The 4th International Symposium on the Oceans was hosted by the National Maritime Data and Information Service (NMDIS) and the Ocean University of China in Qingdao, China, October 26-27, 2019.

The theme of this year’s event was “Challenges and Measurements to Evaluate Marine Economy”.

The purpose of the annual symposium is to explore how nations around the world are incorporating the economic value of the ocean into national income accounts. The symposium examines current issues in the measurement of ocean economic values, explores how economic uses of the oceans are rapidly changing, and how an understanding of the ocean’s contribution to national income can help sustain ocean resources and ecosystems.

Qingdao’s influence as a marine-orientated hub for science, research and tech continues with an agreement signed in June 2019 in Jinan on developing a center for ocean mega-science among the provincial government, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Qingdao municipal government.

Based in Qingdao, a coastal city in Shandong, the center affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences will focus on interdisciplinary research clusters in fields such as marine engineering equipment, marine biomedicine, new energy and materials, offshore environment supervision and marine disaster prevention and control.