The Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) and Sakhalin Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (SakhNIRO), Russia signed a cooperative agreement in Qingdao, Shandong province on April 22, 2011.

IOCAS director SUN Song and his counterpart Buslov Aleksandr were present at the signing ceremony. Both parties agreed that the initiative was of great strategic significance to strengthen collaborative investigation on marine biodiversity in the Pacific Northwest.

SakhNIRO is a Russian institute located in the Far East (Sakhalin-Kuril Region). It conducts complex studies in the Okhotsk and Japan seas, adjacent waters of the Pacific Ocean, and inland waters. The main directions of its researches are: assessment and state monitoring on the objects of commercial stock, ecological monitoring of coastal waters, aquaculture development, fish and invertebrate diseases.