NOAA, NASA and BOEM create new national network to monitor marine biodiversity

[descent]

U.S. initiates prototype system to gauge national marine biodiversity

October 6, 2014

NOAA, NASA and the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) have joined together to support three demonstration projects that will lay the foundation for the first national network to monitor marine biodiversity at scales ranging from microbes to whales.

The projects, to be funded at approximately $17 million over the next five years, subject to the availability of funds, will demonstrate how a national operational marine biodiversity observation network could be developed. Such a network would serve as a marine resource management tool to conserve existing biodiversity and enhance U.S. biosecurity against threats such as invasive species and infectious agents.

The three demonstration marine biological observation networks will be established in four locations: the Florida Keys; Monterey Bay and the Santa Barbara Channel in California; and on the continental shelf in the Chukchi Sea in Alaska. ... (read the rest of the NOAAnews press release)

 

[Wookie]

Is that a particularly badly worded press release, or is the federal government spending 17 million to learn to communicate between different branches of the government?

 

[descent]

Is that a particularly badly worded press release, or is the federal government spending 17 million to learn to communicate between different branches of the government?

Yes, I think the answer is option two: create a new communications capability.

Woody Turner, manager of NASA's Biodiversity Research Program. "[W]e need a more effective way of combining different types of information to get a better picture of how marine ecosystems are changing if we are to sustain these important ecosystem resources."

Publishing research in journals is a useful and important activity, but it doesn't integrate anything.

It sounds like someone is about to get a job that requires knowing (among other things) where the newest lionfish sightings are, what the estimated total population is, and how quickly the species is spreading through US coastal waters.

 

[Wookie]

Yes, I think the answer is option two: create a new communications capability.




Publishing research in journals is a useful and important activity, but it doesn't integrate anything.

It sounds like someone is about to get a job that requires knowing (among other things) where the newest lionfish sightings are, what the estimated total population is, and how quickly the species is spreading through US coastal waters.

I think I could get a $25,000 per year intern to sit in an office and read every sanctuary "State of the Sanctuary" report, call Basta now and again to see what's up, call each Sanctuary Science Coordinator, check with NASA and BOEM (their marine science guys are pretty good dudes, and will tell you what's going on) to see what they are doing and planning all for a lot less than $17M.

But then, I buy my toilet seats at Home Depot for $34. When one breaks while I'm on the crapper, I go get another one. I actually keep spares.

 

[drbill]

IMHO it's a bit late to try to establish a good baseline for monitoring biodiversity. The time for that probably was 1950 on the Left Coast or (much) earlier. Of course trends using a current baseline could provide some useful data...