Inauguration of the GoM LME Project Offices

The event was attended by important authorities, including Dr. Francisco Barnés, President of the National Institute of Ecology of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT); Dr. Kai Bethke, Head of the Regional Office of the United Nations Organization for Industrial Development in Mexico; Dr. Mauricio Limón, Undersecretary of Management for Environmental Protection of SEMARNAT; Dra. Bonnie Ponwith, Director Southeast Fisheries Science Center and Focal point by the United States for the GoM-LME project; of Dr. Dan Clune, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of oceans and international environmental affairs and scientists of the United States; as well as Dr. Antonio Díaz de León, Focal point by Mexico of the GoM-LME Project.

Dr. Porfirio Alvarez Torres, GoM-LME project coordinator, offered a welcome message to the guests and gave a brief overview of the achievements of the GoM-LME Project. Then officials from Mexico and United States gave a message in which they emphasized the significance and achievements in the year and a half life of the project. They expressed the need to promote joint cooperation between Mexico and United States in marine and coastal ecosystems research, as well as actions for the development of joint initiatives between authorities of both countries for the Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem Protection.