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Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission News

10 Dec 2018

Scientist Pool Data to Create the $3B Ocean Map

© peteri/Adobe Stock

For experts in the field of ocean mapping it is no small irony that we know more about the surfaces of the Moon and Mars than we do about our planet's sea floor."Can you imagine operating on the land without a map, or doing anything without a map?" asked Larry Mayer, director of the U.S.-based Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, a research body that trains hydrographers and develops tools for mapping."We depend on having that knowledge of what's around us - and the same is true for the ocean…

26 Nov 2018

IMO Launches Global Project to Protect Marine Biodiversity

The GloFouling Partnerships project - a collaboration between the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) -  has been launched.The new international effort to combat the negative environmental impacts of the transfer of aquatic species through ships  will address the build-up of aquatic organisms on a ship’s underwater hull and on other marine mobile infrastructure.The introduction of invasive aquatic organisms into new marine environments not only affects biodiversity and ecosystem health, but also has measurable impacts on a number of economic sectors such as fisheries, aquaculture and ocean energy.

25 May 2018

The EU's Maritime Spatial Planning Goes Global

160 experts from all over the world have gathered in Brussels on 24 and 25 May for the first meeting of the International Forum on Maritime Spatial Planning. They have discussed ongoing projects both in the EU and abroad and shared views on the challenges of planning public sea space across borders. The global character of the event stems from the recent alliance between the European Commission and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO) – an international organisation with a long-standing experience on the issue of maritime spatial planning. The event is the first of a series, as the Forum is scheduled to meet twice a year between now and 2020.

28 Mar 2018

Face-to-face Meeting to Talk About Oceans

Ensuring that the many positive initiatives to protect the world's oceans are working in synergy is a key task for UN-Oceans, a UN interagency coordination mechanism for ocean issues. The group held its 17th annual face-to-face meeting (26-28 March) hosted by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO in Paris. The meeting has allowed UN-Oceans member organisations to exchange information on current and forthcoming activities, and to identify synergies for further collaboration. The participants also discussed how the outcomes of The Ocean Conference, including the 1400 voluntary commitments, are fully analysed and implemented. The meeting also shared ideas on how to coalesce and encourage their activities in support of the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14.

07 Mar 2018

Stopping the Spread of Invasive Species

Non-native species can be spread from ocean to ocean via ship. They may be carried via ballast water or attach to the hulls and other parts of ships, hitching a ride across the oceans. International Maritime Organization (IMO) is addressing this problem through the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention, which entered into force in September 2017 and requires ships to manage their ballast water to limit the spread of aquatic organisms. Also, IMO’s Biofouling Guidelines address bioinvasions via ships’ hulls. The joint International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO and IMO (ICES/IOC/IMO) Working Group on Ballast and Other Ship Vectors…

20 May 2015

Expanded World Maritime University Campus Inaugurated

Photo: IMO

Expanded premises for the World Maritime University (WMU) were inaugurated on Monday, May 19, 2015 in Malmö, Sweden, by IMO Secretary-General and WMU Chancellor Koji Sekimizu. WMU is an international educational institute for the maritime community, operating under the auspices of IMO. At close to 6,000m2, WMU’s new facility is nearly double the size of the previous Malmö campus. It provides a new auditorium, multiple research laboratories, seminar rooms and video-conferencing capabilities for hosting international conferences.

18 Nov 2013

Report: Ocean Acidity is Increasing ... Rapidly

Image: Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission

The unprecedented rate of ocean acidification is one of the most alarming phenomena generated by climate change and the only way to mitigate the dangers it represents consists in reducing CO2 emissions significantly. This is the conclusion of the summary of the Third Symposium on the Ocean in a High CO2 World (Monterey, USA, September 2012) which were presented at the Conference on Climate Change taking place in Warsaw (Poland) from November 11 to 22. The document represents the conclusions of 540 experts from 37 countries reflecting the latest research on the subject.

29 Jul 2013

Experts Assess Micro-plastics in Marine Environment

International experts have met in London to review the growing problems in the marine environment caused by micro-plastics – tiny pieces of plastic or fibers which may act as a pathway for persistent, bio-accumulating and toxic substances entering the food chain. The experts form a key working group (WG-40) under the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP), an advisory body that advises the United Nations (UN) system on the scientific aspects of marine environmental protection. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is the Administrative Secretariat of GESAMP, which has, to date…

05 Jun 2002

UN Atlas of the Oceans is Launched

IMO has joined with a host of other United Nations agencies and leading international scientific bodies in developing the first comprehensive real-time tool to assess the state of world's oceans. The Internet-based United Nations Atlas of the Oceans was launched on World Environment Day June 5, 2002 at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in Paris, France. More than 2½ years in development after a decade of planning, the Atlas of the Oceans represents the most ambitious global scientific information collaboration ever on-line and an international consensus-building tool expected to assist negotiations of future marine-related agreements.