Spring has sprung here at GCOOS and I hope you have the opportunity to enjoy a break as we get ready to head into the Gulf’s busy ocean observing season (aka hurricane season)!
We’ve been meeting with our federal lawmakers to spread the word about GCOOS’s mission and the exciting things happening in our ocean observing community. The feedback has been very positive and I feel as if we’ve made real strides in showcasing the important ways that ocean technologies and data collection and transmission impact the lives of Gulf residents everyday.
While I’m excited to be transitioning from my role as Executive Director of GCOOS, I want you all to know that there’s no way I’ll be going cold turkey from our ocean community!
Once a new executive director is chosen, I will help that person with the transition. I will also continue to be involved in special projects and on several ongoing grant-funded projects on a part-time basis.
Below is a link to the full job description and information on how to apply. Please help us share this information throughout the ocean observing community — especially to friends and colleagues in the Gulf.
Please also mark your calendars for our biannual meeting on May 18. We hope this will be our last virtual meeting and that we’ll be able to get together in person this fall!
Until next month,
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Dr. Barbara Kirkpatrick
Executive Director
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P.S. Don't forget to make your nominations for the GCOOS Board of Directors! |
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GCOOS Seeks New Executive Director |
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The GCOOS Board of Directors is undertaking a national search for the organization’s next leader. The position includes:
- Supervision and management of the GCOOS team and their associated projects.
- Representing GCOOS at scientific conferences and workshops and other venues as deemed appropriate by the GCOOS Board of Directors. (i.e. annual IOOS DMAC meeting, Ocean Sciences meeting, AGU, etc.)
- Growing the GCOOS Membership and Data Holdings by seeking new data streams in the Gulf of Mexico and working with partners to add the data to the GCOOS data portal.
- Full details and application information
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Save the Date: GCOOS Spring Meeting |
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Please mark your calendars and save the date for the next GCOOS Spring Meeting. We’ll be meeting virtually this year and we’re still planning the agenda, so watch this space, as well as our website and Facebook page for details. The meeting is open to all who are interested in ocean observing in the Gulf of Mexico and will include updates from some of GCOOS’s principle investigators.
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When: 1-5 p.m. EST May 18
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Registration & agenda: Coming Soon!
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Nominations for the Board Now Open |
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The GCOOS Board of Directors invites nominations from colleagues interested in and committed to working within an organization dedicated to provide data, information and products to the Gulf of Mexico stakeholder community that includes the private sector, governmental agencies at all levels, academia and researchers, non-governmental organizations and the general public.
- The nomination deadline is 5 p.m. (CST), Friday, March 26, 2021
- Ballots will be sent out for a vote on Friday, April 2, 2021
- Voting ends at close of business, Friday, April 14, 2021
- Terms are three years and begin at the autumn Board meeting (usually held in September/October). Self-nominations are welcome.
- Learn more about Director duties & how to make a nomination.
Current Board Members whose terms expire in Fall 2021
Private Sector
- Dr. Alyssa Dausman, the Water Institute of the Gulf
- Bill Lingsch, UG2 Glider Coordinator
Government Sector
Academic Sector
- Dr. Nick Shay, University of Miami, RSMAS
Outreach & Education Sector
- Renee Collini, Mississippi State University
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New Gulf Research Program Advisory Board |
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The Gulf Research Program’s Strategic Plan outlines the establishment of five boards dedicated to upholding the organization's mission to develop, translate, and apply science, engineering, and medical knowledge to enhance offshore energy safety, environmental protection and stewardship, and human health and community resilience in the Gulf region in ways that empower its citizens.
The Board on Gulf Education and Engagement, headed by Dr. Karena Mothershed, Senior Program Manager, is supported by a newly appointed Advisory Board:
- Ms. Jean May Brett: Director, Math Science Partnership & STEM Partnership Coordinator, Louisiana Department of Education (retired)
- Dr. John T. Cooper: Assistant Vice President for Public Partnership & Outreach, Texas A&M University
- Dr. Donald Davis: Louisiana Sea Grant Scholar, Louisiana State University
- Ms. Katherine T. Egland: Chair of the Environmental and Climate Justice Committee, NAACP National Board of Directors
- Dr. Versie Johnson-Mallard: Associate Dean, University of Florida, College of Nursing
- Dr. Louella Mack-Webster: State STEM Program Supervisor, Mississippi Department of Education
- Dr. Chris Simoniello: GCOOS Outreach and Education Manager, Research Scientist, Texas A&M University
- Mr. Craig Strang: Associate Director, Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley
- EX-OFFICIO MEMBER: Dr. Regina M. Benjamin (NAM): Founder and CEO, Gulf States Health Policy Center
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Improving Satellite Imagery Processing to Detect Ocean Changes
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Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology have developed a new machine learning-powered platform, known as OC-SMART, that can process ocean color in satellite images ten times faster than the world's leading platform. The work, which will be adopted by NASA, is one of the first machine learning-based platforms in ocean color analysis that can process both coastal and open ocean regions globally to reveal data on sea health and the impact of climate change.
