The 9th Focal Points Meeting of the Special Monitoring and Coastal Environmental Assessment Regional Activity Centre of NOWPAP was held on 6-7 September 2011 in Toyama, Japan. The meeting has reviewed the progress of the current activities and steps to be taken in order to finalize the projects till the end of 2011:
• Compiling an integrated report on harmful algal blooms (HAB) for the NOWPAP region;
• Compiling an integrated report on ocean remote sensing for the NOWPAP region - towards assessment of marine and coastal environment;
• Compiling an integrated report on eutrophication assessment in the selected sea areas including evaluation of land-based sources of nutrients in the NOWPAP region.
Meeting participants agreed on the refinement of the common procedures for eutrophication assessment and discussed also new activities on marine biodiversity conservation focusing on selection of ecologically and biologically significant areas and the assessment of existing marine protected areas. These new activities will be included in the CEARAC workplan for 2012-2013, to be approved at the 16th NOWPAP Intergovernmental Meeting in December 2011.
Implementation of NOWPAP contributes to the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA) in the Northwest Pacific region.