Introducing the First Online Ocean Atlas

USA Today reports that an Internet atlas of the oceans of the world has been launched by the UN and other leading scientific organizations. The purpose is to monitor, educate, share research and track problems including global warming.

The Atlas needed 10 years of planning and nearly two and half years of studies and development.

It comprises of 14 global maps, with links to many hundreds more. It has more than 2,000 research publications on about 900 subjects that range from climate change, ship piracy, fishing areas to poisonous algae, and offshore oil drilling.

Project manager John Everett said the launch is the result of a special partnership between public/private industries to bring out an encyclopedia-like resource to a large community of users - ranging from policymakers to school children to scientific experts.

Jacques Diouf, a director-general of UN FAO (Food and Agriculture Org) said the oceans play an important role in maintaining life on earth. The FAO led the initiative by funding $500,000 through the UN Foundation.

He said the tool is important to coordinate works in various UN and national agencies, universities and other setups. It will play a major role toward sustainable use of the oceans for human development and food security.

The need for such an atlas was put forth during the 1992 UN's Earth Summit which was held in Rio Janeiro.

Mr Everett said this atlas would spotlight marine issues such as over-fishing, destruction of coastal regions, effects of globe-warming on ice caps, and pollution from farms and industry.

Klaus Toepfer is an executive director of UN Environment Program. He said issues related to the ocean will dominate the international stage later this century. Examples of problems are the predicted sea level rises that are nearly 1.5 metres.

The rising sea levels could affect 70 million humans in China, 65% of the people of Bangladesh and Netherlands, 15% of humans and 50% of Japanese industry, 10% of Egyptian population, with an impact area of 6,630 sq miles.

In low-lying areas like the Maldives and Marshall Islands, the whole human population may be at risk.

Project director named Serge Garcia, heading the UN FAO's fisheries resources setup, said we now have the capability to see data on all ocean areas coming from sources that are reliable, through the UN.

The website shall be supplemented using a CD-ROM. Maps, documents, and other research papers will also be available from Cinegram Multimedia.

National Geographic Society has made its map-producer machines and marine information to be available to this atlas project. The Marine Life Census has pitched in with its assessments regarding the distribution, diversity, and abundance of sea life.

Mr. Garcia specified that the online atlas can contain 100,000 documents including many thousands of maps. Both will always be constantly updated.