The work, led by Dr. Knut Stamnes, a physics professor at Stevens, and spearheaded by Dr. Yongzhen Fan, a visiting physics scholar in Stamnes' lab, solves a 30-year-old problem in retrieving data from both coastal regions and open ocean areas.
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The top image shows OC-SMART's performance in picking up chlorophyll product compared to previous technology, shown in the bottom image. Image by Stevens Institute of Technology. |
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Human Health and SafetyHeHEALTH
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The People Behind the Science: Red Tide Respiratory Forecast Volunteer |
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The Forecast tells beachgoers the level of respiratory risk they face when going to individual beaches.
The contributors use HABscopes — the low-cost, portable microscope that GCOOS outfitted with a special adaptor — and an iPod to take video of water samples that are sent to the cloud where automated software is used to “read” them and determine whether Karenia brevis cells — the alga that causes red tides in the Gulf — are present and at what concentrations.
One of our newest volunteers is Christopher Axline, a high school student who volunteered to run his own ’scope in Collier County, Florida, after seeing a presentation by Rhonda Watkins about it during a youth leadership event.
Says Watkins, Principal Environmental Specialist Collier County Pollution Control: “Chris is active in his high school environmental club, plays oboe in the concert band and runs crab traps in his spare time. It's nice to have a student who is so motivated and interested about science that he took the initiative to get involved in his local environment! We’re happy to have him on the HABscope team!”
The Red Tide Respiratory Forecast was developed by NOAA in partnership with GCOOS and other local and state partners. NASA provided the initial funding.
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Healthy Ecosystems & Living Resources |
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Using Marine Biodiversity to Measure Ecosystem Health |
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Habitat providers. Animal shelters. Coastline defenders. Nutrient recycling champions.
Corals and the reefs they build provide these life-sustaining services — and the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries is tasked with managing them.
Historically, there's been a lack of objective criteria to justify a particular rating or assess a particular management strategy because of the complexity of these reef systems.
In the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, one of the largest marine protected areas in the U.S. that encompasses nearly 2,900 square miles (9,933 km), the South Florida MBON team is working with GCOOS and SECOORA to better characterize resource status so appropriate management responses to pressures can be made. Led by Dr. Frank Muller-Karger, University of South Florida College of Marine Science, it brings together satellite remote sensing, genetic analysis, fish and plankton surveys, and ambient sound recordings. Combined, these innovative approaches are providing a synoptic view of the sanctuary.
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Low Salinity Effects on Dolphins |
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The U.S. Marine Mammal Commission is hosting a webinar on the effects of low salinity exposure on bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf.
The webinar will include presentations on the unusual mortality event in the northern Gulf of Mexico; the status of Barataria Bay dolphins more than 10 years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster; an overview of issues related to low-salinity exposure; and more topics. A panel discussion will include major findings, data needs, mitigation and monitoring options and next steps.
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The Gulf of Mexico Alliance recently released the 2020 Gulf Star Report on this public-private partnership supporting healthy beaches, clean waters, productive ecosystems, and thriving coastal communities in the Gulf region. The annual report highlights programs and successes accomplished through the Alliance’s Priority Issue Teams and Cross-Team Initiatives.
Thirty three projects have been completed to date; eleven are in progress.
The program is supported by the Gulf Star partners: NOAA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, BHP, Shell, Freeport McMoRan, Hess, Chevron, Clean Gulf Associates, Equinor, and Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area Program.
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iNaturalist How-To Training |
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Paddle the Gulf is sponsoring a how-to training for iNaturalist, an app that helps you identify the plants and animals around you, connect with a community of scientists and naturalists and record and share your own observations. iNaturalist is a joint initiative by the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society.
