Pacific Ocean shoreline protection, resource management, ocean pollution and tsunami response are among the topics to be presented during a five-day Pacific Congress on Marine Science and Technology: PACON 2010 International Conference that commences Tuesday on the campus of University of Hawaii-Hilo.
“More than 150 national and international marine scientists, engineers and policy makers will be in attendance,” noted Judith Fox-Goldstein, UH Hilo Conference Center director.Â Â Visiting scholars and scientists from more than 14 countries including Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Russian and Iran will share their latest research findings.
Â â€œNations and islands of the Pacific gather annually to exchange information, ideas and technology, but this is very exciting because itâ€™s the first time the PACON International conference is being held on Hawaii Island,â€ said PACONâ€™s president electÂ
Dr. Michael Crosby.
Abstracts presented will cover a range of topics, including the timely issues of offshore permitting, tsunami forecasting, tidal current power, seawater air conditioning, ocean energy, ocean engineering, remote sensing using small submersibles, and coral reef studies.Â
Among the PACON keynote speakers is oceanographer Capt. Charlie Moore who has written extensively on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific.Â He is founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation of California, working to raise awareness of plastic debris and pollution in the Pacific Ocean.
Moore was returning to California from Hawaii after finishing the 1997 Transpac sailing race when he caught sight of an island of trash in the North Pacific, and has since written numerous articles on ocean pollution and effects on sea life.
PACON 2010 conference co-organizers are Dr. Dan Ling Tang, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences South China Sea Institute of Oceanology and Dr. Wei-Hsien Wang, from the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium.Â