The Bermuda Biological Station is holding a major international conference to prevent marine disasters to coastal lines and oceans.

Representatives from the insurance industry in Bermuda, North America and Europe, including Aon Re, Swiss Re, Terra Nova Holdings Ltd. and Arrow Re, scientists and players in the marine sectors have been invited by the International Ocean Institute (IOI) to find ways to deal with risk management towards ocean and coastal areas.

Robert Race, the director of the Canadian branch of IOI said: "Bermuda is the most appropriate venue to hold a conference on risk management because the Island is a centre of leading edge technology, the centre of the offshore insurance sector and Bermuda is small Island with a high sense of vulnerability.'' This conference is a global event as there are representatives from the major regions and oceans in the world, including: South Africa, Japan, India, Romania (Black Sea), Malta (the Mediterranean), Costa Rica and Jamaica (the Caribbean), Brazil, South Pacific, Africa, Europe, the United States and Canada.

The main purpose of the meeting, according to Mr. Race, is: "To see what we are doing that nobody else is doing. We are looking at oceans and coasts, while other people are looking globally.

"We have concluded that coastlines will be hurt the most (environmentally), so we wish to establish an integrating process between scientists, marine practitioners and the insurance world to find the right answers for risk management to get better security from risk.

"We also wish to stimulate a dialogue among scientists, marine practitioners and insurance representatives to integrate and achieve a total end of risk reduction to coastal areas.'' Marine practitioners include people in the fisheries industry and tourism, including representatives from Jamaica being the major presence.

The Japanese Ship And Ocean Foundation addressed shipping and security issues and the petroleum industry was represented by Brazilian national oil company Petrobras.

The conference began on Monday.

Working groups will today discuss the conclusions of the meeting including how best to use indices such as the Environmental Vulnerability Index, established by the South Pacific Applied Geo-Science Commission .

SCIENCE SCI