Consulate-General of Japan in Auckland
在オークランド日本国総領事館

15:30-17：00

OGGB5, Level0, Owen Glen Building, The University of Auckland

Summary
Japan and New Zealand are both surrounded by oceans. Both countries promote research on marine science and technologies for sustainable exploitation of the oceans and conservation of the marine environment. Also crucial for both countries are the management and mitigation of marine-related disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis in the oceanic trenches.

Since the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, JAMSTEC has conducted surveys and research into how the disasters have impacted the marine ecosystems and how effectively the recovery and reconstruction mechanisms have worked. JAMSTEC, in collaboration with Tohoku University and the University of Tokyo, has also begun a ten-year project to monitor the marine ecosystem in the Tohoku area and help recover fisheries from the damage caused by the disaster. Dr Shirayama spoke about these studies and how they have contributed to the Fourth Science and Technology Basic Plan (FY2011-2015) recently issued by the Japanese government. He explained an expedition to the Japan Trench near the epicentre carried out by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP) in April and May 2013, which obtained core samples from the fault zone where the massive earthquake occurred.

Speaker's Background
Dr Shirayama is the Executive Director of JAMSTEC. He previously worked as a professor at Kyoto University, first heading the Seto Marine Biological Laboratory and then the Field Science Education and Research Centre. He specialises in marine biology, especially taxonomy and ecology of deep-sea meiobenthos. He gained his Doctor of Science from the University of Tokyo in 1982, and has since published more than 80 papers in both English and Japanese.

Since 1992, Dr Shirayama has served on the Coastal Ocean Environment Assessment Committee to Japan’s Ministry of the Environment and played a key role in the formulation of the Marine Biodiversity Conservation Strategy in Japan. He has also contributed to international initiatives, including the C-GOOS Steering Committee of UNESCO, the Scientific Steering Committee of the Census of Marine Life, and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.