Sea Bottom Wonders
Coast Guard of Japan
Shin Tani was born in Japan in 1954. He graduated from Kyoto University where he majored geophysics. After he finished master's course in Kyoto University Postgraduate School, where he majored geophysics (physical geomorphology), he joined the Hydrographic Department of Japan. He engaged in deep sea geophysical surveys, and oceanographic data management after he spent a year at NGDC in 1987-88. Shin was the first guy in Japan to process multibeam echo sounder data (at that time it was SeaBeam). He was the team leader transferring Japanese geodetic datum to WGS84 1999-2000. From 2001 he was in charge of the survey of the UNCLOS extended continental shelf. From 2003 he was transferred to the Cabinet Secretariat of Japan as the Cabinet Counselor who is in charge of ECS.
He left Cabinet Secretariat in 2012 to be the National Hydrographer of Japan as the Vice Admiral of the Coast Guard of Japan and retired the JCG in March this year. Since 2013, he has been the Chair of the GEBCO Guiding Committee. He's been a member of ABLOS (Advisory Board of the Law of the Sea) since 2003 (he was the chair of ABLOS 2005-2008).