Second IOC/WESTPAC Workshop on Toxic Marine Organisms and their Toxins, Nha Trang, Vietnam, 4-6 November 2011
Background
The ever-increasing expansion of seafood poisoning episodes in the Western Pacific not only causes huge economic loss to aquaculture activities, but also poses a threat to human lives. According to some preliminary findings, these poisonings occur mainly because of lack of public awareness on seafood safety and appropriate knowledge on a potential health risk from toxic aquatic animals. It is, therefore, becoming an urgent need for the countries in the region to enhance the awareness of their general public, particularly the coastal communities on the risk of seafood contaminated with toxins, especially that potentially causing health problem.
The IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) established a project entitled “Enhance the awareness on toxic marine organisms” at the Eighth Intergovernmental Session (10-13 May 2010, Bali, Indonesia), aiming to improve the awareness of local community on the natural biotoxins in marine organisms and its risks to human health within the Western Pacific Region through the identification of toxic marine organisms and dissemination of relevant scientific information to public. This project will be carried out mainly through two workshops, as well as other associated activities in between meetings in 2010-2011.
The first workshop of the project on “Enhance the awareness on toxic marine organisms” was held at Institute of Oceanography, Vietnam from 13 to 15 December 2010. Participants of the workshop recognised that (1) poisonings due to the consumption of seafood contaminated with natural toxins occurred widely in member states, (2) fish poisoning, especially poisoning caused by puffer fish was most common in member states, (3) these poisonings caused mainly by inappropriate knowledge among fishermen and local folks, and (4) proper information distribution on toxic organisms will helps life of people.
The workshop also decided its mission on 1) improvising and harmonizing toxin monitoring system in member states for seafood safety, and 2) establishing a key laboratory in the region to confirm analysis of toxins. Following these mission, the project title was changed to “Toxic Marine Organisms and their toxins (TMO)” with support of all participants who decided themselves to serve as members of the project. The activities of the project are further considered as follows; 1) exchanging and analysing information among member states on situation of seafood poisonings, 2) disseminating information of seafood poisonings for public awareness, 3) organizing strategy planning workshops, 4) organizing capacity building activities to lessen poisoning incidents, and 5) establishing and expanding information networks.
Among them, the preparation and publication of information materials such as posters and flyers on toxic marine organisms to fisheries community in WESTPAC region are decided to give higher priority in 2010-2011. Based on collected materials such as pictures, photographs and scientific data (local names, distribution, etc.), public media such as posters and flyers on toxic marine puffers, are being drafted by members and finalized at the second workshop in November, 2011. The activities in the first phase of TMO project through the identification of poisoning by consumption of toxic marine puffers and dissemination of scientific information to public have enhanced the awareness on puffer poisonings in the WESTPAC region.
In addition to the above, the workshop will discuss on future activities to be implemented in 2012-13 for reporting at the next WESTPAC Session for approval by member states. This approval is important for continuation of the project.
Objectives and Scope of the Workshop
Following the activity plan in 2010-2011, the second workshop is designed for:
1) Finalizing public media that are posters and flyers on toxic marine puffers. These have been drafted already by members using collected materials such as pictures, photographs and scientific data (local names, distribution, etc.). Therefore finalization of the materials is not difficult task to be made during the workshop. Several related issues including the printing public materials in different languages, and establishing a webpage of TMO (content and design) are going to be discussed and decided during the workshop.
2) Discussing TMO activity plan of the second phase to be made in following two years of (2012-2014). This plan will be explained by the project leader and expected to get an approval by WESTPAC member states at its 9th Session to be held in May, 2012 at Yosu, Korea. This is quite important opportunity to announce TMO activities to WESTPAC and collect more support to the project.
3) Planning a training course for standardization of domoic acid study in tropical region. The course is expected to be held in January or February, 2012 with co-support from WESTPAC and the Asian Natural Environmental Science Center (ANESC) of the University of Tokyo, Japan. Detail activities and possible number of participants will be the subjects of the discussion.
Participants
Participants of the workshop are members of the project who attended the first WESTPAC-TMO workshop, who are the leader of member states on marine toxin study. There is one exception case to replace a Malaysian member, who is working on toxic puffer in Malaysia. There are 22 scientists from seven member states, including China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.
Place and date of the workshop
The meeting will be held on 4-6 November 2011 at the Institute of Oceanography, Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam.
For more information, please contact our Project Leader: Dr. Dao Viet Ha, Head of Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Oceanography, Vietnam at Email: tmmp_vnocean@dng.vnn.vn