SPC Geoscience Division

Home News & Media Releases Latest SOPAC Director appointed to Circum-Pacific Council

SOPAC Director appointed to Circum-Pacific Council

Tuesday, 25 May 2010 14:30 administrator
E-mail Print PDF
SOPAC Director, Dr Russell Howorth, was appointed to the Circum-Pacific Council for Energy and Mineral Resources at its recent meeting in Wellington, New Zealand. In accepting the appointment he expressed his pleasure at being able to strengthen a partnership between the Council and SOPAC that goes back some 30 years.

The Council was founded 1972. It is a non-profit international organisation of earth scientists and engineers. The Council develops and promotes research and cooperation among industry, government and academia for the sustainable utilisation of earth resources in the Pacific Region.

The Council's goals include: improving knowledge of earth resources and damaging geologic hazards in the Pacific Region; increasing collaboration among geologists, hydrologists, biologists, oceanographers and related scientists; and disseminating earth-science information through maps, publications, symposia and workshops.

As a first new joint initiative the Circum-Pacific Council has agreed to co-host with SOPAC and STAR (the Science, Technology and Resources Network of SOPAC) a one-day special session on seabed mapping entitled “Map Once – Use Many Ways” to be held in conjunction with the Annual Session of SOPAC in Nadi, late October. The session will be convened on Monday 18th October. The Circum-Pacific? Council has agreed to also hold its next full meeting in Nadi, and this will give the opportunity to bring a range of new potential partners into the SOPAC Pacific region.

 

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 May 2010 14:31  

Newsflash

9 April 2014, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Suva, Fiji – Work begins next week on a series of underwater surveys to produce updated navigational charts for Vanuatu.  Like many Pacific Island countries, Vanuatu has a vast maritime area. Modern charts will result in safer navigation for both cargo shipping and cruise ships, producing economic and social benefits for Vanuatu.

A team of hydrographers and technicians from the Government of Vanuatu and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Geoscience Division (GSD) will collect the necessary data over several months.  Their supported by the New Zealand government, the United Kingdom’s Hydrographic Office, and the Government of Vanuatu.

The survey will chart four critical areas which have been identified through a risk assessment carried out by New Zealand – Luganville and Champagne Bay on Espiritu Santo, and the islands of Wala, Malekula, and Homo Bay, Pentecost.

‘The port of Luganville in particular is of high economic value to Vanuatu,’ says Mr Jens Kruger, Acting Deputy Director of SPC’s Geoscience for Development Programme. ‘The current chart from this port relies mostly on 19th century data and no new information has been added to the chart since the Second World War.’

Starting in July 2014, the International Maritime Organisation’s Safety of Life at Sea Convention regulations will require member countries to move toward using electronic navigational charts in their regions for safe shipping reasons.