OSEAN-JEAN meeting held in Tongyeong, Korea

OSEAN-JEAN meeting held in Tongyeong, Korea

 

OSEAN and JEAN had a meeting on March 21~24, 2010 in Tongyeong, Gyeongnam Province, Korea.  JEAN, with Ms. Azusa Kojima as the national ICC coordinator, has played significant roles in solving various marine debris issues in Japan over the last two decades.  As a newly established NGO on October 9 2009, OSEAN has set the protection of our global marine environment with the help of science and citizens as its mission.  Ms. Sunwook Hong, the representative director of OSEAN, has worked as the national ICC coordinator of Korea since 2002.

 

 

We had three round table meetings to exchange and discuss this year’s activities and the outcomes of actions carried out in 2009 regarding the marine debris issues.  We discussed how to operate the ‘East Asian Civil Forum on Marine Litter’, survey methodologies, national policies, and so on.  We also had a chance to look at a volume reducer for derelict polystyrene fishing buoys.

 

 

OSEAN and JEAN jointly organized a session in the Water Forum that was held to observe the World Water Day on March 23, 2010 in Changwon, Korea.  Five speakers covered various topics on marine debris in the session titled ‘Marine debris activities as a civil participation of Integrated Coastal Management’:  ‘Budget of Marine Litter in the Seto Inland Sea’ by Dr. Shigeru Fujieda (Kagoshima Univ., JEAN), ‘Multi-sectoral research on East China Sea beach litter based on oceanographic methodology and local knowledge’ by Dr. Satoque Seino (Kyushu Univ.), ‘Marine litter measure and citizen science’ by Ms. Azusa Kojima (JEAN), ‘Proposal of citizen’s survey on marine lives damaged by debris’ by Mr. Jongmyoung Lee, and ‘International Coastal Cleanup as a citizen science program’ by Ms. Sunwook Hong.

 

 We delivered the seriousness of the marine debris problem to the participants of the session and had an opportunity to extend our network of interested individuals and organizations on the actions to address the marine debris issue.