| Date: 11/02/1997
Summary: The 25th Annual Session of SOPAC (the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission) held at the Rarotongan Resort hotel, included a meeting of STAR, SOPAC?s Science Technology and Resources network. The 25th Annual Session of SOPAC (the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission) held at the Rarotongan Resort hotel, included a meeting of STAR, SOPAC?s Science Technology and Resources network, at which reports on scientific studies in the SOPAC region were presented and discussed. Q. Who took part in the STAR meeting?
A. Scientits from SOPAC's island member counries, and from the SOPAC secretariat, as well as some 35 scientists from other countries - NZ, Australia, Korea, Japan, Canada, USA (Mainland, Alaska and Hawaii), UK, France and Germany.
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Q. So SOPAC gets its innovations wokshops planned out and run for it. That's neat! What about the individual reports presented at STAR? Anything there of interest to non-scientists?
A. Yes. Many of the reports dealt with applications of science to problems that a non-scientist will recognise. Here is a list of highlights from those reports.
1 - The work of John Collen and Stephen Eagar on the contribution of foraminifera and other organisms to the supply of carbonate sands and gravels in tropical islands, is particularly notable both for its fundamental and innovative scientific contributions, and for its practical relevance to understanding the origins, movement and supply of sediment in low island coasts and lagoons. Additional work of this kind should be encouraged. 2 - The accuracy, reliability and utility of the satellite methods of lagoon bathymetric mapping described by Yann Morel, offers SOPAC and its member countries a way to make a significant contribution to the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), donor-funding permitting. Data of this type are a basic pre-requisite to assessment of the extent and health of coral reefs, and the management of coastal resources. ♦What next♦ |
