Forum participants felt that fundamental information of float operation should be provided well in advance, in particular exact position of floats when they are reaching to their own EEZ or territorial waters. They believe this information would secure floats from unconscious obstruction by fisheries activities and defense actions of the country. Planned activities of the ARGO Information Center (AIC) were introduced but its real task and function were still unclear at this stage. Forum participants felt it appropriate and more practical if a regional level information network be created instead of a big scale data center, and welcomed initiation arose among young participants in the Training Workshop on Establishing an Oceanographic Observation Network in the Asia and Western Equatorial Pacific Region held at JAMSTEC from 15 January to 9 March 2001 to formulate such a network for information exchange related to Pacific wide oceanographic information. Forum participants recommended JAMSTEC to encourage training workshop participants in formatting an information network for the region.
4. Capacity Building
Capacity building is no doubt essential to lead the ARGO float operation in particular to the south Pacific region since available human resources and facilities are very limited. Forum participants recognized with appreciation that a JAMSTEC organized training workshop for oceanographic observation with practical lessons and exercises would be one good example for capacity building project. Forum participants recommend JAMSTEC to consider with high priority to organize such a helpful capacity building project on regular basis. Enlarging community interested in the ocean is the other issue regarding to capacity building. Although there is an educational project entitled: SEALINK which aims at attracting school children to ocean in conjunction with ARGO floats monitoring, but since detail information is not available at this stage no proper action could take. Forum participants encourage all parties to seek possibilities to develop capacity building activities in any form.
