UK NOC Joins World Ocean Council

The National Oceanography Center (NOC) has joined the World Ocean Council (WOC) - the international, cross-sectoral leadership alliance on ocean sustainable development, science and stewardship.

The NOC joins the other WOC members from a wide range of ocean industries including shipping, cruise tourism, fisheries, aquaculture, oil and gas, seabed mining, renewable energy, ocean technology, maritime law, investment and other sectors.

NOC Executive Director, Professor Ed Hill, commented, “The NOC is delighted to become a member of the World Ocean Council. We share the same aim of ensuring the sustainable use of the marine environment by the businesses active in the maritime space. With the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development predicting that the blue economy will more than double its contribution to global value added, reaching over $3 trillion by 2030, strong growth is expected.

“A key part of the mission of the NOC is to engage with businesses and governments to ensure the best available scientific evidence is able to inform investment and operational decisions and we look forward to engaging with a wide section of marine industries through the WOC”.

WOC CEO, Paul Holthus, said, “We are honored to have the National Oceanography Center come on board. Good science, data and ocean observations are fundamental to addressing the environmental challenges of the growing ocean economy. We encourage other research, science and academic institutions to get involved in the WOC as a way to collaborate in advancing science-based ocean sustainable development through our unique global ocean leadership alliance”.

The WOC was an invited speaker at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO), held at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK, in January. POGO brings together the leading oceanographic institutions of the world and the CEO Holthus outlined the need and opportunity for science institutions to work with the ocean business community, especially via the WOC “Smart Ocean-Smart Industries” program on increasing data collection from industry vessels and platforms.

More about the National Oceanography Center (NOC)
The NOC is the UK’s leading institution for integrated coastal and deep ocean research. NOC undertakes and facilitates world-class agenda-setting scientific research to understand the global ocean by solving challenging multidisciplinary, large scale, long-term marine science problems to underpin international and UK public policy, business and wider society outcomes.

NOC operates the Royal Research Ships James Cook and Discovery and develops technology for coastal and deep ocean research. Working with its partners NOC provides long-term marine science capability including: sustained ocean observing, mapping and surveying; data management and scientific advice.

NOC operates at two sites, Southampton and Liverpool, with the headquarters based in Southampton. Among the resources that NOC provides on behalf of the UK are the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC), the Marine Autonomous and Robotic Systems (MARS) facility, the National Tide and Sea Level Facility (NTSLF), the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) and British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility (BOSCORF). The National Oceanography Center is wholly owned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).