A Half-day Seminar on “Marine Research: Trends and Related Developments” was organised by the International Oceanographic Institute (IOI) – Malta Operational Centre at the University of Malta, in collaboration with the Malta Council for Science & Technology. It was held on Tuesday 27th January 2004 at the Corinthia San Gorg Hotel, Malta, in conjunction with the 5th MAMA meeting.

Several national and international representatives from key research institutions and stakeholders in the marine sector, particularly individuals holding key positions in public and private organisations / agencies / institutions / departments with marine-related activities, participated to the Seminar.

The Seminar gave an overview on the key issues and trends in Malta concerning marine research and related developments in marine affairs, within the context of international drivers, and with a viewpoint on the potential role of our country in the Mediterranean. Serving as a marine forum for sharing, amalgamating and concretising ideas as well as for synergising initiatives, the seminar produced important insights on the pace of research and innovation needed to gear our marine sector towards a viable future, on some key emerging and prospective opportunities, and on the best strategy to reach set goals. The seminar also addressed Malta’s needs to establish its marine monitoring programme including a coastal sea operational observing system to fully comply to its environmental obligations as a new EU member as well as target the sustainable use of the marine resource and tap opportunities in servicing the marine-related industries.

The Seminar flagged a number of pressing issues in the marine sector: namely the importance of monitoring the coastal seas and studying marine ecosystem processes in support of policy-formulation. Decision-making must be based on an informed opinion of the state of health of the sea, which can be obtained only via regular sustained marine observations.

The potential future of Malta in the area of operational oceanography was discussed. Malta’s contribution, through MedGOOS/MAMA, to the setting up of an integrated system for observing the oceans worldwide was highly acknowledged. Operational oceanography has many diverse applications such as for tourism, fisheries, the conservation of marine bio-diversity, the coastal zone management, safety at sea, preventing catastrophic pollution events. The need and use of marine data encompasses everything to do with seas and oceans in every part of the globe. Collecting data on the strength and direction of currents, the action of waves near coastlines, wind force, temperature and other factors all have a bearing on our lives.

The idea of a common Euro-Mediterranean research space could be a “magic formula” for the future in the region. The enlargement of the EU in May 2004 is opening up new opportunities for taking forward the collaborative process with our immediate neighbours in the Southern Mediterranean and Malta is giving this aspect top priority. The marine sector has been identified as a key priority area for EU-Mediterranean cooperation. This entails giving particular consideration to exploring the possibility of introducing common structures for the management of the extensive marine resources in the region. Malta is determined to play its part in ensuring that the EU capitalizes on these opportunities for functional cooperation as a means for promoting peace and security in the region. Efforts for regional cooperation, such as MedGOOS, have the potential of dispelling divisive perspectives while focusing instead on the unifying aspects of sharing a common sea.

Due to the limited size of its resources Malta will probably never develop a fully comprehensive indigenous capacity in marine research infrastructures. A key issue for Malta as a new EU member state will be to exploit the common research infrastructure and to undertake marine research activities within a European framework that permits sharing of human and infra-structural resources. Malta can furthermore take a decisive share in the efforts of the EU towards developing a firm foundation for regional cooperation in marine research, capacity building, operational activities and marine environmental management in the Mediterranean. Malta can play a vital role in disseminating European excellence to the region. In this sense the future of RTDI in Malta would be to work by taking advantages from the use of available resources in Europe, and exploiting a brokerage role with other Mediterranean countries for regional initiatives.

Tourism in the region is the prime economic resource. Malta’s small size makes it a perfect location for a demonstration site that promotes marine-related tourism services. Malta offers the potential to be sold as a unique eco-branded destination in the Mediterranean with clean, unpolluted waters, offering high quality and healthy fish products, and bolstering an image of an eco-paradise island. It would profit to build such a brand by make the Maltese Islands a model for state-of-the-art marine monitoring practices and applications, and set an example of the use of technology for marine observations and beneficial applications, utilizing technology derived from operational oceanography.

The eFORESEE Marine Foresight Pilot Project was given high relevance in the Seminar with a number of dedicated presentations. This exercise points to give a direct impetus towards enabling Malta to develop a strong marine economic sector projected in 2020, by forecasting future opportunities in the marine sphere, and proposing adequate and feasible management and development strategies to underpin them. Through a wide consultation process with key stakeholders, and availing of selected local experts, the foresight exercise takes stock of the current relevance of the marine-related industries and services to our economic welfare, looks at future socio-economic patterns, scenarios and forcings, and assesses how the various marine areas can be optimally redressed to meet the future needs and enhance the sustainable exploitation of our marine resources.

Malta is traditionally a maritime nation. The drastic shift from a Fortress economy relying on the presence of the British Admiralty to the post-independence economy centering on tourism and manufacturing, has more recently tapped on other sectors like financial services and IT. However the great potential of its marine sector has not yet been exploited, even though it can be one of the main vehicles of economic growth in the country. Economic progress and increased commerce in the Mediterranean will bring with it greater demands on the maritime industries and support services, especially in shipping and marine transportation, ship building/repair and ports activities, to cope with an increased, faster and more efficient and cost-effective movement of cargo and people. Regional prosperity will put a greater demand on products and services derived from the marine resource, and will open new prospects for Malta’s marine sector in resource exploitation as well as in resource management and control. Increased profit opportunities would promote investment and diversification of the activities within the marine sector in Malta, particularly those of a higher value added and knowledge content.

The strategic geographic position and compelling history of our islands advocate a key role for our country on the Mediterranean political stage. The new reality of Malta as an EU member state provides an outstanding framework for an intervention in the regional political affairs and policy development, especially with regard to relations with the North African countries and the promulgation of the Wider Neighbourhood Policy of the EU in the Mediterranean region. Malta will be the frontier of the southernmost tip of Europe; it will be another voice giving a Mediterranean dimension to the EU.

The lack of a base for marine RTDI puts Malta at a disadvantage with respect to the major EU countries. However efficient the provisions that the country adopts may be, it will take us a while to catch up or reduce the lag, but it is in any case crucial that we keep up a sufficient pace of progress to ascertain our competitive edge with respect to the other accession countries. It is all the more crucial that economic development in Malta retains a lead in relation to the Mediterranean Partner countries as these evolve and take greater shares of the more traditional economic activities. This can only be achieved by phasing in more value-generation and first-level enterprise against value-addition and secondary activities, and by targeting knowledge- and technology-based initiatives against labour-intensive and low-tech endeavours.

Finally the impact of information technology and the trend towards globalisation were seen as the two key driving forces of the knowledge economy. The ability to access, share, codify, re-use and transform information into knowledge through creation and re-creation, the use of increasingly ramified and complex networks and clusters of distributed activities is already becoming critical to competitiveness, product development and enhancement of services. As information and innovative knowledge to materials, products and processes, manufacturing and services provision will become integrated into complex chains of creation, production and distribution. This will also be the shape of things in the marine sector. The advent of multi-disciplinary, spatially widespread, long term and real-time marine data and information is expected to trigger an unprecedented leap in the economic value of ocean data. This will bring about a paradigm shift in our perception of the value of marine data, information and knowledge for managing marine resources, and furnish direct applications and benefits to many sectors in industry and services such as marine transportation, safety and public health.

Click here for copies of presentations and speeches delivered during the Seminar