From mary at sopac.org Mon Jul 31 11:20:34 2006 From: mary at sopac.org (Mary Power) Date: Mon Jul 31 12:06:05 2006 Subject: [sopac-focalpoint] Maritime Boundaries project Update Message-ID: Skipped content of type multipart/alternative-------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.gif Type: image/gif Size: 30285 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://n5.mandrakesoft.com/pipermail/sopac-focalpoint/attachments/20060731/b4080f34/image001-0001.gif -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8580 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://n5.mandrakesoft.com/pipermail/sopac-focalpoint/attachments/20060731/b4080f34/image002-0001.jpg -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 11768 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://n5.mandrakesoft.com/pipermail/sopac-focalpoint/attachments/20060731/b4080f34/image003-0001.jpg -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image004.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 17494 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://n5.mandrakesoft.com/pipermail/sopac-focalpoint/attachments/20060731/b4080f34/image004-0001.jpg From joe_buleka at mineral.gov.pg Mon Jul 31 13:59:11 2006 From: joe_buleka at mineral.gov.pg (joe_buleka) Date: Mon Jul 31 14:26:17 2006 Subject: [sopac-focalpoint] Maritime Boundaries project Update References: Message-ID: <001001c6b444$eb83d860$9b64a8c0@dom.local> -----Original Message-----Mary, Thank you very much for the maritime Boundaries Project Update. We noted that PNG has right to claim some of the areas beyond 200nm and would very much wants to see the data collected within Caroline Basin, and the Musau Ridge and the Ontong Java Rise. There was a request for data collection in these regions during the transit for the EDF8 Bathymetric Surveying lodged last year in Samoa but no mention of the work in 2006. Joe Buleka ----- Original Message ----- From: Mary Power To: sopac-focalpoint Cc: Emily Artack Sent: Monday, July 31, 2006 9:20 AM Subject: [sopac-focalpoint] Maritime Boundaries project Update ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ July 2006 This newsletter is produced and distributed by the Ocean & Islands Programme at SOPAC to keep interested individuals informed of current news and events of the project. For more information, please contact Mary Power; mary@sopac.org CURRENT ACTIVITIES: 1. Data gathering mission to FSM and Marshall Islands - February 2006 2. Sub-regional technical training workshop on Pacific Islands Regional Maritime Boundaries Information System (PIRMBIS) and Maritime Boundaries Delineation Software (MarZone) Majuro, Marshall Islands; 8-10 May. 3. SOPAC coordinates the desktop studies for several member countries in respect of Extended Continental Shelf Delimitation 4. Pacific Islands Regional Maritime Boundaries Future Initiatives presented at the 2006 World Maritime Technology Conference (WMTC), London, United Kingdom 6-10 March 5. Briefing for Pacific Island Country Missions to UN on progress of Pacific Islands Regional Maritime Boundaries Initiative at Permanent Mission of PNG, June 2006. 1. Data gathering mission to FSM and Marshall Islands - February 2006 ? In early February, Andrick Lal (SOPAC Project Officer - Surveying) and Brian Murphy (Project Consultant) visited the Federated States of Micronesia and Marshall Islands on a data gathering mission. The aim of the visit was to establish the existing technical data within countries and to identify any data quality problems, data gaps and develop acquisition strategies for additional information. 2. Sub-regional technical training workshop on Pacific Islands Regional Maritime Boundaries Information System (PIRMBIS)1 and Maritime Boundaries Delineation Software (MarZone) Majuro, Marshall Islands; 8-10 May. ? A five-day sub-regional technical training workshop on PIRMBIS[1] and field survey methods for baseline determination was conducted for the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau and Kiribati from the 8th -10th of May 2006. The workshop provided an opportunity for the thirteen (13) participants from these countries to work on their country datasets with the technical assistance from Mr Colin French (Maritime Boundaries Advisor from Geoscience Australia) and the SOPAC Project staff to generate their own maritime boundaries. This gives participants the capacity to work on their maritime boundaries, which will assist them in the boundaries negotiations process. ? The five-day training was held in the IT Lab at the University of the South Pacific (USP) Centre