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As the latest round of UN climate change negotiations kicks off at the end of the month, our newsletter looks at climate change and what this means for oceans and coastal communities. The talks, taking place in Durban, South Africa, will bring together representatives of the world's governments, international organizations and civil society. Check out the COP-17 site to follow events where the UN-Oceans, the United Nations coordination mechanism for oceans and coastal issues working closely with the UN Atlas of the Oceans, will feature an official side event on ocean acidification.
Learn about A Blueprint for Oceans and Coastal Sustainability, a paper just launched by UN agencies which sets out 10 proposals to improve the management of oceans and coastal areas. In this month's newsletter, you will also find new topics on the safety of fishing vessels and the implementation of maritime safety, as well as information on ice thinning, recent explorations, flooding of coastal cities and more.
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Thank you,
The UN Atlas of the Oceans Editors
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- Fishing Vessels Safety : The safety of fishing vessels (Topic)
- Implementation, Control and Coordination : Maritime Safety : implementation (Topic)
- IMO: UN Agencies unveil ten proposals to safeguard the ocean : United Nations agencies in Paris today (1 November 2011) launched a plan to improve the management of oceans and coastal areas. The Blueprint for Ocean and Coastal Sustainability sounds the alarm about the health of the oceans, and explains how they influence our everyday life by regulating the climate, providing highly-nutritious and by sustaining livelihoods and economies. It recalls that although the ocean accounts for 70 per cent of the surface of our planet, only one per cent of it is protected. (News)
- IMO: IMO Secretary-General urges States to ratify 2010 HNS Protocol as signature period ends : IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos urged States to take steps to bring the 2010 Protocol to the International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances by Sea, 1996 (2010 HNS Convention) into force, after eight countries signed the Protocol, subject to ratification or acceptance. The treaty was adopted on 30 April 2010 and was open for signature from 1 November 2010 to 31 October 2011. The 2010 HNS Protocol now remains open for accession. (News)
- IMO: Regional training centre in Djibouti – foundation stone laid : As part of IMO’s efforts to promote the implementation of the Code of Conduct concerning the Repression of Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden (Djibouti Code of Conduct), the foundation stone of the building set to house a regional training centre in Djibouti was laid during a ceremony in Djibouti on Saturday (29 October 2011). The stone was laid jointly by His Excellency Mr. Ismail Omar Guelleh, the President of the Republic of Djibouti, and Mr. Koji Sekimizu, Director, Maritime Safety Division, who represented the Secretary-General of IMO. (News)
- Sea Rise! : New research from several international research groups, including the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen provides independent consensus that IPCC predictions of less than a half a meter rise in sea levels is around 3 times too low. (News)
- Investing in rural women will slash hunger and poverty, Ban says : Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling on the international community to give rural women the same access to productive resources as men, noting the huge benefits that would ensue, from increased food production to a drop of 150 million in the number of the world’s hungry people. (News)
- On World Food Day, UN agencies urge concerted effort against global hunger : United Nations agencies tasked with tackling global hunger today highlighted the need for concerted efforts to address the root causes, focusing on the need to ensure that children have enough to eat, and addressing the factors that make food unaffordable for so many. (News)
- Europe’s vulnerability to natural disasters quickly rising – UN agency : The number of natural hazards taking place in Europe increased significantly last year, the United Nations disaster risk reduction agency says, warning that the region’s governments need to implement prevention platforms to significantly reduce the danger they pose to their populations. (News)
- Myanmar: UN helps Government devise disaster mitigation plans : Myanmar needs measures to reduce the impact of natural disasters through early warning systems and other steps in a country where an estimated 140,000 people were killed and 2.4 million others affected by Cyclone Nargis in 2008. (News)
- Green industries essential to foster sustainable economic growth : Industries should take into account green measures for every aspect of what they do to be able to ensure their sustainable future. (News)
- World must welcome 7 billionth citizen with sustainable future, says Ban : Global Green Growth must respond to social, economic and environmental challenges equally. (News)
- Concerted global effort needed to curb piracy in Gulf of Guinea : The top United Nations envoy for West Africa has called for concerted international efforts to combat piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, as well as other forms of transnational crime such as trafficking in narcotics and medicines. (News)
- Indian Ocean tsunami to be re-enacted for test of UN-backed warning system : More than 20 nations will participate next week in a full-scale exercise to test a United Nations-backed early warning system which will re-enact the events of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. (News)
