cook University, Australia. Forever crowned as the “intern who never left”, Vicky now runs the research and operations of the center, whilst inheriting Eike’s janitorial duties also (thanks big fella!). When Vicky’s not in her happy place diving out on the reef, you’ll most likely find her in her corner of the lab crunching data in R.

Stefan Follows

Stefan Follows

Dive Operations

Since 2001, Stefan has worked as a diving instructor, dive centre manager, and dive guide in the Gulf of Thailand. This has allowed Stefan virtually endless opportunities to indulge in his passions for teaching, diving, photography and all things aquatic. For the past 10 years, Stefan has been Director of Dive Operations here at COREsea. When he’s not at the center, you’ll find him exploring the island, running, diving and photographing the wonders of Koh Phangan above & below the sea.

Lauren Blau

Lauren Blau

Research Assistant

Lauren is the newest addition to our team; she has a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and a minor in Biology. Lauren got SCUBA certified in the lakes of Arizona, instilling the fascination and appreciation of the underwater world at a young age. With limited opportunities for marine conservation and research in Arizona she signed up for an internship at COREsea to gain experience after graduation. Through COREsea’s curriculum Lauren discovered her fondness of coral and aquatic creatures. Wishing to further her experience and involvement at COREsea Lauren did not end up leaving at the commencement of her internship (there’s a reason the Koh Phangan is coined the “sticky island”). Lauren started COREsea in 2022 as an Open Water diver and worked her way up the PADI ladder and is now a SCUBA instructor. Outside of COREsea you’ll find Lauren taking care of fur babies at the local animal hospital.