iMarine, a new information and data infrastructure initiative to support the sustainable exploitation of aquatic resources, kicked off last month in Italy.
Bringing together partners from a wide variety of sectors and scientific disciplines, iMarine provides an information platform and services aimed at spurring new forms of partnerships and innovative solutions to address common issues.
iMarine establishes an open data infrastructure to provide the necessary support for concrete implementation of the Ecosystem Approach to Fishery, to help define corrective actions, alleviate pressure from endangered ecosystems, assist policy makers to foster a sustainable exploitation of marine ecosystems and safeguard oceans.
The iMarine project was officially launched on 16 November 2011 in Pisa, where the iMarine board met for the first time. “That was the first time that we brought together such a rich set of high level experts with different expertise. The discussion was very rich and continued in a fruitful brainstorming that we are going to organise in collaborative remote discussions from now on. Clear directions have already been identified in terms of interoperability standards. We are very hopeful that this board will help reach our goals,” said Marc Taconet, FAO & iMarine Board Chair.
FAO, as a founder of the iMarine consortium which is funded by the European Union, leads the iMarine Board, a governing body acting as interface between the user community and the information technology.
