Professionals

ONS awareness programme for sea managers

Hiran H. Senewiratne

OCEANOGRAPHY: A new generation of ocean managers for Sri Lanka has started an intensive integrated management certificate on marine affairs under the patronage of Our Nation and the Sea (ONS) last year.

ONS programme represents a public and private initiative to widen awareness of the sea. The National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) and its regional counterpart Indian Ocean Marine Affairs (IOMAC) started this programme to train managers of the sea in 2004.

The objectives of this programme are to create awareness among professionals with regard to the law of the sea; harness resources undertake capacity building and formulate policies and strategies for implementation to be submitted to the government, IOMAC Consultant/Project Co-coordinator Romany Rasquinho said.

This programme is planned for six months dealing with various aspects of ocean management and require attendance on working session field visits and the discussions. The course director is Dr. Hiran Jayawardane.

IOMAC conducts training with the ONS programme with the aim of contributing to the task of assuming responsibility for managing Sri Lanka’s vast ocean heritage amounting to over half a million square miles of seabed territory.

The ONS initiative took on as one of its principal tasks - national capacity-building for ocean management. In an ambitious and comprehensive multidisciplinary programme, ONS launched its first National Training Programme in Integrated Marine Affairs Management.

Under this programme 26 participants representing governmental agencies, the defence services, the universities, and the private sector underwent training in ocean law, policy and management, living and non-living resources, maritime transport and communications, the marine environment and international aspects of ocean governance.

Spanning over one year, the programme includes course work with lectures by Sri Lanka’s leading marine and legal specialists and a number of foreign experts, study tours in the field, tutorials and a dissertation on an approved topic.

Of the participants, 10 officers were from the Sri Lanka Navy. Seven of the participants were women.

The course has 165 lecture hours and field visits. The cost of the programme is Rs. 45,000.

The classes are conducted at the BMICH, the course work includes 59 lectures, and 119 hours of training over a 9-month period. Dissertations covered a range of topics - Prevention and Control of Marine Pollution by Ships; Ballast water, Offshore Oil Exploration and protection of the marine environment; Marine Mammal Management; Fisheries policy; Conduct of Marine Scientific Research; the Development of Colombo Port; Effects of the Sethusamudram Project; Coastal Disaster Management etc.

ONS personnel have undergone further international training under the auspices of the United Nations Training Programme in Hiroshima.

A further joint programme in collaboration with the United Nations is planned.

A Coordinating Committee made up of a group of leading professionals guides ONS.

In addition to the training programme ONS has provided the first national forum for scientifically assessing and rationally sensitising personnel to issues arising from the Sethusamudram Project following rising national concern regarding possible negative impacts on the country.

ONS also convened the first national workshop on developing national capacity in oceanography and marine sciences.