Associated with this effort would also be the designation in each country of a national training center or centers that through the years and through participation with the various regional programmes, have distinguished themselves to have the capability to acquire and provide reliable marine pollution data. These “centers of excellence” would take on the function of training “on-site” and “off-site” the staff of other laboratories involved in acquiring pollution data.
Finally, and more importantly, the issue of data exchange might be best addressed by adopting the concept of meta-databases linked through the Internet. Such a mechanism would address the perennial problems of varying data formats and would provide opportunities for each laboratory to determine the amount of data they want to make available and the form by which the data might be accessed. The keynote paper presented by Ben Searle earlier during this conference on a “Virtual Marine Information Center” describes more eloquently how this might be adopted in the region.
If I might have given you the impression that there are more problems in the area of marine pollution data exchange than there are solutions as I end this talk, I have probably earned my keep. The responses to these challenges I have raised will best be addressed in the next two days and I do hope that we could collectively find ways to go forward.
References
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