The Report of the 2010 Caribbean Marine Atlas (CMA) Review and Planning Workshop as well as Saint Lucia Coastal Atlas Stakeholders Event is now available as IOC Workshop Report No. 235.
During the 2010 CMA Review and Planning Workshop participants assessed progress of the CMA project at the national as well as regional level. In particular they (i) Received a review of the progress of the atlas and were given a demonstration of the atlas prototype; (ii) Gained a better understanding of the challenges, benefits and goals of web atlases and environmental data dissemination platforms in general; (iii) Identified the necessary inputs (area of focus, data partners, themes, functionality) for the development of their respective national atlases; (iv) Determined the steps required to implement a national atlas (workplan) and developed a tentative timeline (schedule). Additional training requirements were also identified (to be addressed in 2011).
The Saint Lucia Coastal Atlas Stakeholders Event aimed at sensitizing the local marine and coastal zone stakeholder community to the national marine atlas project and its progress, receive feedback and identify potential partners. The event was well attended, with representatives from government (Fisheries Division, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Marine Police, Survey Department, Physical Planning Unit, Crown Lands Division), private sector stakeholders (Saint Lucia Air and Seaports Authority, Soufrierre Marine Management Authority, Watercraft Committee, Rodney Bay and Marigot Bay Marinas, Saint Lucia National Trust) and international governmental organizations (UNEP CEP, Caribbean Environmental Health Institute, Organization of Eastern Caribbean States). The stakeholder workshop itself was found to be a highly useful tool in the national atlas development process. Such workshops not only make potential stakeholders aware of the initiative and its goals, but also permit the national coordinators to receive feedback from national atlas users on the types of information and functionality they would like a marine atlas in their country to have, and identify potential data and management partners. Furthermore the events can raise support for the project from multiple sectors and high-level administrators, providing momentum for its development and enhancing the chances that the project will be successful. More from the Caribbean Marine Atlas web site.
NOAA's National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) opened its doors on November 1, 1960, with 29 employees ready to take on the challenge of compiling, sorting, and organizing the disparate collections of oceanographic data into a single system. A daunting task, considering that the U.S. Navy had already determined that data were coming in at such a rate that it was nearly impossible to keep up. The work soon began with a collection of unclassified data that consisted of approximately 2,000,000 machine-punched cards containing about 100,000 stations of oceanographic data. This data consisted of about 3 million observations of temperatures, waves, currents, and depths. In comparison to today's data collections, NODC's archive currently contains over 44 terabytes of data packaged into more than 86,000 archived original datasets, and hundreds of different ocean data types. More information on the NODC 50 Years of Service can be found at http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/General/anniversary50.html
The EurOcean2010 Conference (12-13 October 2010) concluded with the adoption of the "Ostend Declaration".
The EurOCEAN 2010 Conference (Ostend, 12-13 October 2010) povided a unique forum for the European marine science community to consider, discuss and respond to new policy developments and achievements since the last EurOCEAN conference (2007, Aberdeen), and to highlight new challenges and opportunities for marine research in the next decade. The EurOCEAN 2010 Conference and Ostend Declaration (October 2010) came at a crucial time for the European marine science community to influence how marine science is supported in Europe in the coming decade. The EurOCEAN 2010 Ostend Declaration was a key deliverable of the Conference. The Ostend Declaration is intended to highlight the importance of marine and maritime science and technology for our economies and societies and to identify the research infrastructures, support mechanisms and governance structures necessary to ensure that critical research challenges in the next decade are properly addressed at national and European level. The Ostend Declaration is therefore a significant opportunity for the European marine science community to influence how marine science is supported in Europe in the coming decade. Under "International Cooperation", the Declarations calls to "Strengthen in bilateral / multilateral cooperation with key funding organisations, intergovernmental bodies and marine/maritime science institutions outside Europe to overcome the barriers to and deliver workable solutions for enhanced joint funding of relevant international research programmes and infrastructures."
Dr Wendy Watson-Wright, IOC Executive Secretary, was invited to address the Conference, making a presentation entitled "Fifty years of International Cooperation in Ocean Science, Services and Capacity-building". Also Capt. Javier Vallandares, IOC Chairman attended the Conference.
The Conference enjoyed quite a bit of interest from the Press. The local television station Focus-wtv made the following clip which includes a brief interview with Dr Watson-Wright (click on the image and go to 54 sec in the timeline).
The online survey for IODE national coordinators for data management is now open. National coordinators are requested to fill the survey by 14 January 2011. All IODE national coordinators for data management have been sent an email with the URL of the survey. If you are an IODE national coordinator for data management and did not receive an email then contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. A similar survey will be opened for IODE national coordinators for marine information management shortly.
Malaysia nominated Prof. Dr. Nor Aieni Haji Mokhtar, Under Secretary, National Oceanography Directorate, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation as IODE national coordinator for data management and IODE national coordinator for marine information management. Prof. Nor Aieni Haji Mokhtar is also a member of I-GOOS. More information can be found HERE The community welcomes Prof. Dr. Nor Aieni Haji Mokhtar to the IODE family.
The first session of the IODE Steering Group for the IODE Ocean Data Portal (SG-ODP-I) was held between 20 and 22 September 2010 at the IOC Project Office for IODE in Oostende, Belgium. It was attended by representatives of the 9 current ODP data provider nodes as well as by a number of representatives of potential nodes in Africa, Latin America and Western Pacific.
The meeting reviewed progress of the IODE ODP noting that nearly 1,000,000 profiles are already available through ODP. The ODP software is now at version 1.5.5. Version 2, which will have a lot of additional functionality, is planned to launch in 2011. The meeting agreed on a work plan for 2010-2011 as well as on an outreach and marketing plan to actively promote ODP at the level of its target users as well as potential data providers. More information on the meeting is available HERE. The Meeting report can be downloaded HERE.
Maria Kalenchits (Estonia) joined the IOC project Office for IODE in September 2010 for a 3-month secondment.
Maria will be involved in developing the IODE50th anniversary bibliography. She will also assist with the establishment of the OceanDocs Steering Group and the setting up of a user/focus group for VOA3R (Virtual Open Access Agriculture & Aquaculture Repository) project.
Maria Kalenchits has been information officer and later Librarian at the Estonian Marine Institute in Tallinn, Estonia until she moved to Suva, Fiji in 2007 to take up the position of Librarian/PIMRIS coordinator at the University of the South Pacific. She returned to Estonia in May 2010.
During her stay in Oostende, Maria can be reached by email on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The EurOcean2010 Conference (12-13 October 2010) concluded with the adoption of the "
Malaysia nominated Prof. Dr. Nor Aieni Haji Mokhtar, Under Secretary, National Oceanography Directorate, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation as IODE national coordinator for data management and IODE national coordinator for marine information management. Prof. Nor Aieni Haji Mokhtar is also a member of I-GOOS. More information can be found 
Maria Kalenchits (Estonia) joined the IOC project Office for IODE in September 2010 for a 3-month secondment.