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Ocean Jigsaw Puzzle Piece Series: Importance of Understanding the Ocean ~Through participation at ICP 18~ [2018年08月29日(Wed)]

This blog post was originally uploaded in
Japanese to OPRI’s blog
on June 21, 2017.

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“The ocean is a sheet of copy paper.” This is what a
professor told me in his lecture at my university,
and the impression left on me remains to this day.
If you imagine the surface of the ocean as a sheet of
copy paper, a depth of 4,000 meters (13,123 feet)
would be 0.05 millimeters (0.002 inches), or exactly
as thin as a sheet of paper. However, even if it can
be compared to a sheet of paper, it is not easy to
reach the bottom of a 4,000-meter ocean bed.
There are so many things that exist there which
we do not know about. That was the gist of the
professor’s story, and he used it to teach the
importance of “Understanding the Ocean”
paradoxically.

The importance of “Understanding the Ocean” was
emphasized in the Basic Plan on Ocean Policy, which
was approved by the Japanese Cabinet in 2008.
Understanding the ocean can be said to be a
foundation of ocean policy, as it is stipulated in the
Plan’s General Remarks that, “The sea still holds
many fields yet-to-be-defined scientifically and
various phenomena in the sea mutually have close
correlation...in promoting ocean policy, it is
important to give due considerations to the balance
and collaboration between the ideas of
“understanding the sea,” “protecting the sea” and
“exploiting the sea.”

The 18th meeting of the United Nations Open-Ended
Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the
Law of the Sea (ICP 18) was held May 15-19, 2017.
Participating in this meeting gave me an opportunity
to think about the importance of “Understanding the
Ocean” again, so I would like to introduce two
memorable lectures from the meeting.

Tsunoda 1.jpg
Opening of the ICP 18 (Welcome speech by Peter
Thomson, U.N. General Assembly President)

Introduced by resolution of the U.N. General
Assembly (54/33) in 1999, I would say that the ICP
is the only place to discuss ocean issues apart from
the U.N. General Assembly. The theme of the 18th
meeting was “The effects of climate change on
oceans,” and discussions were conducted on the
issues−such as “ocean warming,” “ocean
acidification,”“rising sea levels,” “marine
ecosystems,” “marine resources” and “coastal
disaster prevention” − which the international
community needs to address based on scientific
knowledge.

The lecture that I would like to introduce first was
the lecture on “ocean acidification,” by Dr. Libby
Jewett of the Office of Atmospheric Research of
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA). Concerning the issue of
carbon dioxide absorbed into the ocean and
causing ocean acidification due to a chemical
reaction, Dr. Jewett stressed the importance of
“understanding,” by remarking, “What you don’t
measure, you cannot manage.” She showed the
importance of the research on the effects of
acidification on marine life and also the
importance of having an ongoing ocean
acidification monitoring system, such as the
Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network
(GOA-ON).

Next I would like to introduce a lecture by Mr. Andi
E. Sakya of the Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan
Geofisika (BMKG, the Meteorological, Climatological
and Geophysical Agency, Indonesia) on information
transmission measures for the people living in
coastal areas. In order to reduce damage from
disasters along the coast such as tsunamis, BMKG
developed meteorology and climatology early
warning systems. However, the agency faced a
problem. These systems are useless without proper
understanding by the people who receive the
information. As a solution, the agency promoted
the Climate Field School (CFS) system. As the word
‘school’ suggests, courses are actively held to
improve people’s understanding. As a result, the
system contributed to a reduction in damages and
brought the additional benefit of profit increases to
primary industries. Mr. Sakya insisted that he would
encourage expanding this successful system to
those Pacific Island countries that are suffering from
similar coastal disasters.

The above-mentioned ocean acidification is also an
important topic that our institute has taken up as a
project and is working toward solutions for. I feel
confident that we can find and apply good solutions
if we actively make efforts to “share” as well as
“understand,” following the example from Indonesia.

The theme of next year’s ICP 19 is “Anthropogenic
underwater noise.” This is a theme which was also
taken up at last year’s meeting of the Conference
of the Parties to the Convention on Biological
Diversity (COP 13) and which is currently gaining
global attention. However, it is not fully understood
in Japan. I would like to provide information using
the tools of “understanding” and “sharing,” such as
the “Ocean White Paper,” the “Ocean
Newsletter”
and the “Ocean Forum.”

Tsunoda 2.png
“Understanding the Ocean,” “Protecting the Ocean”
and “Developing the Ocean”

This is a monument at Kanagawa Prefectural
Marine Science Senior High School.
The students and teachers are tackling the ocean
acidification issue as part of our “Ocean Education
Pioneer School Program.”
Similar wording from the First Basic Plan on Ocean
Policy is engraved on this monument.

Special Thanks:
The professor mentioned in the first paragraph is
Dr. Toshio Yamagata, a Special Research Fellow of
our institute and Professor Emeritus of the
University of Tokyo. He shared the position of chief
editor of the “Ocean Newsletter” for twelve years
from October 2004 to March 2017 with Dr. Tomoya
Akimichi (Professor Emeritus of the Research
Institute for Humanity and Nature). He led us over
a long time in “Understanding the Ocean” and
“Sharing Knowledge.” I would like to thank him
once again.

Tomohiko Tsunoda

Senior Research Fellow
Ocean Policy Studies Division

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