The Eyes on the Ocean™ Bi-weekly is an informal way of keeping you up-to-date on U.S. IOOS® activities.

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From the Director:

Dear IOOS Community,

Tomorrow, April 22, we celebrate Earth Day. NOAA is working hard to invest in our planet every day, from creating a climate-ready nation to prioritizing environmental justice. NOAA and IOOS are monitoring the impacts of climate change, conserving and observing America’s waters, and supporting the New Blue Economy. 

One way for you to invest in our planet is to be a citizen scientist and help build community resilience. Helping to monitor harmful algal blooms, taking photos of peak tides, swells, or wave overtopping to help validate models, collecting water quality data, or reporting water levels in your community are just a few examples of how you can contribute to critical data that helps us better understand our Earth. Happy Earth Day!

Thanks,
Carl

From the U.S. IOOS Office:

  • Happy Retirement to former AOOS Executive Director Molly McCammon: Since 2003, Molly led AOOS from a small one-person operation to the largest purveyor of ocean observing data in the vast Alaska Region. Last year, Molly stepped down from being the full time AOOS Executive Director to become a Senior Advisor to the organization to help the transition to a new Director and to work on special projects.   She now plans to spend most of her time with her first grandchild, her new puppy, and to travel. Read more about Molly's career and what's next for her here.

  • IOOS Advisory Committee Public Meeting - May 11th and May 13th, 2022: The next public IOOS Advisory Committee meeting will be held May 11th and May 13th, 10am-5pm ET. The meeting will be held virtually and is open to the public. You can access the Federal Register Notice here. Please register for the meeting and submit public comments ahead of the meeting using this form or by sending an e-mail to Laura Gewain, Laura.Gewain@noaa.gov. The agenda for the meeting includes panel discussions focused on NOAA’s priorities - Growing the New Blue Economy, Climate Services, and Diversity, Inclusion, and Service Equity. The agenda and other meeting materials will be available on the Committee Meeting webpage. 

  • HAB Network Seeks Steering Committee Members: The National HAB Observing Network Community of Practice is seeking nominations or self-nominations for its steering committee. The network is seeking a broad spectrum of HAB observing experts, system operators, manufacturers, data managers, stakeholders, and others from around the country involved in or considering being involved in developing, operating, maintaining, or using data from US HAB observing systems. To apply, review the terms of reference, fill out a nomination form and send your resume to maggie@ioosassociation.org. The terms of reference and the application form can be found online. The deadline for submissions is April 29.

  • Welcome Jennifer Hinden! Jennifer Hinden started with the IOOS Office on Monday, April 11.  Jennifer is coming from the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) office and brings both contract and grants experience to IOOS. In order to help NCCOS meet their grants workload, Jennifer will continue to support NCCOS as she transitions to a full time role with IOOS in July. Jennifer will take over the lead COR duties, providing support to administer our grants, and work on our NOS evaluation duties and internal controls.

  • From the IOOS Association: 
    • Help find the next IOOS Association Executive Director: The IOOS Association Board of Directors is leading a search for a new Executive Director. The IOOS Association’s long-time Executive Director, Josie Quintrell, is retiring this fall, starting a leadership transition over the next few months. This is a tremendous opportunity to grow the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System. The Executive Director position is now open. To learn more about the position and how to apply, click here.

Observation Subsystem and Sensor Technologies:

  • Surface Current Mapping:

  • Gliders:

    • UG2 Updates:

      • UG2 Workshop Seattle ’22 - September 20-22, 2022: Registration for the 2022 UG2 Workshop in Seattle is now open! This workshop will bring together the global underwater glider community to strengthen international collaboration through community dialogue, exchanges of information, sharing of experiences, and development of best practices to support the glider community. The event will consist of plenaries, breakout sessions, glider lab tours, and poster sessions and vendor booths spread out over 2.5 days. Click the link below to register and/or submit an abstract. We welcome all abstract submissions relevant to the broader underwater glider community. Register/Submit Abstract Now! Workshop location: University of Washington Botanical Gardens | NHS Hall and Merrill Commons, Seattle, WA. We look forward to meeting with you all at the 2022 Workshop in Seattle. If you have any questions, please reach out to info@underwatergliders.org.

