By Jay Scicluna / STPL News
The Dolphin Research Institute (DRI) has confirmed that funding from the Mornington Peninsula Shire has been withdrawn, placing its award-winning ‘i sea, i care’ Ambassadors program — and the future of youth environmental leadership on the Peninsula — at risk.
DRI is just one of many community organisations affected by the Shire’s recent funding shake-up. Arts groups, neighbourhood houses, and environmental programs have all reported sudden budget cuts or withdrawn support, leaving vital community services in limbo.
Speaking to STPL News, DRI Executive Director Jeff Weir, when asked if he thought the funding cut was short-sighted, he warned it could jeopardise more than two decades of consistent, culture-building work across local schools.
“This isn’t a one-off school visit,” Weir said. “This is a long-term program embedded in school culture, and its value to the Council has likely been double what they invested.”
The ‘i sea, i care’ program, now in its 24th year, trains over 500 primary school students annually to become peer educators — young ambassadors who educate their classmates about marine conservation, sustainability and coastal protection. DRI estimates that around 10,000 students are reached each year via the program’s peer-to-peer model.
“We’ve had ambassador parents thank us for changing their child’s life,” said Weir. “It builds confidence, public speaking skills, environmental awareness — and in many cases, it’s led to career paths in science or education.”
The program has been recognised with a Victorian Coastal Award and was recently featured in the Institute’s 2025 Winter Snapshot, which highlights the ripple effect of the Shire’s funding decision:
“Council partnerships with ‘i sea, i care’ have been crucial to our program’s success and achieving councils’ goals for school and community education. Now, it’s all in jeopardy.”
DRI is now turning to its Future Generations Appeal, aiming to raise $120,000 to sustain the program beyond 2025. One-third of this target has already been pledged, but without full community support, growth will likely stall and new schools may be turned away.
Weir said DRI won’t walk away from its commitments.
“We’ve survived the GFC, COVID, and we’re now in our 35th year. We won’t let our kids down,” he said. “But we’ll need to explore alternative models or partnerships to keep it going.”
When asked if DRI will respond to funding cuts with rallies and protests, Weir noted that DRI will be taking a different approach.
“We’re preparing a considered response to councillors. Not a flood of angry emails — but a clear explanation of what they’re putting at risk.”
Weir also said the Institute hopes for a more constructive solution from Council in time — ideally, some transitional support rather than an abrupt withdrawal.
“This isn’t about feel-good moments or ticking boxes. It’s a well-proven, measurable program that delivers tangible community outcomes.”
How to Help
The public can support the ‘i sea, i care’ Ambassadors program by donating to the Future Generations Appeal or by adopting a dolphin or whale through DRI’s sponsorship programs.
For more information or to contribute, visit: www.dolphinresearch.org.au
Jeff Weir and the DRI should be applauded for their determination to continue their valuable isea-icare environmental education program in the face of short-sighted funding cuts by the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council.
Yet Jeff Weir’s claim that the DRI intends to take “a considered approach” to these senseless, ideologically-based cuts seems to suggest that it has not occurred to the Arts community, Willum Warrain, and residents outraged by recent Council decisions to slash funding and dump the Council’s groundbreaking 2019 Climate Emergency Declaration to likewise present a measured response by exercising the democratic right to petition and protest the Council for failing to consult residents on these decisions that will affect them.
In trying to establish an artificial distinction between itself and the other groups equally impacted by these enormous changes in Council policy, the DRI does little to help its own cause— or anyone else’s. It also disregards the reality that when rumours of these drastic cuts emerged at Easter, Peninsula organisations like the Flinders Fringe Festival, and environmental groups including Westernport Peninsula Protection Council and Save Westernport, approached the Council in concerted efforts to discuss alternatives to the knee-jerk funding cuts being put before Council, in the hope of negotiating a better way forward.
It’s hoped the DRI will have more success with their efforts to sway the Council and turn this around, but unfortunately the conservative voting-bloc now exercising a deeply undemocratic vice-like grip on the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council has not been open to listening to residents whose views do not align with their own, no matter how “considered” their approach.