(established during J-GOOS II session in Paris, 1995, modified at J-GOOS III session, Paris, 1996)

The HOTO Panel will be responsible for:

1. Ensuring a continuing up-dating of the Strategic Plan for HOTO to adequately reflect development and understanding arising through relevant research and technology.
2. Further analysing the nature of marine processes and vectors for human disease transmission to ensure that the most appropriate variables relating to threats to human health are included in the HOTO module design.
3. Developing specific HOTO module designs for several marine regions including spacial and temporal resolutions of sampling to test the validity and comprehensiveness of the Strategic Plan for HOTO and to determine the specific measurements/variables required from other modules/programmes to support HOTO measurements and their interpretation.
4. Designing plans for training, mutual assistance and capacity building, where necessary, for undertaking the regional assessments.
5. Exploring the means of integrating existing operational systems, both national and international, dealing with the health of the oceans for achieving the goals of GOOS.
6. Identifying both requirements, nature and availability of models that can facilitate interpretation of HOTO variables or allow prognostic prediction of potential/future conditions relating to Health of the Oceans.
7. Maintaining liaison with research and monitoring activities to ensure that assessments and predictions of the health of the oceans are based on sound and contemporary scientific knowledge; and
8. Co-ordination with other modules of GOOS for the purposes of ensuring compatible strategic and scientific development of all GOOS modules.
9. Developing interaction with other scientific and technical bodies having relevance to furthering the development of GOOS (i.e. ICES, PICES, EURO-GOOS, etc...).
10. Defining HOTO products relevant to the requirements of specific users and describing the procedures leading from the base variable measurements, through scientifically-proven interpretation, to the preparation of such products.
11. Developing the HOTO Implementation Plan in consultation with the Coastal and LMR Panels.