| When marine management is executed, all the implements of marine activities, such as making marine policies, regulations and programs, dividing functional areas, coordinating, controlling and supervising all kinds of marine activities, should depend on marine information. For this reason, the establishment of modern marine management information system should be as the prerequisite factor of marine modernization. The tremendous amount of data and information on which marine management depends are mainly from marine investigation and surveying. |
| Investigation on Marine Resources
After setting up the exclusive economic zones, many developed countries reinvestigated their own marine areas, though they had done so thoroughly before. For instance, Japan once divided its continental shelf and continental slope into 26 zones and made investigations on topography, geologic structure, terrestrial magnetism, gravity and so on by means of acoustic sounder, seismic profiler, proton magnetometer, gravimeter, bottom sampling, bottom photography, submarine drilling, etc.. The United States has endeavored to investigate the features of marine environment and marine resources since its exclusive economic zone was built in 1983. The investigated area has reached for 2.41 million square meters. It has already worked out a ¡°strategic Evaluation¡± plan concerning with the marine resources. Besides oceanic environmental conditions, China has also widely researched marine resources since the foundation of the State Oceanic Administration of China in 1964. The main work is as follows:
In 1960, China began to make a large-scaled and planned investigation on coastal zone, but for various reasons, it failed. In 1980, China began the second national integrated investigation on coastal zone and tidal flat resources which multiple disciplines and multiple departments took part in. By the end of 1986, this work had been accomplished. This investigation made China¡¯s coastal zone tidal flat resources clear, and its achievements have been widely used in various ways of coastal economic construction. According to the investigations, some nature preserves with different levels have been built up as well as a comprehensive and scientific group with high-quality and full disciplines who can solve actual problems. All this has push the marine development forward.
China possesses a large number of sea islands. Islands, reefs and beaches spread all over the coastal areas, which stretch for thousands of miles and most of them distributed along the coastline. The total number of islands is 6,500 and the total number space accounts for 80,000 square kilometers. In order to find out the resource situation and development potentialities of sea islands, enlarge the usable marine and ocean space, give full play to islands¡¯ potential functions, bring the land into control, rejuvenate islands¡¯ economy, on 30th Oct. 1987 the State Planning Commission, the State Science and Technology Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fishery, the National Oceanic Administration and the Headquarters of the General Staff jointly proposed the State Council the report on beginning the comprehensive investigation and the exploitation experiments, which was finally approved. On 1989¡¯s Autumn, large-scaled outside researches and investigations were comprehensively carried out. At present, the report has been ready, which includes key elements of natural environment, natural resources, social and economic items. Exploitation experiment on marine islands will be starting and part of investment loan has been arranged. In accordance with instructions, some main achievements have been reached finally, including ¡°Groups of Comprehensive Investigative Data¡±, ¡°Specialized Investigative Report¡±, ¡°Comprehensive Investigative Report¡±, ¡°Comprehensive Report on China¡¯s Marine Islands¡±, ¡°Records of China¡¯s Marine Islands¡±, ¡°Achievements of Exploitation Experiment on China¡¯s Islands¡±.
In 1981, the ¡°Marine No. 2¡± research vessel of the Guangzhou Oceanic and Geological Survey Bureau, Geological and Mineral Ministry (formerly the South China Sea Geological Survey Headquarters) made the first comprehensive geophysical investigation mainly on earthquake in the west of Taiwan Channel, and fount out the Jiulong River and Jinjiang hollow. In 1985, a comprehensive geophysical section was made in the middle of the Taiwan Channel. There are altogether 1,835 km research length completed. In 1989, Geological and Mineral Ministry decided to include the oil and gas resources¡¯ general investigation of the Taiwan Channel in their working program. In 1989, the Guangzhou Oceanic and Geological Survey Bureau implemented the second comprehensive geophysical investigation mainly in earthquake in the Taiwan Channel. This time 3,649 km research length was completed. Some new thoughts came from the investigation results, the main oil-generating strata in the west of the Taiwan Channel is the Eocene Series and the Cretaceous System, which are the main target layer of oil. |
Marine Pollution Investigation And Monitoring 1.Marine Pollution Investigation The basic task of marine pollution investigation and monitoring is to grasp the baseline situation of marine environmental pollution and its long-term tendency to change, evaluate marine environmental quality and provide basis for formulating marine environmental protection policies. 2.Marine Pollution Monitoring Marine environmental monitoring has a wide range of involvement, broad professional fields and many links in the work. No matter needs or benefits, it emphasizes on the collaboration and coordination of different units, that is to say, monitoring network of marine environmental pollution should be organized and established. |
| Establishing Marine Management Information System
Investigations on marine territories, marine resources, marine environment, marine development and utilization activities, and marine management activities hold and produce a great deal of information themselves. All the information can be collected, compiled and published, such as ¡°Data Corpus¡±, ¡°Findings Report¡±, ¡°Findings Figures¡± and ¡°Resources Annals¡±. Though these data products can be used as marine management decision-maker¡¯s reference, they can¡¯t be recounted and reprocessed. To some extent, these publications only reflect their compilers¡¯ understanding of those firsthand data and their own knowledge level. Therefore, these products can only be called primary data product. If the variety of above-mentioned data from marine research, exploitation and utilization could be input in computers, replacement software programs can be designed based on different needs of marine management. Various statistics and compilation can be conducted so as to get all kinds of data products. These data products are superior to the above-mentioned primary ones, but inferior to the following ones. So we call them intermediate data product. If a computer receives investigation data on marine territories, resources and environment, marine development activities and their spatial distribution through a digitizer, it can draw all kinds of marine figures at any time on the basis of different needs of marine management, which are much more direct than primary and intermediate products. Therefore, we call it superior data product.
China¡¯s marine information system has been developed very quickly. It has turned from the past manual operations on data collection, storage, consultation and copying to computer storage, inquiry, automatic retrieval. That¡¯s to say, China¡¯s marine information system has developed into a higher information form. However, as regards the marine management information system, it will have a long way to go, for it has been in the primary forms such as ¡°Research Data Compilation¡±, ¡°Research Report¡±, etc..
In January 1981, Marine Pollution Data & Information Network Office was set up in NOAA, USA. The original task for this office is to design computer information network. The focus of its task should be on the establishment of an effective regional marine information coordination and distribution office and establishing relations with those existing federal agencies. By now, it has established computer information network system with those environmental data service centers in NOAA, EPA, Department of the Interior, Department of Public Health and Department of Energy. In China, the professional marine information collection, management and service institutes are National Marine Data and Information Service, Marine Data and Information Service of North China Sea Branch of SOA, Marine Data and Information Service of South China Sea Branch of SOA, Marine Data and Information Service of East China Sea Branch of SOA, which are all managed by the State Oceanic Administration, P. R. China. All these institutes should play a full role in marine management. |