During the week of March 6 to 11, Professor Nobuyuki Yagi, Bioeconomist of the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, visited the Coastal Marine Research Station (ECIM) located in Las Cruces, along with six UTokyo PhD students from China, Vietnam, Thailand and Japan.
The visiting researchers participated in two workshops related to the topic of fisheries and sustainability in the coastal ocean, which were also attended by several professors and students from the Department of Ecology associated with the UC Center for Marine Conservation, and the Center for Mathematical Modeling of the University of Chile.
The Japanese students, accompanied by American, Spanish and Chilean students along with UC students from the School of Biological Sciences, visited some fishing coves on the central coast, such as El Quisco (see second photo), and over the weekend, formulated some problems of common interest around two themes: Use of renewable marine energies on the coastline and development of economic activities in addition to artisanal fishing in the Benthic Resources Exploitation and Management Areas.
“It is a very interesting initiative, which we hope will be an important impulse to increase the exchange of students and scientific collaboration between Chilean researchers, from Universidad Católica, Universidad de Chile, with our Japanese peers in the field of environmental sciences, and specifically on issues of sustainability of human activities in the coastal ocean”, commented Sergio Navarrete, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Biological Sciences and Director of ECIM.
This productive visit is part of the Chile-Japan Forum that took place in November of last year in Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales. It also brought together 200 scientists and leading researchers from both countries and where Dr. Yagi participated in the Sustainable Management and Conservation workshop of Oceanic and Coastal Ecosystems.
The visit is expected to stimulate and strengthen the research internship program and scientific collaboration between both countries in the area of marine sciences and in the application of models to the problem of sustainability of coastal ecosystems. “This is a cross-cutting and inherently interdisciplinary issue in which Chile and Japan have a lot of experience, many parallels, and many contrasts to learn from,” said Dr. Navarrete.