Happy 10th Anniversary GCOOS-RA!

      2015 has started off as an exciting year as the GCOOS-RA continues celebration of its 10th Anniversary.

The GCOOS-RA has established a Facebook page to keep you current on information about the Gulf of Mexico and the GCOOS-RA. The page includes news, funding opportunities, images, video, and more! "Like" us at https://www.facebook.com/GCOOS . 

     It's not too late! The GCOOS-RA will be accepting nominations for the Board of Directors until 5 p.m. CST on Wednesday, 18 February 2015. In August, the terms of five board members will expire. The responsibilities of the 17-member board include: Setting policy for the organization and guiding the executive director; revising corporate bylaws and other documents as necessary; establishing and maintaining the structure of the Regional Association, including approvals of appointments to councils, committees, task teams and other groups; approving budgets and the business model; approving proposals; and approving endorsements requested by GCOOS-RA members for their proposals. Board terms are for three years and begin with the summer/autumn meeting. Nominations, including self-nominations, should include a short biography, indicate the member organization and its sector (government, academic, industry, education/outreach). Nominations should be emailed to both Alyssa Dausman, adausman@usgs.gov, Chair of the GCOOS-RA Membership Committee, and Susan Martin, susan.martin@gcoos.org.  

     The first GCOOS-RA Board meeting was held 25 August 2005, in Houston, TX. In attendance were 10 of the 12 newly elected Board members, representing government (Buzz Martin, Texas General Land Office), the private sector (Cort Cooper, Chevron Texaco, Ray Toll, SAIC, Jan van Smirren, Fugro GEOS), academia (Mark Luther, University of South Florida, Worth Nowlin, Texas A&M University, Nancy Rabalais, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Don Roman, University of Southern Mississippi), and education and outreach (Mike Spranger, University of Florida, Sharon Walker, USM). Alfredo Prelat (NEOS GeoSolutions) and Chris Oynes (U.S. Minerals Management Service) rounded out the membership. Ten years later, the GCOOS-RA is thankful for the enduring services of four Board members who have stayed the course: Nowlin, Rabalis, Spranger, and van Smirren continue to be leaders in the ocean monitoring and observing system enterprise in the Gulf of Mexico. Since 2005, the Board of Directors has expanded to 17 members. Currently, five members from BP America, Inc., Continental Shelf Associates, Fugro GEOS, LMI and Vencore Services and Solutions, Inc., represent the private sector; five members from the Alabama Public Health Laboratory, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Naval Research Laboratory, TGLO and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers represent the Government sector; three members from LUMCON, TAMU and USM represent academia; and four members from Chora Creative LLC, NOAA NDBC, University of Alabama-Huntsville, and UF represent outreach and education.    

   Five National Estuarine Research Reserve Systems in the Gulf (Mission-Aransas, TX; Grand Bay, MS; Weeks Bay, AL; Apalachicola, FL; and Rookery Bay, FL) received a NOAA Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) grant to conduct "TEACHERS ON THE ESTUARY" workshops at each reserve. A central thread of each workshop will be highlighting research and the System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) at each Reserve. The SWMP program uses sondes to collect both water quality and weather data which scientists use to help assess the health of coastal watersheds. These data are part of the GCOOS system. There is a SWMP data graphing tool on the estuaries.noaa.gov website which allows teachers and students to easily access and graph data from any of the 28 NERRS. Also available on the website is the Estuaries 101 MS curriculum, with several classroom activities that incorporate SWMP data. NERRS serve as "living classrooms" for educators, students and the general public, taking a local approach in advancing estuary literacy and generating meaningful experiences for people interested in learning about, protecting, and restoring estuaries. The GCOOS-RA congratulates Outreach and Education Council member Margaret Sedlecky, Weeks Bay NERR Education Coordinator, and colleagues Carolyn Rose, Mission-Aransas, Jennifer Buchanan, Grand Bay, Jeff Dutow, Apalachicola, and Sarah Falkowski, Rookery Bay, for receiving this award.

 

From left to right: Dr. Kumaran,  Dr. David Mathews, President of the Kettering Foundation  and Dr. Spranger.

GCOOS Board Member Selected to Serve as 2015 Cohort with the Kettering Foundation

Progress in Oceanography Paper Highlights Offshore Gulf Oceanographic Conditions

Texas One Gulf Center of Excellence

     Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Commissioner Toby Baker announced the selection of two consortia to establish Centers of Excellence in Texas as part of the ongoing implementation of the federal RESTORE Act, which requires that the five Gulf States affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill establish them for conducting research in the Gulf Coast region. The first selected consortium will be led by the University of Houston and will include Rice University, the NASA Johnson Space Center, Texas Southern University, Houston Community College, and Lone Star Community College. This consortium will study offshore energy development, including research and technology to improve the sustainable and safe development of energy resources in the Gulf of Mexico. The second consortium will be led by Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and will include the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, the Center for Translational Environmental Health Research, Texas A&M University-College Station, Texas A& M University-Galveston, the University of Texas at Brownsville, Texas State University, the University of Houston Law Center, the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System Regional Association, and the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston. This consortium involves many GCOOS-RA members and will focus study on sustainability, restoration, and protection of the coast and deltas; research and monitoring related to coastal fisheries and wildlife ecosystems in the Gulf Coast region; offshore energy development, including research and technology to improve the sustainable and safe development of energy resources in the Gulf of Mexico and its comprehensive observation, monitoring, and mapping of the gulf; and sustainable and resilient growth and economic and commercial development in the region. Read more at http://gcoos.tamu.edu/?p=8815.

