On 14 January 2021, The Fifth Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences held a special forum on the Ocean Decade. Chief Engineer Zhanhai Zhang, Director of the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Natural Resources of China, Dr. Vladimir Ryabinin, Executive Secretary of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), and other experts held fruitful discussions in the forum. The experts shared related scientific projects to support the implementation of the Ocean Decade and discussed how stakeholders can effectively participate in and address the challenges they face. On this special forum, Prof. Minhan Dai introduced the design of COASTAL-SOS.

In October 2021, COASTAL-SOS was approved by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and officially endorsed as a project of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

On 26 November 2021, COASTAL-SOS successfully held its launch session during the UN Ocean Decade Regional Kickoff Conference for the Western Pacific and its Adjacent Areas. The Kickoff Conference was organized by the IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) and included a high-level segment and 17 “Decade Action Incubators” sessions.

In January 2022, the International Project Office for COASTAL-SOS has been settled at the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (MEL), Xiamen University.

Currently, COASTAL-SOS is carrying out the pre-study of the Xiamen case with the support from Xiamen University and Xiamen Ocean Development Bureau. Other implementation plans are also progressing in an orderly manner.