in Majuro, Marshall Islands. SOPAC Ocean and Islands Programme Manager, Mary Power, welcomes the participants of the workshop and thanks the Permanent Secretary Ms Viola Chonggum and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Marshall Islands for their strong support and assistance. SOPAC Project Officer (Surveying), Andrick Lal showing participants how to set-up a GPS base station over a survey mark on the corner of the basketball court outside the College of Micronesia in Majuro using the and demonstrates the importance of accuracy while carrying out GPS field surveys 3. SOPAC coordinates the desktop studies for several member countries in respect of Extended Continental Shelf Delimitation ? SOPAC has commissioned the services of the National Oceanographic Centre (NOC) in the United Kingdom to undertake desktop assessments for a number of Pacific Coastal States to determine their potential to prepare submissions toward claiming for extensions of their continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. ? The NOC Team will be led by their principal scientist Dr Lindsay Parson and will undertake a desktop assessment of the following States: Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati and Tuvalu. Whilst this is a joint regional desktop study, the results will be provided to states as individual country desktop assessments, based upon publicly available data. SOPAC has also requested on behalf of the member states for data projects from the One Stop Data Shop service of the UNEP Shelf Programme, based in Norway. ? The above States and also Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Tonga were identified in previous studies[2] as having the potential to prepare claims to extended Continental Shelf beyond 200M limit. This potential needs to be further evaluated and the results of desk assessments will determine how States may proceed. ? [Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga are undertaking similar desktop studies under independent arrangements]. ? A meeting of all interested States with ECS claim potential will be convened by SOPAC in October of this year to map out a way forward once all desktop studies are completed. ? SOPAC is collaborating with Commonwealth Secretariat, Geoscience Australia, and UNEP-GRID on these matters. 4. Pacific Islands Regional Maritime Boundaries Future Initiatives presented at the 2006 World Maritime Technology Conference (WMTC), London, United Kingdom 6-10 March ? Emily Artack (SOPAC Project Officer-Cartographer) prepared a paper and presented on the Project and its Future Initiatives at the 2006 WMTC held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, in London, UK. Emily's attendance was funded by Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and SOPAC (under the Maritime Boundaries Project). ? The 2006 WMTC, hosted by IMarEST gave the region an opportunity to inform the international maritime and ocean governance community of the progress being made in the region towards maritime boundary delimitation. The presenters from the EEZ Management stream of presentations (second from right, Ms Emily Artack of SOPAC) 5. Briefing for Pacific Island Country Missions to UN on progress of Pacific Islands Regional Maritime Boundaries Initiative at Permanent Mission of PNG, June 2006. ? Mary Power, Manager, Ocean and Islands Programme, was in New York for the 7th UN Informal Consultation Process on the Law of the Sea (UNICPOLOS) and took advantage of the opportunity to brief the NY Missions on progress with the Maritime Boundaries Initiative in preparation for UNICPOLOS and the subsequent State Parties to the LOS. During UNICPOLOS informal discussions were also held with UNDOALOS and development partners on possible future support for the PICs in the submission process. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [1] PIRMBIS is comprehensive Geographic Information System developed to hold digital information about the coastlines and low water lines of member countries, as well as serve as a regional coverage of the digital information on the maritime limits for the Pacific island nations. [2] This is according to the UNEP scanning phase report that was published in 2005 by UNEP GRID Shelf Programme of Norway. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ sopac-focalpoint mailing list sopac-focalpoint@list.sopac.org.fj http://list.sopac.org.fj/mailman/listinfo/sopac-focalpoint -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://n5.mandrakesoft.com/pipermail/sopac-focalpoint/attachments/20060731/a679d89e/attachment-0001.html