[Seavox] Waters between Japan and Korea

[Greg Reed]

Hi Roy

As you are fully aware this issue has not been resolved by IHO and 
whichever option is voted in will not be accepted by everyone.  Also 
note that the US Board on Geographic Names has decided (August 2011) to 
use "Sea of Japan" instead of East Sea and Sea of Japan and has 
recommended this to IHO (see 
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2011/08/169818.htm). I think this is 
also the UK position. The IHO Conference in 2012 will again discuss the 
issue and a resolution is expected.

Whatever the outcome of our vote there needs to be a statement attached 
to C19 to say something along the lines of:

"The names in this list represent a consensus of the SeaVox group and do 
not represent an official opinion of the International Hydrographic 
Organization or any other organization"

Be prepared to change the name if there is an outcome at XVIII IH 
Conference.

If voting is compulsory (as we Aussies think it should be) then my vote 
is 3, 1, 2, 4.

cheers, Greg

On 26/08/2011 17:44, Lowry, Roy K. wrote:
> Dear All,
> BODC has received a communication from Korea concerning the labelling 
> of the body of water between Japan and Korea on a map on our web site 
> that is based on the C19 vocabulary.
> Some of you will know the history behind this, but for those who don't 
> I will give a brief summary.  IHO published its Sea Areas 
> specification with the body of water labelled 'Sea of Japan' in 1953.  
> For the proposed next version of the Sea Areas Korea proposed the name 
> 'East Sea'.  Japan objected and because IHO governance is based on 
> veto the publication was blocked.  This has continued ever since with 
> various proposals from either side being vetoed by the other, which is 
> why with the exception of one minor change (addition of the Celtic 
> Sea) the IHO Sea Areas have not been updated since 1953.
> C19 was placed under SeaVoX governance primarily to sidestep this 
> issue thereby removing a number of blockers to metadata development 
> caused by the inflexibility of the I953 list.  As no alternative label 
> has come either officially or unofficially from IHO, we adopted the 
> 1953 name. We are now a large (100 members) international body and I 
> therefore feel that we have the opportunity as a governance to grasp 
> the issue of the naming of the disputed water body.  I therefore 
> propose that we 'vote' with interested SeaVoX members ranking the 
> following alternatives in order of preference.  If you have colleagues 
> in your organisation who are also members of the SeaVoX list please 
> discuss the issue with them and send one 'vote'.
> The order given below indicates the preference of BODC following 
> discussions at the senior management level.
>
>  1. Sea of Japan -- East Sea
>  2. East Sea -- Sea of Japan
>  3. Sea of Japan
>  4. East Sea
>
> I will add up the total points for each choice (4 for first place 
> though 1 for fourth) and the choice with the highest number of points 
> will be used in C19.  The poll will close on Friday September 16^th .
> Regards, Roy.
>
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