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Cook Islands Statement at the Whales in a Changing Ocean Conference, Vava'u, Tonga

The Pacific islands maintain resource access rights and management responsibilities over 30 million square kilometers of ocean ? equivalent to the combined land areas of Canada, China and the United States of America. The total population of the Pacific islands is only 6.7 million people and only 2.6 million if the largely inland population of Papua New Guinea is excluded. There are at least 11 square kilometers of ocean for each and every Pacific Islander. Jurisdictionally, the sea is nearly 200 times more significant to the average Pacific Islander than it is to the average global citizen.1 This quote encapsulates the paramount importance of the oceans and its resources to pacific island countries and territories (PICTs). For many PICTs the ocean is their only significant natural resource and the good governance and sustainable management of their ocean resources is the key to their economic and social well?being.

The Marine Environment Protection Committee, at its sixty-sixth session (31 March to 4 April 2014), with a view to providing guidance on the reduction of underwater noise from commercial shipping, and following a recommendation made by the Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Equipment, at its fifty-seventh session, approved the annexed Guidelines for the reduction of underwater noise from commercial shipping to address adverse impacts on marine life.

As agreed at the sixty-second session of the Technical Co-operation Committee (TC 62), the Secretariat developed the Country Maritime Profile (CMP) document to collect data from Member States with a view to identifying the real capacity-building needs of developing countries and their requirements for technical co-operation. An improved version of the document (annex to TC 63/3(d)) was presented to the sixty-third session of the Technical Co-operation Committee (TC 63). Amended as requested, it is now available on the IMO website under http://www.imo.org/OurWork/TechnicalCooperation/ITCP/Pages/CMP.aspx.

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