Room XIII WORLD OCEAN COUNCIL LAUNCHES: “SMART OCEAN / SMART INDUSTRIES” PROGRAM ON OCEAN AND CLIMATE OBSERVATIONS Leading ocean companies are working to expand and better coordinate the collecting of ocean and atmospheric information from ships and offshore structures through the “Smart Ocean / Smart Industries” program developed by the World Ocean Council (WOC, http://www.oceancouncil.org ). The UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) is hosting the initial WOC workshop on 12-13 December 2011 in Paris. A WOC Working Group co-chaired by A.P. Moeller-Maersk and Transocean is developing the International Ocean Science and Industry Partnership Platform as a major new initiative to facilitate ocean industry collaboration with the scientific community to scale up data collection from “smart” ships and platforms and expand the spatial and temporal extent of ocean and atmospheric observations by leadership companies. The need to better understand and monitor the ocean and climate has never been greater. Government and scientific institutions have limited facilities and resources to obtain marine and atmospheric data. Shipping, offshore oil and gas and other ocean industries, e.g. ferries, fisheries, offshore wind, aquaculture and others, operate thousands of vessels and platforms. These provide tremendous potential for cost-effectively collecting ocean and climate data. Expanded information will help improve the modeling and predictability of weather, ocean conditions and climate change, and will support responsible use of ocean space and resources – with clear benefits for science, government, society, and business. The WOC program will catalyze the role of leadership companies from a range of ocean industries in the systematic, regular, sustained and integrated collection and reporting of standardized oceanographic and atmospheric data. This will provide critical information to scientific programs that improve the safety and sustainability of commercial activities at sea and contribute to maintaining and improving ocean health. The program is being developed in close collaboration with national and international ocean and climate observations programs, and with existing voluntary observation programs. The IOC will host the initial WOC “Smart Ocean / Smart Industries” workshop. The meeting will convene industry, science and government representatives to develop: a) a shared understanding of the program need and opportunity, b) the initial design of the process and institutional framework and c) the roadmap and workplan for moving forward. The workshop will bring together about 80 representatives from: a) shipping, oil and gas, ferry, offshore wind, mining, fisheries, navies, etc; b) existing voluntary observation programs; c) marine technology, instrumentation, IT/communications; and d) international and national oceanographic/meteorological organizations. Interested parties should contact Paul Holthus: Email: paul.holthus@oceancouncil.org Phone: +1 (808) 277-9008