On 17-19 June 2019, GOBI stalwarts David Johnson, Piers Dunstan and Vikki Gunn travelled to Dhiffushi island in the Maldives to deliver a capacity building workshop on behalf of the Sustainable Ocean Initiative (SOI). Working in collaboration with colleagues at The Maldives Ministry of Environment, the three-day workshop delivered a programme that centred around examiningContinue Reading GOBI supports the Sustainable Ocean Initiative national workshop for The Maldives

GOBI partner CSIRO recently delivered a successful second round of workshops to refine the outputs from the first round of workshops aimed at identifying and describing bioregions in the southern Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.  This complex, iterative bioregionalisation exercise is part of GOBI’s current research programme supported by Germany’s International Climate Initiative (IKI).  These latestContinue Reading Successful workshops refine the boundaries of oceanic bioregions

The Migratory Connectivity in the Ocean (MiCO) system – developed by Duke University’s Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab with support from GOBI’s IKI grant and input from over 30 partners – was finally launched during a Side Event at the 2nd BBNJ Intergovernmental Conference held at UN Headquarters in New York in April 2019. The conference isContinue Reading Launch of MiCO at UN Intergovernmental Conference

Pick up your latest copy of the GOBI newsletter here.  This issue is all about connectivity, to coincide with the launch of the Migratory Connectivity in the Ocean (MiCO) system during second session of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on an international legally binding instrument under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) onContinue Reading New GOBI Newsletter – Spring 2019

The second Pacific Bioregionalisation workshop (under GOBI’s Bioregionalisation work stream) was held in Nadi Fiji from 12 to 14 March 2019.  It was attended by 27 experts from 19 Pacific countries and territories. The experts reviewed the outputs from the first workshop and provided additional details and information on the Pacific bioregional provinces.  They refined the boundariesContinue Reading Second Pacific bioregionalisation workshop completed

A workshop and Fourth Joint Meeting of the Sargasso Sea Commission and Hamilton Declaration Signatories took place at the Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences, St George’s, Bermuda from 13 to 15 March 2019.  With financial support from DFO Canada, the workshop provided a chance to recall significant progress made by the Sargasso Sea Commission examiningContinue Reading Next steps to strengthen stewardship of the Sargasso Sea

The latest IMMA regional workshop held in Dhofar, Oman (4-8 March 2019) has identified an unprecedented 55 candidate IMMAs and a further 13 Areas of Interest (AoI). The workshop hosted 38 marine mammal scientists and observers from 15 countries with the sole purpose of identifying important habitats for marine mammals in the western Indian Ocean andContinue Reading Latest IMMA workshop most successful yet

With support from GOBI, MarViva Foundation hosted the workshop “Conservation and sustainable use of the marine resources of the Thermal Dome in areas beyond national jurisdiction”.  It was held on 13-14 February, in San Jose, Costa Rica, with representatives from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica and the Central American Integration System (SICA)Continue Reading Second Costa Rica Thermal Dome governance workshop

The IUCN Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force has approved 30 new Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) in the northeast Indian Ocean and southeast Asian seas region.  These 30 IMMAs were part of the outcome of a regional IMMA expert workshop held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia in March 2018.  Now that they have passedContinue Reading 30 new IMMAs recognised in the NE Indian Ocean & SE Asian seas

Following discussions during the latest Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in November 2018 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 42 new EBSA descriptions have been formally welcomed by the Parties and are soon to be communicated to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) before being added to the EBSAContinue Reading 42 new EBSAs added to EBSA repository