Joint Group Of Experts Research Articles

IMCO/FAO/UNESCO/WMO/WHO/IAEA/UN/UNEP Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution (GESAMP): Reports and Studies No. 15. The Review of the Health of the Oceans. — 108 pp. Paris: Unesco 1982

Internationale Revue der gesamten Hydrobiologie und HydrographieVolume 69, Issue 2 p. 214-214 Book Review IMCO/FAO/UNESCO/WMO/WHO/IAEA/UN/UNEP Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution (GESAMP): Reports and Studies No. 15. The Review of the Health of the Oceans. — 108 pp. Paris: Unesco 1982 First published: 1984 https://doi.org/10.1002/iroh.19840690208Citations: 4AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume69, Issue21984Pages 214-214 RelatedInformation

An environmental assessment and review process

Environmental impact assessments are commonplace in North America. In the USA, they are now established as a way of life. They are regarded with some scepticism, if not totally deplored, in other parts of the world (see the Editorial by H. A. Cole, Mar. Pollut. Bull., 1983, 14, 12 l 122). In the following piece, I shall describe an environmental assessment and review process that has been adopted in Canada for federal projects or projects with federal funding. It involves an Environmental Impact Statement. About 21 projects have been subjected to review by Environmental Assessment Panels and finalized with reports so far. About half that number are being actively worked on at the present time. Some half-dozen projects are in a dormant state, including the Bay of Fundy Tidal Power and Polar Gas projects, and awaiting more favourable economic conditions to be reactivated. As an example of a project that has been completed, I shall discuss the Environmental Assessment of the Roberts Bank Port Expansion which was done by an Environmental Assessment Panel (Federal Environmental Assessment and Review Process, 1979. R oberts Bank Port Expansion. Report of the Environmental Assessment Panel, Federal Assessment Review Office, Ottawa, Canada K1A 0H3, 70 pp.). When the Federal Department of the Environment (DOE) was formed in 1971, the responsibilities given to the Minister reflected the government's and the public's concern about environmental affairs by directing the Minister both to undertake and to promote programmes to achieve environmental protection and enhancement. One of the first concerns of the Department after it was formed was to examine the federal government's role as polluter and to review all the projects that may be initiated by the government, in order to see what degree of pollution they may introduce, and to see what preventive, ameliorative and Dr Waidichuk is Senior Scientist with the Fisheries Research Branch of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, located at the West Vancouver Laboratory. He is an oceanographer who has devoted most of his career to research on marine pollution problems. He was a charter member of GESAMP (IMCO/FAO/UNESCO/WMO/ IAEA/UN/UNEP Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution), and chaired the International Coordination Group of the Intergovernmentai Oceanographic Commission's Global Investigation of Pollution in The Marine Environment (GIPME).

Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution. Report On The 5th Session Of Gesamp: IMCO/FAO/UNESCO/WMO/WHO/UN Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution, IAEA Headquarters, Vienna, Austria, 18–23 June, 1973 (Submitted by Dr. H. Fleckseder, representing the IAWPR as an observer)

Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution. Report On The 5th Session Of Gesamp: IMCO/FAO/UNESCO/WMO/WHO/UN Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution, IAEA Headquarters, Vienna, Austria, 18–23 June, 1973 (Submitted by Dr. H. Fleckseder, representing the IAWPR as an observer)

International approach to the marine pollution problem

Attempts at international control of marine pollution commenced as early as 1926 in a proposal to limit oil pollution in the sea by a convention which failed to be ratified. The first successful Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil was adopted in 1954 and amended in 1962. An attempt will be made to expand the terms of this Convention at a Conference on Marine Pollution to be convened by the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization in October 1973. It is planned to include other noxious substances than oil carried by ships, as well as ship-generated garbage and sewage. The Convention on the Dumping of Wastes at Sea, adopted in London on November 13, 1972, will be responsible for the control of marine pollution arising from dumping wastes at sea, where certain substances are prohibited from being dumped and others can only be dumped under close supervision. The International Law of the Sea Conference to be convened in Santiago, Chile, during April 1974, will attempt to introduce international control over other forms of marine pollution by legislative action. There are various inter-governmental bodies dealing with the scientific aspects of marine pollution, including the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Meteorological Organization. These bodies, along with others, formed the IMCO/FAO/UNESCO/WMO/WHO/IAEA/UN Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution, which met for the first time in March 1969, and annually since then, to deal with scientific matters pertaining to marine pollution. The International Coordination Group on the Global Investigation of Pollution in the Marine Environment of the IOC met for the first time in April 1973 to coordinate a global approach to studying the marine pollution problem. Under the Integrated Global Ocean Station System, a pilot project, to monitor oil pollution in the North Atlantic and contiguous seas, has been initiated. There are a number of regional programs which might be incorporated into a global monitoring program, such as the North Sea and Baltic projects, coordinated under the International Council for Exploration of the Sea. National programs under the International Decade of Ocean Exploration will also be candidates for inclusion in global pollution studies. In addition, a number of non-governmental bodies such as the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research and Scientific Committee on Problems of Environment of the International Council of Scientific Unions are addressing themselves to scientific issues of marine pollution. The solution of global problems of marine pollution can only be achieved through international legislative action combined with strong backing by scientific research and monitoring. Many national programs will have to be coordinated by an international mechanism probably under the aegis of IOC. In the final analysis, the problem of global pollution can only be solved by cooperation of states with control of pollution nationally first and then internationally second.