News Summer 2006

N ew s CoastNet Futures Group inaugural meeting set for July A group of coastal and marine experts representing specialist areas and themes will come together on 12 July for the inaugural meeting of the CoastNet Futures Group, a research-based think tank set up to think beyond the short term and examine radical alternatives to mainstream thinking. Its aim is to support the debate on coastal sustainability in the UK, Europe and beyond through: ● identifying emerging issues for coastal sustainability ● maintaining a rolling work programme in relation to research reports ● ensuring that research findings and outputs are communicated widely to coastal professionals and the wider public ● providing ‘thought leadership’ in the development of coastal policy ● engaging appropriate expertise in each research project. The July meeting will be used to set the agenda for the Group, its structure and composition and to develop ongoing themes and issues. Once established, meetings will be held once or twice a year. Further information regarding themes, agenda and the Group’s members will be available from the CoastNet website in due course. For interim information please contact Theresa Redding at [email protected]

Partnership Forum All Party gets to grips with Parliamentary ICZM Group (APPG) This year’s Forum was a well attended news and enjoyable day with lively discussions throughout. Sessions centred around the consultation document for ICZM recently prepared by Defra with a specific focus on the role of Partnerships. There was also discussion and feedback on the proposed ICZM Options report by Halcrow for the Environment Agency and some ideas for an alternative Option emerged. Presentations and the report from this workshop will be placed on the CoastNet website and the online library at CoastWeb.

The next meeting of the APPG on coastal and marine issues is set for 11 October 2006. Among the attendees will be Ian Pearson, Minister of State for Climate Change and the Environment. Themes for the meeting are yet to be determined but it is very likely that the Marine Bill and other marine policy issues will be on the agenda. Check out the CoastNet website for further information when it becomes available.

The recently set up Coastal Partnerships Working Group was also discussed at this Forum and further details can be found in Groundworks on page 11.

If you wish to join the APPG or attend the October meeting, please contact Theresa Redding at [email protected]

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The edge Summer 2006

Also in the news ● Offshore wind at critical crossroads – A new report from the British Wind Energy Association concludes that offshore wind could provide six per cent of the UK’s electricity supply by 2015 if given more policy backing from the state. Without it, the report claims only 25 per cent of this capacity will be delivered. Source: www.edie.net

● Japan buys votes to take control of whaling body – Japan has succeeded in buying the votes that will give it control of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in a major step towards bringing back commercial hunting of whales. Source: The Independent Online

● Polluting companies pay the price for fish deaths – Companies across England and Wales were fined and charged more than £100,000 by magistrate courts in April and May for pollution incidents which killed more than 5,000 fish. The prosecutions were brought by the Environment Agency. Source: www.fishupdate.com/news

● New species of hammerhead shark found in US waters – A new species of hammerhead shark has been discovered in the northwestern Atlantic off the coast of South Carolina. The shark, which resembles a common species called the scalloped hammerhead, has yet to be classified or named. Source: The Independent Online

N ew s Expand your horizons with the launch of CoastWeb – the unique, intelligent coastal and marine portal – www.coastweb.info June 29 saw the launch of a new and innovative coastal and marine portal, CoastWeb by CoastNet in conjunction with the EU project, Corepoint. For the first time, coastal and marine professionals will be given an online, dynamic resource that not only stores information but intelligently links this to other internal sources and to external sites. Aimed at everyone with an interest in coastal and marine issues, the site promises to cut information searches from hours to minutes with the use of its innovative web technology.

The uniqueness of the site comes from the way CoastWeb’s technology links information, making crossthematic connections without users specifying this in their initial search. In this way, users are able to broaden their knowledge base in what would otherwise be a complex and unconnected mass of coastal and marine information. The site is also interactive with users being able to add their own information through a free registration process, adding to the site’s ever-increasing knowledge base.

with no central place to access such information. CoastWeb is a userfriendly, accessible site that has such enormous potential to provide an allin-one, dynamic coastal and marine resource. Now it’s up to the coastal

and marine community to ensure the site fulfils this huge potential by adding their own documents and building a great resource for themselves and the rest of the community.”

CoastWeb is a multi-phased project. Currently the site hosts an online library of information and provides an automated news service but additional features such as a local search facility is planned for Phase II. Alex Midlen, Chair of CoastNet said of CoastWeb: “Like many sectors, the coastal and marine community suffers from information-overload

www.coastweb.info Check out the site and REGISTER NOW – IT’S FREE Let CoastNet know how you find the site. Contact us at [email protected]

The edge Summer 2006

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