Risk to human life and the environment caused by catastrophic failure of offshore operations are of concern to the public, government and industry. Management has a duty of care and legal obligation to ensure that it has sufficient knowledge of the marine environment to safely design, operate and control all of its offshore activities.

The WAGOOS organization was conceived to help coordinate and improve local knowledge of coastal seas. At present, it is an informal body consisting of university, industry, and government agency representatives. The goal is to establish the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) in Western Australia to benefit the State and Australia as a whole. GOOS is an international programme preparing the permanent global framework of observations, modelling and analysis of ocean variables needed to support operational ocean services.

Western Australia has important requirements for ocean data and information from the offshore and coastal environment including vessel port entry, Indian Ocean commerce, rock-lobster fisheries, offshore oil and gas operations, gauging load levels for ore carriers and oil rig design (engineering in general). A number of State agencies are investing heavily in environmental management of the Northwest Shelf wherein GOOS data is needed to track change and environmental degradation.

In the first instance, the focus will be on the important area between North West Australia and Indonesia. This region hosts many important industries including oil and gas operations, fisheries and is of high strategic importance. The key stakeholders have identified several key issues including:
· A safe and secure operating environment;
· Management of risk, particularly to the environment; and
· Development of efficient and cost-effective structures and operating methods.
The development of world best-practice in safety and environmental management is a high priority and this requires a knowledge and a detailed information data base.

Specifically, opportunities exist for synergistic observational networks, cooperation in regional and local ocean modelling, and in the development of nested models operated within the more general regional and global models. The WAGOOS aims to use industry-led projects to address key issues and exploit such opportunities and new technology.

The WA GOOS initiative is being led by Dr Ray Steedman, supported by Bill Erb from the Perth Office of the Inetergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). The initial tasks are
(a) to develop a constitution for the formalisation of the WA GOOS concept,
(b) seek agency sponsors to act as hosts for the activity within the general framework of Australian GOOS,
(c) seek nominations from key stakeholders to formalise the membership, and
(d) to plan and initiate a pilot project in the NorthWest Shelf region.

Seed funding has been provided by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to initiate this work.