- Facing droughts, Pacific islands need urgent risk mitigation steps : Amid growing concerns about drought crises in some small island States of the Pacific, the United Nations today called for comprehensive risk reduction steps to be put in place to protect vulnerable populations living in delicate ecosystems. (News)
- With high food prices set to continue, UN agencies issue call to action : The United Nations agencies working to combat hunger today called for action to ensure long-term food security as a new report shows that high food prices are likely to continue and possibly increase over the next decade. (News)
- Calcutta leads world city list most at risk from climate change : A major new mapping study, analysing climate change vulnerability down to 25 km² worldwide, has revealed some of the world's fastest growing populations are increasingly at risk from the impacts of climate related natural hazards and sea level rise. (News)
- Giant one-celled organisms discovered over six miles below the ocean's surface : Imagine a one-celled organism the size of a mango. It's not science fiction, but fact: scientists have cataloged dozens of giant one-celled creatures, around 4 inches (10 centimeters), in the deep abysses of the world's oceans. (News)
- Deep Sea Volcanic Action : Submarine volcanoes are underwater fissures in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt and are estimated to account for 75% of annual magma output. (News)
- South Africa Enacts CO2 Emissions Cap as UN Climate Negotiators to Converge on Durban : The South African government will enact an emissions cap and new energy industry regulations in an effort to spur development of alternative, clean and renewable energy and mitigate climate change. (News)
- Plankton's Shifting Role in Deep Sea Carbon Storage Explored : The tiny phytoplankton Emiliania huxleyi, invisible to the naked eye, plays an outsized role in drawing carbon from the atmosphere and sequestering it deep in the seas. (News)
- Current efforts to mitigate climate change fall short of reaching vital goal, UN warns : International efforts to mitigate climate change are insufficient to meet the goal of keeping global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a United Nations report warned today, just a month before a major conference on the issue is held in Durban, South Africa. (News)
- Fridtjof Nansen’s birthday celebration seminar : To mark the 150th birthday of Fridtjof Nansen -- celebrated Norwegian explorer, oceanographer, diplomat, national hero, institution builder, neurobiologist and marine biologist -- the EAF-Nansen Project meeting kicked-off with a seminar on 'The legacy of Nansen in marine research; relevance to development cooperation in fisheries.' (News)
- FAO: Risks and benefits of fish consumption : FAO and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have published a report of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on the risks and benefits of fish consumption. (News)
- FAO: Fishing with beach seines : The FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department has recently published a technical paper on beach seine fisheries, providing a global overview and identifying key issues for the responsible use of beach seines as they have been banned outright in some countries due to environmental damage. (News)
- Helping restore and develop Iraq’s fisheries : To help mitigate the effects accompanying the outbreak of the avian flu, along with the rising prices of poultry, FAO sought to introduce an alternative source of protein to Iraqi household diets by helping increase fish production. (News)
- FAO: Field handbook on gender needs in small-scale fisheries projects : To help promote gender equity and improve fisheries livelihoods, the Regional Fisheries Livelihoods Programme for South and Southeast Asia (RFLP) has developed a field handbook that gives guidance on taking gender into account in all phases of small-scale fisheries development projects. (News)
- 150th anniversary of Fridtjof Nansen: adventurer, explorer, humanitarian and Nobel Laureate - inspiring FAO’s work in marine fisheries : Fridtjof Nansen was one of Europe’s great pioneers and humanitarians and an inspiration to FAO’s work in fisheries development. (News)
- As disasters increase, risk reduction should be a concern for all – UN chief : Disaster risk reduction should be a daily concern for everyone - vulnerability to catastrophes is growing faster than the world’s capacity to strengthen resilience, as evidenced by the devastation wrought by the recent series of floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and droughts. (News)
- South-East Asia Floods : The capital of Thailand, Bangkok, is underwater as seasonal rains and back-to-back typhoons have caused flooding across SE Asia, affecting more than 8 million people, and destroying homes, livelihoods and infrastructure. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is supporting national disaster management offices in Cambodia, Thailand, Lao PDR, Viet Nam and the Phillipines, who are leading the response together with UN agencies and NGOs. (News)
- ESCAP expresses solidarity with flood victims in Thailand and South-East Asia : The top United Nations official in the Asia-Pacific region today expressed grave concern over the unprecedented loss of life and livelihoods caused by heavy monsoon rains and tropical storms in South-East Asia and reiterated continued United Nations support to affected countries in improving resilience to natural disasters. (News)
