IMO honors Lindy Johnson

IMO honors Lindy Johnson    Linda 'Lindy' Johnson was posthumously awarded the International Maritime Prize this week, for her significant contribution to the work of International Maritime Organization, in particular with regard to the protection of the marine environment.
   Johnson, who passed away in October 2010 after a long illness, joined the Office of General Counsel for International Law of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1992 and was a regular member of the U.S. delegation to meetings of the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) from 1995 until her retirement in 2010.
   IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos presented the award, a sculpture in the form of a dolphin, to David Beddoe, Johnson's husband, during a ceremony at IMO Headquarters on Monday.
   The IMO said Johnson was involved in the negotiation of many international environmental treaty instruments, and played a crucial role in the development of revised procedures for the designation of Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSAs), and was directly involved in the PSSA designation of the sea around the Florida Keys in 2002, the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in Hawaii in 2007, and provided technical assistance to Ecuador leading to the designation of the Galapagos Archipelago PSSA in 2005.