CQD summaries following each day's sessions.

For direct links to sessions (not summaries), please click on highlighted topic:

Admiral calls for collaboration in science:

Sept. 13th - 16th, Seattle - US and Canadian national anthems opened the Oceans '99 symposium heralding the plenary speaker's message of collaboration into the new millennium.  Rear Admiral Paul Gaffney, USN, asked for a collaborative research initiative between science, military and industry to understand and  protect the coastal environments of the world.  "With 50% of the world's current population of 6 billion      settling within 200 km of a coast," Gaffney states "we can no longer ignore the effects on the littoral  environment."

Gaffney's collaborative initiative would be achieved via a proposed Integrated Sustained Ocean Observing System.  Observatories would be created along coasts to completely investigate the ocean environment.  Collected data would be used to model issues such as global effects of the world's population pressures on littoral or coastal ecology.

In his speech, the admiral also fired a thinly veiled admonishment at the scientific community. Since the  observatories would be publicly funded, Gaffney said observers (scientists) will not be allowed to hoard the data, waiting for personal publications to appear.  Data would have to be sent out immediately to data  warehouses available to public, military and research operators.  In addition, he said "Research must be tuned
with civil and military needs built-in."

Highlights from Oceans '99

Speech titles may often be long and quite confusing.  Mentioned are a few presentations from Seattle that we feel readers will not want to miss.  These authors make significant contributions to critical environmental problems in facing shipping today. 

Vessel Antifouling Paint:
Highlighted Author - Dr. Stewart Evans, Dove Marine Labs, U.K.

Dr. Stewart Evans of Newcastle University outlined his program where community groups in the U.K.  perform research alongside scientists.  Among other successes, local environmentalists have helped de-bunk   sensationalistic reports of "mass extinctions" in the North Sea due to TBT exposure.

Treatment of Regulated discharges from shipyards and drydocks

Marinors have studied the myriad of worldwide and domestic regulations for shipping environmental issues.  Regulations exist or are pending on environmental problems such as: oil spills, chemical spills, effluent and airborne discharges, quarantine and demurrage infestation, ballast water treatment and of course antifouling paint. 

Oceans '99 has devoted a special series of five presentations on what will likely be the latest regulatory issue for the maritime industry - Regulating discharges from Shipyards and Drydocks.

Highlighted Authors:

Advances in Oil Spill Response
Highlighted Author - Dr. Alan Mearns - NOAA

Dr. Alan Mearns of NOAA described the rescue operations surrounding a tanker stranded on a National Park coral reef.  Surprisingly, the National Park Service demanded the ship's ballast water be treated with chlorine to combat the threat of invasive species onto the reefs.  This move may set a precedence for future acceptance of chlorination or other chemical treatment for ballast water.

Thursday September 16th