On January 24, 2024, the first official regional node of POGO, namely, the Western Pacific Regional Node of the POGO Secretariat (hereafter “the Regional Node”) was established at the 25th POGO Annual Meeting in Ensenada, Mexico. The First Institute of Oceanography, the Ministry of Natural Resources (FIO), the Institute of Oceanology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS), and the Ocean Decade International Cooperation Center (ODCC), China jointly host the Regional Node, which is located at Qingdao, China. The Ocean Decade International Cooperation Center (ODCC) will provide support for the operation and maintenance of the Node. The Director and Deputy Director of the regional node rotate between FIO and IOCAS every two years. For the 2024-2026 term, Dr. Hui Zhou, who is engaged in observation and dynamics of ocean circulation in the western Pacific Ocean from IOCAS, will serve as the Director of the node, and Dr. Wei Zheng, who has been engaged in marine international cooperation and exchange since 2005 from FIO, will serve as the Deputy Director.
The POGO Secretariat Western Pacific Regional Node’s duties include identifying and filling data and knowledge gaps of the ocean-climate relationship in the Western Pacific region, coordinating relevant stakeholders nationally and globally to enhance its cooperative exchanges in the domains of marine observation, forecasting, disaster prevention and mitigation, and response to global climate change. It will initiate and implement large-scale scientific plans and projects for the Ocean Decade to jointly boost the sustainable development of the ocean under the guidance of POGO.