Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, stressed that to protect it, we must first better understand marine biodiversity [press release]. There is a wealth of information available, but data are still patchy, and many places in the ocean are still unexplored.

Ms Irina Bokova also said, “Good data is essential for good policy” and recognized the role of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and specifically the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), part of the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE).

Indeed, OBIS integrates over a thousand datasets from several hundred institutions worldwide, to provide access to 32 million observations of >100,000 marine species. It is by far the largest global information source of marine species distributions and becomes a powerful tool to provide quantitative baselines of biodiversity at the regional and global level.

Being one of the most important legacies of the 10-year Census of Marine Life, we are proud to be the new home for OBIS since the IOC Assembly in June 2009 adopted OBIS within its IODE Programme (Resolution XXXV-4). OBIS plays a key role in IOC/IODE and UNESCO's programmes and Strategy for Action on Climate Change, as well as contributes to the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Links:

• Official site for International Day for Biological Diversity: link
• UNESCO's involvment in the International Day for Biological Diversity: link
• Ocean Biogeographic Information System: link

The report of the ad hoc session of the Joint JCOMM-IODE Steering Group for the Ocean Data Standards Pilot Project (SG-ODSPP) is now available. The session was held at the IOC Project Office for IODE, Ostend, Belgium between 23-25 April 2012. The meeting reviewed progress of the pilot project since its start in 2008. It was noted that only 2 standards have been published. In order to improve performance the group recommended a revision of the standards process. In addition the group recommended tha establishment of the Ocean Data Standards and Best Practices (ODSBP) which will, in addition to recommendng standards, also promote the use of best practices.

The report of the meeting is available HERE

The objectives of the meeting were to 1) review GTSPP data flow and operations, 2) report on the status of the XBT BAHY to BUFR migration, 3) revive the GTSPP infrastructure, the terms of reference and composition of the Steering Group of GTSPP, 4) develop a strategic frame work of the next generation of the GTSPP netCDF format revision, 5) report on interaction with other projects, and 6) adopt the work plan for 2012-2013.

The document summarizes meeting discussion points, presentations given by both local participants in Oostende and remote participants via Webex and the GTSPP Steering Group's response to the U.S. National Oceanographic Data Center proposed changes in the GTSPP Continuously Managed Database support. The GTSPP work plan for 2012 – 2013 is shown in Annex III of the meeting report.

The participants planned for the next meeting to be held in the first quarter of 2014.

The report is available HERE

The 22nd Session of the IODE Committee (IODE-XXII)

will be held in Ensenada, Mexico between 11 and 15 March 2013 hosted by the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada. The local host will be Carlos Torres Navarrete.

Practical information for the event will be made available through http://cendo.ens.uabc.mx/XXII_IOC_Ensenada_Mexico.html

The venue of IODE-XXII will bethe "Centro Social, Civico y Cultural Ensenada"(see images above and below). The local host has identified three hotels: two within walking distance of the venue, and one hotel in the marina area about 10 minutes away (by car). Hotel rates will be approx. US$ 65/night-US$ 100 for a single room.

More information is available also (and will be expanded later) through http://www.iode.org/iode22

Mr Ward Appeltans has joined the IOC Project Office for IODE, Oostende on 2 May 2012. At the Office Ward will be responsible for the management of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) as well as for the IODE Ocean Data Portal. 

Mr Ward Appeltans has an MSc in Environmental Biology. He has nearly 10 years of professional experience in marine biological data management. He has been working as a project leader at the data centre of the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), where he led data management and communication activities of several EU projects (e.g., MarBEF, PESI, ...). His main area is biogeographic and taxonomic information, being the manager of the European node of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (EurOBIS) for three years and manager of the World and European Register of Marine Species (WoRMS and ERMS) databases. Ward was also Secretary of the Council of the Society for the Management of Electronic Biodiversity Data (SMEBD).

Let us welcome Ward to the IODE family.