MARCH 2012 Update

March Highlights

  • AOOS Program Review and IOOS and NFRA meetings– AOOS Executive Director Molly McCammon joined her IOOS regional association counterparts for the annual program review in Silver Spring Feb. 28-March 1, spending three days sharing successes and challenges with IOOS program office staff and discussing a wide range of issues including certification, regional build-out plans, and the IOOS national summit planned for November 2012. The RA representatives also met with National Ocean Services AA David Kennedy and NOS Deputy Holly Bamforth, emphasizing the need to coordinate NOAA NOS regional portal developments including the IOOS RA portals, regional ERMAs (Emergency Response Management Applications), Regional Ocean Partnership data portals, and the new ocean.data.gov. The National Federation of Regional Associations board also met to discuss current and future funding issues.
  • Congressional support for AOOS/IOOS –Dear Colleague letters were recently circulated among House and Senate members in support of 2013 funding levels for regional IOOS equal to 2012 levels. We are very grateful to Congressman Don Young and Senator Mark Begich for their support of our program in these letters. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Murkowski typically does not sign on to these letters.
  • Kachemak Bay Science Conference - A three day symposium was held March 8-10th in Homer, attracting over 100 researchers, managers, and local community members to improve understanding of the Kachemak Bay ecosystem. Dugan gave a presentation on AOOS data resources, and hosted a small group coordination meeting about Cook Inlet.
  • Animal telemetry workshop – An IOOS-led Steering Committee met March 15-16 in Washington DC to continue discussions about development of a National Animal Telemetry Observing Network (ATN). A follow-up to an initial meeting held a year ago, the Steering committee reiterated the value of an ATN. They identified current challenges (primarily related to coordination and data sharing between networks) and drafted a strategic plan outline. Rosa Meehan (AOOS) and Andy Seitz (UAF) participated from Alaska. Attendees expressed interest and support for ATNs, and noted the approach and technology is proven. The concept of an ATN in the Arctic, especially focused on marine mammals, was well received as an area with existing infrastructure that could be further developed.
  • Arctic Observing Network Workshop – AOOS co-sponsored a 3 day workshop March 20-22 focused on seeking ways to better integrate Arctic Observing Network activities (largely funded by the National Science Foundation) with federal and state agency and other stakeholder management needs in the Arctic. A workshop report will be published in summer 2012.
  • Western AK Science Conference – Rosa Meehan attendedthe Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference in Dillingham March 28-29. The Southwest Interagency meeting (a regional meeting focused on fisheries) preceded the Science Conference. The conference theme was “Resilience in a Changing World” and several speakers touched on the importance of habitat and system heterogeneity as a key factor related to resilience and to productivity. Meehan spoke on AOOS resources and initiatives.
  • Ocean Workspace released for beta testing - During March, the AOOS Ocean Workspace was beta tested by a group of individuals who provided key inputto refine the project-level data management tool. The feedback was collated and synthesized by Axiom engineers, and is being addressed in the next version of the workspace scheduled to be released in early April. It is expected that the workspace will start being used by the EVOS Long Term Monitoring Project, Herring program and NPRB Gulf of Alaska project by the end of April.
  • NFWF Proposal - AOOS submitted a pre-proposal to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation on March 30, seeking additional funding to make the soon-to-be publicly released environmental data collected by industry in the Chukchi more accessible and usable for the public.

Going Forward – Some Key April 2012 Activities

  • April 2EVOS Long Term Monitoring Project Outreach Committee
  • April 3EVOS Long Term Monitoring Science Coordinating Team
  • April 6STAMP Advisory Committee – 1st meeting – BP Energy Center
  • April 19EVOS Herring Project PI meeting, Cordova (McCammon)
  • April 21-27IPY conference, Montreal (McCammon – tentative)

Molly McCammon, Darcy Dugan, Rosa Meehan and Rob Bochenek

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