The 20th Japanese-French Oceanography Symposium

Toba 2025: Ocean Science for a Sustainable Future

“One planet, one ocean: from science to solutions” is a concept that emphasizes the interconnectedness of our planet and its oceans, proposing potential solutions based on rigorous scientific research. To build a sustainable society in today's changing global environment, we need to create a sustainable coexistence between people and oceans. Advances in marine science are essential if people are to understand this and build such a society. The symposium will therefore focus on the scientific elucidation of the ocean's role in global environmental change, countermeasures against the worldwide degradation of marine biodiversity and the pollution including microplastics, securing a stable supply of natural and farmed marine foods, fundamental discovers and technical developments based on rigorous marine sciences including physics, chemistry, biology and technology, coordination between coastal fisheries and offshore wind farms which are the most promising renewable energy, measures to mitigate global warming and the integrated management of coastal areas with researchers from France and Japan at the heart of the symposium, as well as from other countries. The aim is to exchange knowledge on marine sciences with participants in the symposium, and to discuss how to transform today's society into a sustainable one. The Japanese concept of “Satoumi”, which targets to sustainably develop coastal areas by artificially enhancing their biological productivity and biodiversity, is attracting worldwide attention. Today, organizations made up of fishermen, citizens, scientists, businesses, local governments, and the central government have already begun initiatives for “Satoumi” and are accumulating various experiences. Therefore, we focus on the Satoumi in this symposium.

Furthermore, another aim of this symposium is to contribute to the UN Decade of Ocean Science. The UN Decade of Ocean Science is an international framework that aims to promote sustainable development in society through ocean science over the 10-year period from 2021 to 2030. The concept is “The Ocean We Want”. 2025 will be a turning point in the UN Decade of Ocean Science, which began in 2021 and will end in 2030, and the “2025 UN Ocean Conference” is held in Nice, France, in June to review progress made so far. The Japan-France Oceanography Symposium to be held this year is also expected to contribute to the UN Decade of Ocean Science.

The symposium is held in Toba in November 2025. The city of Toba, like the city of Shima, is famous for its ama divers' (female divers') fishing. The history of ama divers' fishing goes back more than 2,000 years, and in the Toba and Shima regions there are traces of ama divers offering the abalone that they had caught as an offering to the Ise Shinto Shrine. Ama divers are allowed to catch abalone and other marine organisms only during the open periods, depending on the ecology of target species, to ensure that they don't catch too many target species. It is precisely because this type of fishing can exist in harmony with nature that ama divers' fishing has been perpetuated from ancient times to the present day. Toba and Shima were called Miketsu-kuni (land of food in Japanese) because they delivered seafood to the imperial court. Toba and Shima are societies where people and the sea have coexisted for over 2,000 years. The 20th Japanese-French Oceanography Symposium will be held in Toba in November to learn from this history and use its wisdom for the present and future.

In addition to sessions for research presentations in the fields of oceanography and fisheries science, this symposium will also include a session based on the research cooperation agreement between the French national institute for ocean science (Ifremer) and the Fisheries Research Agency (FRA) of Japan, and a special session to commemorate the 20th Japanese-French Oceanography Symposium, Sustainable Development of Coastal Areas through Satoumi, a session on integrated coastal area managements and a session on offshore wind farm and coordination with fisheries and marine environment.