PAME Work Plan

The Arctic Marine Indigenous Use Mapping: Tools for Communities (AMIUM) projects goal is to produce a tool which makes use of established techniques and open source software that will allow coastal Indigenous communities to produce their own scientfically justifiable maps of marine use.

The project was included in the 2011-2013 PAME Work Plan which statet that it would "develop activities under the themes identified in the scoping paper on Arctic Indigenous Marine Use Survey Process as prepared by AIA and Saami Council.

PAME's 2013-2015 Work Plan added that "PAME will solicit regular progress reports from Arctic States, PPs and others as relevant, including the AIA project on building marine based subsistence mapping
capacity in Arctic coastal communities. PAME also encourages Arctic States to share with AIA and others, as appropriate, relevant information or methodologies."

The 2015-2017 PAME Work Plan included a  detailed project plan for the project moving forward.

The project has three phases:

1. State of Knowledge Report (published in 2013)
2. First Draft Handbook - with expert review and comment (has been developed)
3. Testing of the Tool in Three Communities

The finished tool will be freely disseminated via Arctic Council and other communicaton channels to any interested community.

A cooperative agreement for financial and in-kind support was signed with the Krean Maritime Institute in 2015.

A scoping paper was made in 2011 to assess possible joint efforts of PAME & other Arctic Council working groups addressing AMSA recommendations regarding the development of Arctic indigenous marine use. The paper was made by the Aleut International Association (AIA) and the Saami Council.

AMSA Recommendation II(A) – Survey of Arctic Indigenous Marine Use:

The VOS Scheme is an international program comprising member countries of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that recruit ships to take, record and transmit marine meteorological and oceanographic observations while at sea. All eight Arctic Council member governments participate in the VOS Scheme either directly, by providing ships to the program, or indirectly by providing funding and/or data.

Ships' meteorological observations are recognized as being essential for the provision of safety-related services for ships at sea, marine pollution prevention and climate change studies. Ship-based meteorological and oceanographic reports are often the only data available from data-sparse areas such as the Arctic region.

WMO has established a high-level dialogue, involving affected Members, IMO, ICS, shipping companies, relevant organizations and technical commissions, which resulted in the establishment of a new VOS identification scheme without direct ship-link (such as call-signs or IMO numbers) for non- authorized data users. This solution addresses shipowners' and masters' concerns about publication of ship identification and position data, as well as those of the JCOMM community regarding data monitoring and data quality.

Participation is encouraged by shipowners, ship operators, ship managers, masters and crews, non-governmental organizations and other parties concerned. "It is essential that the volume of data provided by ships be maximized and, as such, that the number of ships participating in JCOMM marine observation programmes be increased wherever/whenever possible," according to the WMO.

"Meteorological observations from VOS continue to make a vital contribution to marine safety and efficiency, providing real-time reports needed for weather forecasting, and historical data needed for planning and design. They contribute substantially to increasing our understanding of the atmosphere/ocean linkages, essential in addressing the issue of global warming and for the development of accurate long-range weather forecasts. They also provide vital ground truth measurements for the calibration and validation of satellite observations. These realities will remain unchanged in the foreseeable future."
VOS brochure.

Video about the United States Voluntary Observing Ship Program: