Report on ICIWP'99
The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), UNESCO held the International Conference on the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange in the Western Pacific (IODE-WESTPAC) 1999 at Pelangi Beach Resort in Langkawi Island, Malaysia on November 1-4, 1999, in collaboration with the Japan Oceanographic Data Center (JODC). The conference consisted from two parts: Symposium “Seminar on Oceanography and Marine Science” was held on the first two days, and the last two days were devoted to the official “Workshop on IODE Activities m the WESTPAC Region” MIRC supported this conference and took an initiative, especially, to organize the symposium part, as one of the MIRC programs relating both to its popularization activities and to its international cooperative activities. The conference was started by Welcome Remarks by First Admiral Mohd Rasip bin Hassan, Chairman of National Commission for IOC-Malaysia (Photo 1) in the morning of November 1. Messages were given by Mr. Toshio Nagai. Director of JODC and IODE Regional Co-ordinator for WESTPAC (Photo 2), and by Dr. Iouri Oliounine, Deputy Executive Secretary of IOC/UNESCO (Photo 3). Then, the official opening of the conference was declared by YAV Tan Sri Dato' Seri Sanusi bin Junid, the Honorable Chief Minister of Kedah, Malaysia (Photo 4). The number of the attendants is about 150 from 14 countries.
The symposium followed the opening ceremony. The symposium consisted of 5 sessions: (1) Coastal Environment -Data Requirement, Needs & Products-, (2) Data Management Activities and Technical Developments, (3) Living Marine Resources -Data Requirements Needs & Products-, (4) Global Climate Change and Regional Oceanography -Data Requirements, Needs & Products-, and (5) Marine Pollution -Data Requirements, Needs & Products-. The lecture notes of the keynote speakers in Session 2 (Mr. Ben Searle, Chairman of IODE committee of IOC. Head of Australian Oceanographic Data Center: Photo 5), in Session 4 (Dr. Warren White. Scripps Institution Of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego), and in Session 5 (Dr. Gil S. Jacinto, Marine Science Institute, University of Philippines) were cited in this MIRC Science Report No. 6. Dr. Toru Suzuki (MIRC) introduced the quality-control software newly developed by MIRC in Session 2 (Photo 6), and Dr. Yutaka Nagata (MIRC: Photo 7) discussed the relations between local oceanographic conditions and the parameters to be used in this software. The latter talk was originally scheduled in the symposium part, but it was shifted to one section of the workshop part due to technical reason. The lecture note is given also in this MIRC Science Report No. 6 . Dr. Yutaka Nagata also served one of the chairmen of Session 4.
