To date four JOMSRE-SCS have been conducted and the results
of the expeditions will be the subject of a scientific conference in Vietnam in
March of this year (2008). The organizers of this conference plan to publish the
papers written by Filipino and Vietnamese scientists that will be presented in
this conference. For the Philippines, the Maritime and Ocean Affairs Center (MOAC)
of the Department of Foreign Affairs is the office facilitating the conference.
These papers should add more knowledge about the South China
Sea to the existing publications dealing with the marine environment and the
marine biological resources in the South China Sea. The subjects to be discussed
in the forthcoming conference are chemical and physical oceanography, geology,
fish plankton, marine biodiversity including fish, ocean dynamics in atolls, and
management of the biological and fishery resources.
The Philippine contributions to the JOMSRE-SCS are the
results of the work of the scientists from a few academic institutions, some
government agencies and a non-profit foundation who practically donated their
time and efforts to the conduct of the four JOMSRE-SCS as service to the
country.
Beginning in 2008, the JOMSRE-SCS will be joined by China and
will enlarge the physical area of coverage as well as the scope of its research
program to include open ocean productivity that may be subject to the impact of
climate change, in addition to the conventional studies on oceanography and
marine biodiversity. One of the plans for the next phase of JOMSRE-SCS is to
focus on some upwelling areas of the South China Sea in order to monitor how
climate change may alter the dynamics of fishery production in the Sea. The
importance of this activity is that should these upwelling areas cease to
function or become weak because of climate change, primary ocean productivity
may not be able to maintain fishery production in the Sea.
The focus on areas of upwelling is expected to generate much
interest and, also hopefully, research support from government agencies,
particularly the fisheries agencies.
With the participation of China, another expectation, that of
joint international management of some problematic areas in the South China Sea,
could occur. This is especially urgent these days in view of the findings of the
last two JOMSREs indicating serious problems in fishery resources that could
threaten their sustainability in the future. For example, if some areas in the
Spratlys become overfished, these areas would not be able to supply fish larvae
to Palawan and northern Luzon.
Thus it is becoming clear that the efforts of MOAC to pursue the JOMSRE-SCS
are bearing fruits for the country.