      • Click here to join UG2

      • UG2 Glider Related Job Postings

  • Buoys & Moorings:
  • New Buoys off the Coast of South Carolina Supporting Ship Operations and Harbor Pilots: Two new buoys deployed near the entrance to the Port of Charleston are supporting ship operations and harbor pilots with much needed data. The buoys are maintained by UNCW Coastal Ocean Research and Monitoring Program and funded by IOOS and SECOORA. Data is updated every hour. Read more here. 
  • Marine Life:
  • NOAA Showcases New Mapping Tool for Marine Species: NOAA Fisheries is launching a new tool to better track the location and movement of marine fish in U.S. waters. The Distribution Mapping and Analysis Portal reveals that the ranges of many marine species are shifting, expanding and contracting in response to changing ocean conditions. The interactive website will improve data sharing and collaboration, facilitate decision-making about fishery management and science and increase overall knowledge of species distribution for stock assessments. Read more: https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-showcases-new-mapping-tool-for-marine-species 
  • Professional development workshop: Best practices for the collection and processing of ship based underway flow-through optical data, August 1-5, 2022: This 5-day workshop provides a hands-on experience in setting an inline system on a ship or dock, logging and processing of the data collected. Topics covered include an overview of optical sensors and their principles of measurements, calibrations, installation, and best practices for quality control while at sea and during data processing. Elements of professional development associated with navigating the scientific community and responsible conduct of research will also be integrated into the workshop. See the flyer for details.
  • New Publication Reveals Cryptic Vertical Movement Patterns of White Sharks: Congratulations to researchers from Stanford University, Monterey Bay Aquarium, UC Santa Cruz, Montana State University and Oregon State University for the recent publication of their paper ‘Multi-Decadal High-Resolution Data Reveals the Cryptic Vertical Movement Patterns of a Large Marine Predator Along the Californian Coast’ in frontiers in marine science (https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.835576). Satellite and acoustic tagging of adult and sub-adult white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) between 2000 and 2018 revealed tagged individuals occupied significantly deeper depths during the day than at night while in coastal shelf waters, however substantial individual, temporal and spatial variability were documented. The sharks’ observed vertical movement patterns may be partly driven by light-levels as well as by foraging behavior and interactions with their mammalian prey while in their coastal foraging phase.   
  • 2022 Marine Biological Data Mobilization Workshop Summary: The workshop, held March 13-14, 2022, was a collaborative effort between OBIS, MBON, Hakai, IOOS, and OTN hosted to promote open data and software in the area of marine biodiversity assessment. The workshop had 63 participants with international engagement from across both coasts of Canada and the United States throughout the Caribbean, and across Central and South America as well as a few participants from Europe and Africa. The workshop focused on advancing interoperability for marine biodiversity data and served as an opportunity to continue to build a community of practice using standards for biodiversity data. Read more about the workshop here https://obis.org/2022/04/12/biodatamob/. 

Data Management and Cyberinfrastructure (DMAC) Subsystem and Tools Built on IOOS Data:

  • SAVE THE DATE! 2022 IOOS DMAC Meeting - June 14-16, 2022: We are pleased to announce that the 2022 DMAC Meeting will take place virtually on the afternoons (1:00 - 5:00 PM ET) from Tuesday, June 14 through Thursday, June 16. Please save these dates in your calendars.  We will reach out for agenda input for presentation and breakout discussion topics soon. Further information on event logistics will be coming out soon as well. Questions or suggestions about the agenda should go to data.ioos@noaa.gov. 

  • QARTOD:

    • QARTOD 2022-2026 Project Plan: The QARTOD 2022-2026 project plan update is in the final stages of completion. After a series of reviews, a total of 273 comments have been logged in an adjudication matrix and addressed. We are grateful to all reviewers for their thoughts and time, thank you very much! The plan describes our intentions to expand the scope of QARTOD. We’ll now include QA/QC documents that impact the quality of timely data dissemination, make the project more relevant to a broader range of communities. Contact Mark.Bushenll@noaa.gov to obtain a copy of the draft plan.

    • Ocean Best Practice System Update: The OBPS has announced the Ocean Practices Workshop VI will take place virtually with plenaries 5, 6, and 19 October 2022 (each three hours long). Working Group sessions will meet in between, at times of their own choosing. The workshop will cover a broad range of topics proposed and selected by session leads and workshop coordinators. For the plenaries, there are two general themes: 1) Guiding technology evolution and use, and 2) Capacity development/sharing, with an emphasis on developing countries. 

Modeling and Analysis Subsystem:   

  • No update.