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Making Fisheries Resilient to Climate Change |
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NOAA has launched an agency-wide effort to gather public input on section 216(c) of the Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. The order directs NOAA to collect recommendations on how to make fisheries, aquaculture and protected resources more resilient to climate change. NOAA invites input through April 2, 2021 to OceanResources.Climate@noaa.gov. NOAA is also hosting three national stakeholder calls, which will be recorded:
Noon to 2 p.m. EST March 23, 2021: Open to all stakeholders nationally
- Dial in: (888) 769-8793 (toll-free); or (212) 547-0306
- Passcode: 4379815#
- 3 minutes per person; additional rounds as time allows
1:30 to 3 p.m. EST March 25, 2021: For state and tribal governments
- Dial in: (877) 716-4288 (toll-free); or (312) 470-7386
- Passcode: 6268962#
3:30 to 5:30 p.m. EST April 1, 2021: All stakeholders nationally
- Dial in: (800) 857-9693 (toll-free); or (630) 395-0354
- Passcode: 5473603#
- 3 minutes per person; additional rounds as time allows
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Hurricane Mitigation Workshop |
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Shoreline21 (SHared Operational REsearch Logistics In the Nearshore Environment) is convening experts from wind/coastal engineering, atmospheric science, oceanography, ecology, emergency management, and crisis communications to foster collaboration across field and laboratory research directed at reducing hurricane impacts to the built and natural environment, with the goal of exposing them to how the NSF NHERI program can amplify research efforts. Virtual meeting April 26-27.
Workshop partners include NOAA OR&R Disaster Preparedness Program, the University of Florida Center for Coastal Solutions, the National Science
Foundation and others.
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In 2010, the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon resulted in the largest man-made disaster in U.S. history. Today, each Gulf state administers restoration funds and programs. Additionally, other agencies and organizations are also tasked with administering programs designed to restore Gulf habitats and better understand Gulf ecosystems.
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Sea Slug Science — Not Fiction |
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Like something out of a B-movie science fiction horror flick from the 1960s, ecologists at Nara Women’s University in Japan, have discovered that the heads of sea slugs ( Elysia cf. marginatasea) can pull free from their bodies and eventually grow a new body altogether. It appears to be the first time whole body regeneration has been reported for any species of sea slug.
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Conservation and management agencies from across Texas came together recently to help rescue more than 11,000 stranded green and other sea turtles during a mass cold-stunning event that took place when temperatures plummeted in February.
Partners — including Texas A&M University, the Marine Spill Response Corporation, the U.S. Coast Guard and private vessel owners — assisted in the operation to return the turtles to the wild as quickly as possibly after they recovered.
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GCOOS maintains a jobs listing for positions and fellowships in the ocean observing community. Want to advertise a position? Email Laura Caldwell
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National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine: Senior Program Officer Gulf Environmental Protection and Stewardship Program
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National Center for Atmospheric Research: Associate Scientist
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Mote Marine Laboratory: Aquarium Services Associate, Graphic Designer, Education Specialist III
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Genwest Systems, Inc.: GIS Analyst
Postdoctoral Positions:
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NOAA: National Centers for Coastal Ocean Sciences, NRC Research Programs
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Fourqurean Laboratory at Florida International Laboratory: Data analysis and synthesis
Fellowships:
- The University of Florida Center for Coastal Solutions (CSS) and Florida Sea Grant (FSG)
- Margaret A. Davidson Graduate Fellowship
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GCOOS maintains a listing of funding opportunities. Have an opportunity you'd like to advertise? Email Laura Caldwell
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26-27: Shoreline21. (SHared Operational REsearch Logistics In the Nearshore Environment) Virtual.
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18: GCOOS Spring Meeting Virtual
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GCOOS is the Gulf of Mexico regional component of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and the only certified system dedicated solely to the Gulf of Mexico. Our mission is to provide timely, reliable, accurate and on-demand information on the open ocean and coastal ocean waters of the Gulf of Mexico to ensure a healthy, clean, productive ocean and resilient coastal zone. |
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Dr. Barbara Kirkpatrick, Executive Director • Bill Lingsch, U.S. Glider User Group Coordinator • Dr. Chris Simoniello, Outreach & Education Coordinator • Dr. Kerri Whilden, Oceanographer • Felimon Gayanilo, Systems Architect, Co-Data Manager • Dr. Shinichi Kobara, Assistant Research Scientist, Product Developer • Bob Currier, Research Specialist, Product Developer, Co-Data Manager • Marion Stoessel, Senior Research Associate • Jennifer Vreeland-Dawson, Research Associate • Grant Craig, Program Coordinator • Stephanie Watson, CETACEAN Coordinator • Nadine Slimak, Public Relations & Content Marketing, Vetted Communications, LLC • Dr. Chuan-Yuan Hsu, Post Doctoral Research Associate • Robbie Iles, Graduate Research Assistant • Laura Caldwell, Program Assistant
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In Memoriam: Matt Howard, 1952-2018
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