The Florida Aquarium's Watershed Investigations Program introduces Hillsborough County students to scientific investigation, watersheds, climate change and pollution. Photo copyright The Florida Aquarium.

     Fifth-graders from 10 Title I schools in Hillsborough County, FL, are becoming citizen scientists through a new program designed to help increase their science literacy and give them an opportunity to learn more about freshwater, brackish and saltwater habitats by getting their hands dirty and feet wet. The program - Watershed Investigations - was developed and is being led by The Florida Aquarium and is funded through grants from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Program partners include Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), Tampa Electric Company (TECO), Hillsborough County Public Schools, Tampa Bay Estuary Program, Gulf of Mexico Alliance and the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System Regional Association (GCOOS-RA), which will host the data that the students gather.

Educator Professional Development Opportunities

New President and CEO of Consortium for Ocean Leadership

     Joint Ocean Commission Initiative Leadership Council member Sherri Goodman was recently appointed President and CEO of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, succeeding Leadership Council member Bob Gagosian. Ocean Leadership represents 95 public and private ocean research education institutions, aquaria, and industry with the mission to shape the future of ocean science.

NOAA Fisheries Releases Draft Climate Science Strategy for Public Comment

     The NOAA Fisheries has released a draft Climate Science Strategy for public comment. The purpose of the Strategy is to increase the production, delivery, and use of climate-related information in fulfilling NOAA's fisheries stewardship mission for marine and coastal resources. The draft Strategy and information for submitting comments can be found at http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/ecosystems/climate/national-call-for-comments. For more information, contact Roger Griffis, Climate Change Coordinator, at roger.griffis@noaa.gov.

Innovation Grant to Communicate Science

     The organization Thinkable.org has launched a $5,000 open innovation grant to help inspire outreach related to research projects. Submissions are video-based and the winner will be chosen by open-vote, empowering researchers to share their work widely. The deadline to submit applications is 27 February 2015. Visit  http://thinkable.org/competition/6to learn more.   

New NRC Report: Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences

     The National Research Council announced the release of a new report on priorities for ocean science. The report, "Sea Change: 2015-2025 Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences" identifies eight strategic research priorities for the next decade that will continue to advance scientific understanding of the ocean. It also assesses the infrastructure needed to support this research, and makes recommendations for aligning current and planned infrastructure and budgets with science priorities in order to reach research goals. In the funding climate of flat or reduced budgets, the recommendations include decreasing expenditures on large ocean infrastructure to help ensure the success of core research programs. A public webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, 11 March 2015, at 3:00pm EST. To register for the webinar, visit https://nasevents.webex.com/nasevents/onstage/g.php?d=665828853&t=a. The report is available for download at http://nas-sites.org/dsos2015/.

Progress Upgrading Weather Forecast Offices to NWS AWIPS-II

    The National Weather Service (NWS) continues to make progress toward upgrading Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs)to the NWS Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System II (AWIPS-II). First, a WFO gets upgraded to AWIPS-II; a WFO having AWIPS-II then gets the "build" with the High Frequency Radar component. Currently, in the GCOOS-RA footprint, only Houston and Miami have AWIPS-II online. Key West, FL and Brownsville, TX, are expected to come online in February. Tampa and Tallahassee, FL, Mobile, AL, Slidell and Lake Charles, LA, and Corpus Christi, TX, are expected to follow in March. All coastal WFOs are targeted to have AWIPS-II by the end of Fiscal Year 2015. To find coastal WFOs in your region, see  http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/marine_map.htm. 

Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research

(SCGSR) program is accepting applications until 14 April 2015. Contact SCGSR Program Manager, Dr. Ping Ge, at sc.scgsr@science.doe.gov.

NASA Office of Education Scholarship and Research Opportunities

Submit applications by 31 March 2015 through the NASA One Stop Shopping Initiative at

Florida Center of Excellence Announces 2015 Funding Opportunity

2015 Bay Partner Grant Opportunity

Gulf Research Program Funding Deadlines Extended

     The Gulf Research Program is extending the application deadlines for the 2015 exploratory grants and fellowship competitions. Please submit application materials by the extended deadlines listed below. Exploratory Grants LOI are now due 25 February 2015 at 5pm ET. Fellowship Applications are now due on 27 February 2015 at 5 pm. Visit  http://www.nas.edu/gulf/about.