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The Pacific islands maintain resource access rights and management responsibilities over 30 million square kilometers of ocean ? equivalent to the combined land areas of Canada, China and the United States of America. The total population of the Pacific islands is only 6.7 million people and only 2.6 million if the largely inland population of Papua New Guinea is excluded. There are at least 11 square kilometers of ocean for each and every Pacific Islander. Jurisdictionally, the sea is nearly 200 times more significant to the average Pacific Islander than it is to the average global citizen.1 This quote encapsulates the paramount importance of the oceans and its resources to pacific island countries and territories (PICTs). For many PICTs the ocean is their only significant natural resource and the good governance and sustainable management of their ocean resources is the key to their economic and social well?being.

The Marine Environment Protection Committee, at its sixty-sixth session (31 March to 4 April 2014), with a view to providing guidance on the reduction of underwater noise from commercial shipping, and following a recommendation made by the Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Equipment, at its fifty-seventh session, approved the annexed Guidelines for the reduction of underwater noise from commercial shipping to address adverse impacts on marine life.

As agreed at the sixty-second session of the Technical Co-operation Committee (TC 62), the Secretariat developed the Country Maritime Profile (CMP) document to collect data from Member States with a view to identifying the real capacity-building needs of developing countries and their requirements for technical co-operation. An improved version of the document (annex to TC 63/3(d)) was presented to the sixty-third session of the Technical Co-operation Committee (TC 63). Amended as requested, it is now available on the IMO website under http://www.imo.org/OurWork/TechnicalCooperation/ITCP/Pages/CMP.aspx.

The Cook Islands comprises 15 islands with a total land area of 237 sq km and a maximum height above sea-level of 652 m. The islands are scattered over an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 1.8 million sq km; one of the largest EEZ’s in the South Pacific.

This proposal has been prepared by the Ocean and Islands Programme (OIP) within the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) in collaboration with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). It has been prepared in response to an invitation1 from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to assist the Cook Islands in deriving coastal related information to underpin and inform climate change adaptation decisions for coastal areas of Mangaia Island.

The Workshop on the “Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, 1972 (London Convention- LC) and its 1996 Protocol (London Protocol- LP)” was organised jointly by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Environment Programme (SPREP), in collaboration with the Government of Fiji under the Department of Environment (DOE) and the Fiji Islands Maritime Safety Administration (FIMSA) for the Pacific Island Countries. The Workshop was organized within the framework of the Integrated Technical Co-operation and Assistance Programme (ITCP) established under the London Convention and Protocol using funds provided by the Government of Australia.

Resolution MEPC.83(44), Guidelines for ensuring the adequacy of port waste reception facilities, recognizes that although all States that are Party to MARPOL have an obligation to provide reception facilities for MARPOL wastes from ships calling at their ports, some port authorities may face particular problems meeting this obligation (paragraph 5.14) and that regional arrangements for port waste reception facilities can provide a solution