Around 30 international scientists and policy-makers will meet at the Orbis Energy Centre in Lowestoft on 2–3 June 2009 to discuss the new Observatory.
The seas provide jobs, food, energy and recreation. They regulate climate and are a source of beauty and biodiversity. But this richness also brings competing demands among stakeholder groups, and can make decision-making within and between nations complex.
The proposed North Sea Observatory would promote international co-operation and increase the availability of marine data and information. Such information will provide decision-makers and marine users with a more comprehensive and joined-up view of the marine environment, providing them with a deeper understanding of the impacts of human activities and climate change. This, in turn, will enable them to make better-informed decisions about issues like flood risk, coastal erosion, energy generation, ferry and transport links, fishing, tourism, and recreational uses of our seas.
Cefas Senior Scientist, Dr Dave Mills, says: “The marine environment is becoming increasingly important as the number of users increases and the human impacts on the seas grow. Policy-makers really need the very best information upon which to base decisions that affect us all, and the planet. Meetings like this help nations to share their views and pool expertise, so that together we can design systems that will provide the most relevant and easily accessible information.”
The Cefas meeting will also put the agency and its collaborators in a better position to win large EU funding bids. The North Sea Observatory would fall under the umbrella of the European Marine Ecosystem Observatory (EMECO), offering a more regional focus within this over-arching framework. The additional funding streams, needed to established the North Sea Observatory, could help to secure high-tech jobs in Lowestoft and the surrounding area, having a positive economic benefit on local businesses and the region. For example, the EMECO initiative has led to the establishment of an effective working relationship between Cefas and the Lowestoft firm, Blue Lobster IT.