- Activities in the Klamath River Basin : Progress in restoring the Klamath River Basin, Oregon and California (USA) and its historic salmonid fisheries. A cooperative effort between native Americans, commercial and recreational fishers. (Website)
- White humpback whale spotted in Whitsundays, Australia : The Whitsundays are a calving ground for humpback whales, yet of more than 12,000 whales that migrate each year, only about 10 of them are predominately white. (News)
- The Ocean in a High CO2 World : An international science symposium series. (Website)
- Sharks : Fully revised and reformatted with the latest research, this book from the Natural History Museum in London, UK explores the world of sharks. (Book)
- Ocean Acidification; The other CO2 challenge : Ocean Acidification information from world-renowned Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and Dr J.E.N. ('Charlie') Veron. (Website)
- IMO: Rome hosted World Maritime Day Parallel Event : The Palazzo Colonna in Rome was the venue for the 2011 IMO World Maritime Day Parallel Event, on 13 and 14 October 2011, focusing on this year's World Maritime Day theme - "Piracy: orchestrating the response". On 13 October, a seminar was organized, with sessions devoted to “Anti-Piracy Measures and Best Practices” and “International Co-operation against Piracy”. (News)
- Rena Oil spill on Astrolabe Reef, New Zealand : The stranding of the container ship Rena on Astrolabe Reef about 12 nautical miles off Tauranga, New Zealand early on October 5 has resulted in oil fouling of local beaches with death of 1000 sea birds. Containers have been lost to sea. (News)
- Unprecedented Arctic ozone hole may lead to health and crop damage in North America : Researchers documented an unprecedented level of ozone loss over the Arctic, for the first time warranting the description “Arctic ozone hole”, a term previously only applied to the hole over the Antarctic. (News)
- Why Climate Models Underestimated Arctic Sea Ice Retreat: No Arctic Sea Ice in Summer by End of Century? : In recent decades, Arctic sea ice has suffered a dramatic decline that exceeds climate model predictions. (News)
- Marshall Islands creates world's biggest shark park : The Republic of the Marshall Islands has created the world's biggest shark reserve: so large that all of Mexico could fit comfortably inside. (News)
- A New Species of 'Gigantic' Mollusc Has Been Discovered in the Antarctic Waters : Spanish researchers have discovered a rare mollusc in Antarctic waters that looks the same as limpets but is bigger in size than the species known to date. (News)
- Multibeam Sonar Can Map Undersea Gas Seeps : A technology commonly used to map the bottom of the deep ocean can also detect gas seeps in the water column with remarkably high fidelity, according to scientists from the University of New Hampshire and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (News)
- A Fish's Personality May Determine How It Is Captured : A fish's personality may determine how it is captured. This association between personality difference and capture-technique could have significant evolutionary and ecological consequences for affected fish populations, as well as for the quality of fisheries. (News)
- Closer to Solving the Cod Mystery : Fish quantities off the Norwegian coast fluctuate widely from year to year. For 150 years, scientists have tried to figure out why -- and now they are nearing an explanation. (News)
- UN-backed treaty seeking to save fishermen’s lives to come into force next September : A United Nations-backed treaty that seeks to slash the 24,000 lives estimated to be lost each year during fishing operations around the world will come into force next September, over 17 years after it was adopted by the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO). (News)
- On World Maritime Day, UN warns of high costs of piracy : The United Nations marked World Maritime Day today with a warning of the high costs that piracy is imposing on the shipping industry, and a call for collective action from UN agencies, governments and military forces to combat the problem. (News)
- Asian floods taking a major human and economic toll, UN says : The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) today voiced its concern at the millions of people who have been affected by the floods ravaging many countries in Asia, and urged governments to increase their investment in disaster risk reduction. (News)
- Guidelines to prevent ‘land grabbing’ crucial for food security, UN expert warns : The practice of “land grabbing,” exemplified by biofuel production, large-scale infrastructure projects, carbon-credit mechanisms and speculation, is threatening food security for hundreds of millions of people by imperilling small-scale producers, a United Nations independent expert warned. (News)
- Polar Oceans in Transition : Polar bears will be affected by climate change in the Arctic and Antarctic, but so will India's iconic tigers and elephants. Researchers from Norway, India, Germany and Chile are joining forces to understand what is happening in polar oceans -- and what can be done. (News)
- Mapping Immune Genes in Salmon : Researchers at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science have identified and mapped a group of immune genes that are the key to warding off infectious agents such as viruses and bacteria in salmon. (News)
- IMO: STCW-F Convention on training and certification for fishing vessel personnel to enter into force in 2012 : The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel, 1995 (STCW-F 1995) is set to enter into force on 29 September 2012, after the required 15 ratifications were reached on 29 September 2011, with ratification by the Republic of Palau. (News)