Around the Regions:

  • NANOOS Community Workshop materials online: For those of you who were unable to attend or participants who want a recap, NANOOS has uploaded videos of the virtual workshop proceedings. Included are three NANOOS app use-case presentations on Tuna Fishers, Tsunami Evacuation, and Boaters, plus an overview and key take-aways by Executive Director Jan Newton. Workshop discussions focused on how to improve the system and increase visibility of NANOOS across the PNW. Click here for more information.
  • HABscope Observations Hit Record: With a Karenia brevis bloom persisting in parts of the Southwest Florida coast for nearly all of 2021 — and even affecting parts of the Florida Panhandle in the fall — the GCOOS HABscope volunteers played the most important role in supporting the Red Tide Respiratory Forecast. Volunteers collected more than 5,400 water sample videos and uploaded them to the Forecast system. Samples came from 89 different sites. Read more here. 
  • CA IOOS MPA Work Contributing to Decadal Assessment: CeNCOOS, together with our partners at SCCOOS and UCSC, is finishing up a two-year effort to integrate, standardize, and visualize ecological and environmental data in California’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to facilitate MPA research and assessments. The first MPA Decadal Management Review this year aims to assess how well the MPA network is meeting its goals. The CeNCOOS team’s work directly contributes to this review. The final report for the project, “Integrated ocean observing systems for assessing marine protected areas across California”, was published in January 2022, and the California MPA Dashboard is scheduled for public launch this summer.
  • Improving Predictions of Ala Wai Canal Bacteria: Recently published research led by University of Hawaiʻi (UH) at Mānoa scientists highlights the potential for using oceanographic sensors, including those maintained by the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS), to make accurate predictions of Vibrio vulnificus, an infectious bacterium, in the Ala Wai Canal in Waikīkī, Hawaiʻi. By assessing rainfall, water temperature, dissolved nutrients, and organic matter the team now has the ability to forecast potential spikes in levels of the bacteria. Read more here.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility:

  • Increasing Local Resilience: GCOOS Board Member Renee Collini was recently featured as part of a “Women of SeaGrant” series. Collini is a Coastal Climate Resilience Specialist with Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, Florida Sea Grant and Mississippi State University. She leads the Program for Local Adaptation to Climate Effects: Sea-Level Rise (PLACE: SLR), which spans coastal Mississippi, Alabama and northwest Florida. Read more here. 
  • Announcing SCDRP’s New Executive Director: For the past eight months, Dr. Meredith Hovis has served as Southeast and Caribbean Disaster Resilience Partnership’s (SCDRP) Program Coordinator. She co-hosted SCDRP’s Annual Meeting this past January, worked closely with the board on funding and partnership development efforts, and maintained all communications on behalf of SCDRP. Recently, Dr. Hovis was promoted to the role of SCDRP’s Executive Director. Read more here. 

Interagency and International Collaboration/News:

