International Hydrographic Organization
The IHO was established in 1921 as the International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB). The present name was adopted in 1970 as part of a new international Convention on the IHO adopted by the then member nations. The former name International Hydrographic Bureau was retained to describe the IHO secretariat until 8 November 2016, when a revision to the Convention on the IHO entered into force. Thereafter the IHB became known as the "IHO Secretariat", comprising an elected Secretary-General and two supporting Directors, together with a small staff of 17, at the Organization's headquarters in Monaco.
Ocean Biogeographic Information System
In 2009 OBIS was adopted as a project by International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) programme of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and in 2011, with the cessation of funding for the Rutgers-based secretariat and portal from the Sloan Foundation, an offer of hosting by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in Oostende, Belgium was accepted to become the long term host for the system and also the OBIS secretariat moved from Rutgers University to the IOC Project Office for IODE in Oostende from where OBIS is presently maintained and additional development is carried out, without change of web address. OBIS is thus now located in Oostende, in the same building which is also home to VLIZ. VLIZ maintains two taxonomic databases, the World Register of Marine Species and IRMNG, the Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera, both of which feed into taxonomic decisions used to control the display of species-based information in OBIS and also provide the taxonomic hierarchy via which OBIS content can be navigated. OBIS is currently under the direction of IODE with advice from a steering group, the IODE Steering Group for OBIS (SG-OBIS); operational activities are directed by an OBIS Executive Committee (OBIS-EC) with support from 6 OBIS Task Teams. The OBIS secretariat, hosted at the UNESCO/IOC project office for IODE in Oostende (Belgium), includes the OBIS project manager and data manager and in addition to maintaining the OBIS system also provides training and technical assistance to its data providers, guides new data standards and technical developments, and encourages international cooperation to foster the group benefits of the network.