In July 2012, at the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the “Tonnerres de Brest” maritime festival, and in the framework of the cooperation between Brest and Veracruz, Mexico was one of the guest of honour countries of the event.

Less than a year ago, on July 12 and 13, 2012 an action plan was discussed at the launching of the MITIN network. Its implementation is now well underway. A calendar of international meetings has been defined for 2013. Following on from the International meeting on marine and coastal biodiversity that had been organized in Brest in late 2012 and had been attended by several network members, we are now organizing a symposium on blue growth to be held in Qingdao in October 2013. This symposium will focus on two main themes: knowledge of the marine environment and sustainable exploitation of marine bio-resources. The entire MITIN community will gather to work on these issues of common interest to help create a new maritime economy...