North Pacific Marine Science Organization

The North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES), an intergovernmental scientific organization, was established in 1992 to promote and coordinate marine research in the northern North Pacific and adjacent seas. Its present members are Canada, Japan, China, South Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States.

Purposes

The principal purposes of PICES are to (i) promote and coordinate marine research in the northern North Pacific and adjacent seas especially northward of 30 degrees North, (ii) advance scientific knowledge about the ocean environment, global weather and climate change, living resources and their ecosystems, and the impacts of human activities, (iii) promote the collection and rapid exchange of scientific information on these issues.

History

The idea of a North Pacific marine science organization was first proposed in the corridors during an FAO conference in Vancouver in 1973 but it was not discussed in any systematic way until the late 1970s. Several informal meetings, organized by the Institute for Marine Studies of the University of Washington were then held in Seattle where scientists from Canada, Japan, the Soviet Union and the United States exchanged views, although many of the concepts that now characterize the Organization were developed in these discussions. Unfortunately, the time was not propitious for bringing the idea to fruition. Impediments included the ongoing Law of the Sea negotiations and the difficult political relations between the US and the USSR in the early 1980s. It was not until 1986, during an informal meeting in Anchorage that included Chinese participants for the first time, that agreement was reached to seek an intergovernmental discussion of a possible new regional marine science organization. Participants agreed to urge the Canadian government to convene such a conference, which was held in Ottawa in December 1987. A second conference in Sidney, British Columbia in December 1988 and a drafting meeting in Seattle in December 1989 were necessary before agreement was reached in Ottawa on December 12, 1990 to establish the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (nicknamed PICES for a Pacific ICES). Representatives of Canada, China, Japan, the United States and the Soviet Union initialed the draft convention. On that occasion, representatives of the United States offered to host a first meeting of North Pacific marine scientists in 1991 in Seattle, Washington. The Convention came into force on March 24, 1992 after ratification by three of the five in signatory states, Canada, Japan, and the United States. The Peoples Republic of China ratified before August 1992 and participated as a member in the First Annual Meeting, in October of that year. Although the Soviet Union had participated in all of the intergovernmental discussions leading up to establishment of PICES, the Russian Federation did not ratify the convention until December 1994; Korea became a member in mid-summer 1995. PICES held its first Annual Meeting in October 1992, in Victoria, British Columbia. From the beginning, the PICES approach has been multidisciplinary, with standing committees concerned with biological oceanography, fishery science, physical oceanography and climate, and marine environmental quality. This list was augmented by the establishment of technical committees on monitoring and data management and specialty sections on harmful algal blooms and carbon-climate interactions. There is growing interaction among these specialties, with jointly organized scientific sessions a regular occurrence at PICES Annual Meetings. PICES has joined forces with other international organizations on many occasions. Foremost among these was the association with GLOBEC during the development and implementation of the Climate Change and Carrying Capacity Science Program (1996–2009). PICES has become a major focus for leadership and international cooperation in marine science in the North Pacific.

PICES activities

FUTURE

FUTURE (Forecasting and Understanding Trends, Uncertainty and Responses of North Pacific Marine Ecosystems) is an integrative Scientific Program undertaken by the Member Nations and affiliates of PICES to understand how marine ecosystems in the North Pacific respond to climate change and human activities, to forecast ecosystem status based on a contemporary understanding of how nature functions, and to communicate new insights to its members, governments, stakeholders and the public. FUTURE will build upon the Climate Change and Carrying Capacity (CCCC) Program that PICES initiated in cooperation with GLOBEC in the mid-1990s.

North Pacific Ecosystem Status Report

The PICES report on marine ecosystems is intended to periodically review and summarize the status and trends of the marine ecosystems in the North Pacific, and to consider the factors that are causing or are expected to cause change in the near future. The first report, begun in mid-2002 and completed about 18 months later, served as a pilot project for what might be possible. This report was based largely on geographic locations and subjects for which time series data or information are readily available. The report also identified locations and subjects where data were collected but are not yet available. In 2007, following recommendations by the PICES Study Group on Ecosystem Status Reporting, Governing Council and Science Board endorsed the development of a second version of the North Pacific Ecosystem Status Report. The focus period of this version is 2003-2008. The basic information is organized around eight regional chapters. These summarize ecosystem status and trends in the four marginal seas, the four coastal boundary currents, and the large oceanic region at their center. The boundary current chapters have a focus on the region from the coastline out to and including the continental slope and the adjacent boundary currents. The oceanic region includes everything beyond the boundary current/continental slope that is not in a marginal sea. The intended audience is primarily scientists involved in the study of climate and marine ecosystems of the North Pacific Ocean, but also includes governments who deal with issues of understanding, use, policy, and management of North Pacific marine systems, and the general public.

PICES Metadata Federation

The PICES Technical Committee on Data Exchange (TCODE) is developing the PICES Metadata Federation (PMF). The project's mission is to build a one-stop utility for public search, access and delivery of international marine ecosystem data through the Internet. This mission is to be achieved by federating national, governmental, academic and private metadatabases (collections of information describing and providing access to datasets, publications, cruise reports, etc.) using common standards and protocals.

CPR Survey

The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) was first deployed in the north Pacific in summer 1997 as a feasibility study carried out by the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS). CPRs had been deployed for over 70 years in the north Atlantic from Ships-of-Opportunity, currently managed by SAHFOS, providing a wealth of time series data. In contrast, the open ocean areas of the north Pacific have been historically poorly sampled. Presentations were made at the 1998 annual PICES meeting and from this followed a recommendation that the CPR be used to address the lack of open ocean plankton data. The cost-effectiveness of ship-of-opportunity sampling, the tried-and-tested nature of the CPR and the growing recognition that zooplankton respond rapidly to climate change and also provide the link between changes in the atmosphere and important upper trophic level populations all provided the impetus for support for CPR sampling.

The first routine seasonal sampling began in 2000 and has continued since then. An east-west transect is sampled from Juan de Fuca Strait (the border between Canada and the US) on a great circle route through the southern Bering Sea to northern Japan three times a year and a second transect crossing the Gulf of Alaska between the west coast of the contiguous US and Alaska runs six times a year between about March and September. Funding is through a Consortium managed by PICES which currently includes SAHFOS, the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB), the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (EVOS), Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and in-kind support from a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) award to a Japanese PICES member.

References

• Tjossem, S. The Journey to PICES: scientific cooperation in the North Pacific, Fairbanks, Alaska. North Pacific Marine Science Organization. (2005)
• Marine Ecosystems of the North Pacific. PICES Special Publication 1. (2004)
• Marine Life in the North Pacific: The Known, Unknown, and Unknowable. Perry, R. I. and McKinnell, S. (Eds.) PICES Special Publication 2. (2005)
• Guide to best practices for ocean CO₂ measurements. Dickson, A.G., Sabine, C.L. and Christian, J.R. (Eds.) PICES Special Publication 3. (2007)
• Marine Ecosystems of the North Pacific Ocean, 2003-2008. McKinnell, S.M. and Dagg, M.J. (Eds.) PICES Special Publication 4. (2010)

External links

• PICES home page
• PICES Press
• FUTURE: A Scientific Program
• PICES TCODE home page
• PICES TCODE GeoNetwork Portal