The Yellow Sea is a vast, shallow, and highly productive sea between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula. It covers an area of 400,000 km2 populated by 600 million people predominantly living in its coastal areas. The Yellow Sea is one of the most heavily exploited marine ecosystems in the world. A number of the following factors, like pollution from human activities, eutrophication, toxic blooms of harmful algae, jellyfish blooms, overfishing, unsustainable mariculture, degradation of habitats, have all imposed pressures on the Yellow Sea ecosystem.
Scientists, policymakers, representatives from international organizations, and non-governmental organizations met at a Science Conference organized by the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystems Project in Qingdao, China in July 2019 to further explore ways to streamline marine environmental protection of the Yellow Sea and sustainable development of societies and economies of the countries. The Conference hosted events with a thematic focus on fisheries, biodiversity, marine litter and microplastics, and nutrients.
During the marine litter session, Dr. Ning Liu, a Programme Officer of the Northwest Pacific Action Plan, introduced the progress and lessons learned during activities on the marine litter of the Northwest Pacific Regional Action Plan. He highlighted that sharing of best practices among Member States helped the region address litter originating from member nations. There are still harsh challenges in addressing marine litter, despite publishing numerous reports and holding consultations and meeting. Participants emphasized that the lack of engagement with the private sector significantly slows down the process.
At the session on nutrients, Dr. Liu introduced the effectiveness of the Northwest Pacific Eutrophication Assessment Tool developed by the experts from the region. During the biodiversity session, Dr. Takafumi Yoshida, representing the Special Monitoring and Coastal Environmental Assessment Reginal Activity Centre, introduced the achievements of the Northwest Pacific Action Plan in the field of biodiversity conservation and informed the participants on the progress in the development of a Regional Action Plan on Marine Biodiversity Conservation
Implementation of NOWPAP contributes to the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA) in the Northwest Pacific region.