The idea of a North Pacific marine science organization was
first proposed in the corridors during an FAO conference in Vancouver
in 1973 but it was not discussed in any systematic way until the late
1970s. Several informal meetings, organized by the Institute for Marine
Studies of the University of Washington were then held in Seattle where
scientists from Canada, Japan, the Soviet Union and the United States
exchanged views, although many of the concepts that now characterize the
Organization were developed in these discussions. Unfortunately, the time
was not propitious for bringing the idea to fruition. Impediments included
the ongoing Law of the Sea negotiations and the difficult political relations
between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. in the early 1980s.
It not until 1986, during an informal meeting in Anchorage
that included Chinese participants for the first time, that agreement
was reached to seek an intergovernmental discussion of a possible new
regional marine science organization. Participants agreed to urge the
Canadian government to convene such a conference, which was held in Ottawa
in December 1987. A second conference in Sidney, British Columbia in December
1988 and a drafting meeting in Seattle in December 1989 were necessary
before agreement was reached in Ottawa on 12 December 1990 to establish
the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (nicknamed PICES for a Pacific
ICES). Representatives of Canada, China, Japan, the United States and
the Soviet Union initialed the draft convention. On that occasion, representatives
of the United States offered to host a first meeting of North Pacific
marine scientists in 1991. A summary
report of this meeting, held December 10-13, 1991 in Seattle, Washington
provides an indication of how the first scientific activities of PICES
were developed.
The Convention came into force on 24 March 1992 after
ratification by three of the five in signatory states, Canada, Japan,
and the United States. The Peoples Republic of China ratified before August
of 1992 and participated as a member in the First Annual Meeting, in October
of that year. Although the Soviet Union had participated in all of the
intergovernmental discussions leading up to establishment of PICES, the
Russian Federation did not ratify the convention until December of 1994;
Korea became a member in mid-summer 1995.
PICES held its first Annual Meeting in October 1992,
in Victoria, British Columbia. From the beginning, the PICES approach
has been multidisciplinary, with standing committees concerned with biological
oceanography, fishery science, physical oceanography and climate, and
marine environmental quality. This list was augmented by the establishment
of technical committees on monitoring and data management and specialty
sections on harmful algal blooms and carbon-climate interactions. There
is growing interaction among these specialties, with jointly organized
scientific sessions a regular occurrence at PICES Annual Meetings. PICES
has joined forces with other international organizations on many occasions.
Foremost among these was the association with GLOBEC during the development
and implementation of the Climate Change and Carrying Capacity Science
Program (1996-2009). PICES it has become a major focus for leadership
and international cooperation in marine science in the North Pacific.
Reports of the 1978-1992 meetings leading to establishment
of PICES were published by the PICES Secretariat as The PICES Papers in
1995. A more extensive treatment of the topic was published as The Journey
to PICES by Alaska Sea Grant in 2005. The Secretariat
has a few copies of this book still available; please contact the Secretariat
if you are interested. A complete record of the business of the Organization
can be found in its Annual Reports (http://www.pices.int/publications/annual_reports/).
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