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.
Representatives from COASTAL-SOS partner academic institutions, industrial enterprises, non-profit foundations and IGOs/NGOs and others attended the launch session online. Prof. Minhan Dai, COASTAL-SOS's chief scientist and Prof. Yawei Luo, Executive Director of the COASTAL-SOS IPO, chaired the meeting.
Online launch session
Prof. Minhan Dai presented an overview of COASTAL-SOS. Led by Xiamen University, COASTAL-SOS partners cross-sectoral stakeholders from East Asian countries, aiming to advance scientific understandings of critical coastal ocean health issues and to transform scientifically acquired knowledge to realistic solutions.
Prof. Fei Chai from the Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources of China presented some thoughts on implementation plans for COASTAL-SOS by integrating observations and models to construct a Digital Twin Ocean.
Prof. Dabo Guan from Tsinghua University presented on the human dimension of COASTAL-SOS. The programme will adopt novel human-ocean coupling analyses to study the interactions between society and ocean systems.
Mr. Jian Ma, Vice President of the Paradise International Foundation, presented the NGO perspectives of COASTAL-SOS. He encouraged COASTAL-SOS to engage more NGOs because they can not only provide funds, but also bring new ideas and practices and build a bridge between the government, enterprises, academia, public and local communities.
Mr. Simon Bennett, Swire Shipping’ s General Manager for Sustainable Development, gave a presentation on the industrial perspectives of COASTAL-SOS. Swire Shipping has worked with different scientific projects and are happy to assist COASTAL-SOS with data collection using its ships.
During a roundtable discussion chaired by Prof. Gray A. Williams from The University of Hong Kong, representatives from COASTAL-SOS partners shared their professional opinions and suggestions on the implementation of cross-sectorial partnership in COASTAL-SOS and beyond. Representatives included Mr. Joseph Chou, Vice Chairman of Liancheng Overseas Fishery (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., Luen Thai Group Ltd., Prof. Jianping Gan from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Dr. Li Li, Deputy Executive Director of the Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study, Prof. Phaik Eem Lim from Universiti Malaya and Mr. Dato BJ Tan, Executive Director of JEFI Aquatech Resources Sdn. Bhd.
All project partners were confident in the successful implementation of COASTAL-SOS and looked forward to working together to achieve sustainable coastal zones.
