IPO Activities : Korea Collaboration
IPO Activities: NOAA-Korean Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Arrangement for Integrated Coastal and Ocean Resources Management
Overview
This program was established by NOS with the support of the previous NOAA Administrator, Dr. D. James Baker, in 2000. Since then, NOS/IPO has provided program oversight and promoted a cooperative program that involves five of NOAA’s line offices and representing an annual transfer of funds from Korea of approximately $350K on average. Up to now, activities have discreetly involved short to medium term exchanges in such areas as oil spill modeling, LIDAR training, Marine Protected Area management, Integrated Coastal Management/watershed management, fisheries assessment, ocean observations (ARGO), tsunami warning and storm surge modeling, and aquaculture. Several Korean nationals have received training in public policy and resource management in the US for extended periods of time (up to two years). The Arrangement is currently in effect until 2010.
The U.S. Chairperson is the Director of the International Program Office.
Of special note is a projected multi-nation forum on ocean policy that will take place in Pusan Korea in September 2007 and which follows a previous summer 2005 meeting in Shanghai, China. The head of the U.S. delegation is the National Ocean Service Assistant Administrator. This Ocean Policy Forum is not technically under the NOAA-MOMAF Arrangement. Participating nations include Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Russia, and the United States. Canada, India, and Vietnam will be invited, although they did not attend the prior forum. The Forum provides a venue for civilian ocean agencies to share information and policy developments relevant to common coastal and ocean missions. In 2005, the U.S. highlighted the release of the Ocean Commission Report and the establishment of the new interagency National Ocean Council framework, including JSOST and SIMOR. In 2007, attention will be placed on broad ocean governance requirements.
Supporting the NOS/NOAA Mission
This Arrangement provides a venue for NOAA scientists and managers to pursue joint research in areas of common concern (harmful algal bloom forecasting and testing technologies for offshore aquaculture for example) to building operational, technical, and management capacity for adopting an ecosystem approach to coastal and ocean management.
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