  • UN Decade of Ocean Science For Sustainable Development Updates:
  • Third Call for Decade Actions Now Open: The new Call for Decade Actions No. 03/2022 is an open invitation for partners worldwide to request endorsement for transformative Decade Actions that contribute to the Ocean Decade vision. Coinciding with the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture, the scope of the call for Decade Programmes is Challenge 3 – Sustainable Blue Food and Challenge 4 – Sustainable Ocean Economy. Building on the impact of the Ocean Decade since its launch in January 2021, the call aims to continue addressing thematic and regional gaps and to encourage transformative science to achieve the outcomes identified for the next ten years. Read more here: https://forum.oceandecade.org/news/734676 
  • Ocean Decade Advisory Board: first in-person meeting focuses on strategic guidance and review of Decade Actions proposed for endorsement: The members of the Decade Advisory Board met on 28-30 March 2022 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris (France) to discuss strategic issues influencing implementation of the Ocean Decade, and provide recommendations on the endorsement of Decade Programme submissions. Read more here: https://forum.oceandecade.org/news/732529 
  • Save the Date! Sixth Ocean Decade Laboratory - An Accessible Ocean - 10-12 May: From 10 to 12 May, the sixth Ocean Decade Laboratory will take place on the topic of the Ocean Decade Outcome “An Accessible Ocean”. It will be hosted by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in partnership with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. Learn more and register for the event here: https://www.oceandecade-conference.com/en/an-accessible-ocean.html 
  • African Conference on Priority Setting & Partnership Development for the UN Decade - 10-12 May: The African Conference on Priority Setting & Partnership Development for the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development is hosted by the Government of Egypt through its Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and the National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, and co-organized with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO through its Sub-Commission for Africa (IOCAFRICA) and in partnership with a wide range of partners in the region. The three-day conference will be held from 10-12 May 2022 in a hybrid format with a limited physical presence in Cairo, Egypt. It will present the results of the pre-conference workshops, the regional gap analysis, and national surveys, showcase endorsed Decade Actions in the region and will be featuring high-level support from UN agencies, governments, regional organizations as well as other stakeholder groups to these regional initiatives. These discussions will feed into the regional gap analysis that will support the development of the regional Ocean Decade Action Plan to deliver the Science We Need for the Ocean We Want in Africa. For more information: https://www.oceandecade.org/events/74456-african-conference-on-priority-setting-partnership-development-for-the-un-decade-of-ocean-science-for-sustainable-development/ Register here: https://unesco-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_peAFfLh5Sg-MMmIgp6xCCQ 
  • Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) News
  • Ride Along with Pioneer 18: Here’s an opportunity to travel along with the team of sixteen scientists and engineers as they conduct a bi-annual recovery and deployment of ocean observing equipment at the Coastal Pioneer Array.  This is the 18th “turn” of the equipment since the observatory was put in place in 2015. The data collected has advanced understanding of the shelf/slope dynamics and impacts on ecosystems.  Bookmark this page to follow along on the expedition, which runs through the end of April. Read more: https://oceanobservatories.org/2022/04/pioneer18/ 
  • NGS Supports Student Surveying Competition: The National Society of Professional Surveyors held their annual student competition on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Students from surveying programs at 12 universities across the country participated in the two-day event. The first day was a scavenger hunt where the student teams explored geodetic and boundary marks all around the D.C. metro area. The second day consisted of a traverse and a leveling loop at Benjamin Banneker Park, and a triangulation exercise near the Washington Monument. Two NGS staff members attended the in-person event and demonstrated how to access the geodetic control built into the Washington Monument and discussed NGS activities on the mall over the years. NGS staff take part in this and other student events throughout the year to support and mentor the next generation of surveyors and geodesists.
  • NGS, Florida DEP, and Water Management District to Survey Indian River Lagoon: NGS, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the St. John's River Water Management District are partnering to acquire topo-bathymetric lidar and imagery data (an underwater map) of the Indian River Lagoon. The NGS contractor Dewberry will collect data in March using a plane equipped with a bathymetric lidar sensor that can penetrate more than 240 feet of water. The sensor will simultaneously measure and record the elevation of land and depth of submerged land within a 616 square-mile area. The current bathymetry for the lagoon was created in the late 1990s. Since then, the seagrass in the lagoon has decreased significantly, which may have allowed sediments in the lagoon to shift. Having updated bathymetry will help create better models to predict storm surge and flooding, and will assist in planning for increased resilience in coastal communities experiencing sea level rise.
  • CO-OPS Releases Updated Relative Sea Level Trends: The Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) completed its annual recalculation of relative sea level trends for more than 100 long-term water level stations located around the U.S., Pacific region, and the Caribbean Islands. Data from these stations provides critical information for coastal communities about regional changes to relative sea level. This year, trends for most Atlantic and Pacific stations remained stable or unchanged. However, several Gulf coast and some Pacific stations showed more than half a millimeter of rise since last year's calculation. Overall, most long-term trends point towards persistent sea level rise.
  • CO-OPS Installs Water Level Station on Elevated Platform: CO-OPS reinstalled a National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) station on a new elevated platform on Dauphin Island, Alabama. Located at the western entrance to Mobile Bay, the new steel multi-pile platform replaced a condemned timber structure at risk of failure during extreme weather. The new setup is designed to facilitate continuous data collection and dissemination during Category 4 hurricanes and will incorporate Global Navigation Satellite System technology to monitor platform stability. As part of NOAA’s NWLON, the station will support CO-OPS efforts to provide accurate water level data to governmental, commercial, and recreational users.
  • OCS Participates in Louisiana Coastal Restoration Project: OCS’s southeast navigation manager participated in a coastal restoration effort on Prien Lake, Louisiana. Approximately 150 native plant species were rooted on large floating mats, which were then taken out to wetlands sites and anchored in place. These efforts created roughly 2,000 square feet of new wetland island habitat. This was the sixth floating marsh islands program in the area organized by the Coastal Conservation Association of Louisiana and partners. The projects create habitats and provide educational experiences to schoolchildren in the area, who learn about the coast and help protect their communities. The event was attended by 125 students from local grade schools.
  • Report of the first meetings of the IOC IWG on the Revision of the IOC Oceanographic Data Exchange Policy: The first meetings of the IOC inter-sessional working group (IWG) on the Revision of the IOC Oceanographic Data Exchange Policy took place April 05-06, 2022 (agenda, participants, and documents are available here). Membership in the IWG is limited to a few representatives worldwide. The IWG is tasked with submitting a revised IOC Oceanographic Data Exchange Policy to the IOC Assembly at its 32nd Session in 2023. There will be ample opportunity for feedback once the IWG generates a first draft data policy. The summary report of this first meeting is available here: https://www.oceanexpert.org/document/30237 

Click here to view the IOOS Association Calendar

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