Over the last couple of months, the United Nations Environment Programme has released two publications that will be of interest to IOSEA readers. “Marine Litter: A Global Challenge”, launched on World Oceans Day, is the first-ever attempt to take stock of the marine litter situation in the 12 major regional seas around the world.

The report’s findings indicate that despite many international, regional and national efforts to reverse marine pollution, alarming quantities of rubbish thrown out to sea continue to endanger people’s safety and health, entrap wildlife, damage nautical equipment and deface coastal areas around the world. More »

The website contains a lot of interesting Features and Headlines this month, so we’ll let it speak for itself. Just a couple of additional news items to add:

Special thanks are extended to the Governments of India, Myanmar, Oman and Thailand which have recently confirmed their first-ever voluntary contributions to IOSEA – joining Australia and the United States which have also renewed their support in 2009. The Secretariat has been advised that at least four other Signatory States – Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Viet Nam – are actively entertaining the possibility of contributing to IOSEA in the coming fiscal year.

Seychelles has updated its Focal Point details and has nominated Dr. Jeanne Mortimer (ex-Advisory Committee member) to serve on the Western Indian Ocean – Marine Turtle Task Force. Welcome back to the fold, Jeanne!

Our website developer continues to toil away on the new IOSEA satellite tracking metadatabase and other website enhancements. The programming is taking longer than expected (due in part to an annoying computer virus), but preliminary testing reveals that the database will be well worth the wait.