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Greetings!
I can’t believe that it’s December already and we’re just a few days away from the end of 2023. Wow! We have had a really productive year and are closing it out on a couple of high notes.
We just completed two days of meetings with the Outreach & Education Council and the Products & Services Advisory Council in Alabama. It was great to see everyone in person again for the first time in a few of years. We had a lot of good discussions and will be looking forward to reengaging these councils in 2024. Thanks to OEC founding member Chris Verlinde, who is stepping down as Chair, and to Charlene Mauro, Director of the Navarre Beach Marine Science Station, who will be the new Chair.
During the meeting, GCOOS GIS Developer Hannah Dillahunt also presented our new “All Things Beaches — the Gulf of Mexico Beach Guide.” This product, which was first suggested at a joint meeting with these councils a number of years ago, includes weather alerts, water quality data and details on other hazards as well as amenities at more than 200 Gulf Coast beaches.
All Things Beaches collects beach data from numerous sources, including the National Weather Service (NWS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as a multitude of state and local agencies, and compiles it into a single, easily searchable website where beachgoers can easily access it. After more great suggestions from the council members, I’m sure we will also be adding new information to our maps in the coming year. Be sure to bookmark the site and check it out next time you plan a beach day!
I’m also pleased to share our 2023 Annual Report, which we just finalized this week. This document provides a high-level overview of what we’ve been up to this year, and I hope you’ll find it helpful to have in hand when you talk about GCOOS and our activities. I’d like to thank all of our members and data providers who make GCOOS possible and I’m looking forward to working to expand the Gulf’s ocean observing system even wider in 2024!
Until next year,
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How Do I love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways! | |
Ok. So we borrowed that line from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to tell you that now’s the time for our members and partners to share how they benefit from GCOOS data, products and tools.
Each year in February and March, GCOOS navigates the appropriations process in collaboration with the other 10 Regional Associations in support of IOOS appropriation requests, which help to secure funding from Congress. In addition to preparing official requests for each Congressional office, GCOOS meets with staff of U.S. Senators and Representatives from the Gulf states to share information and updates on how GCOOS impacts and benefits their constituents.
We need your help! Your feedback and testimonials are one of the most effective ways for us to demonstrate to lawmakers the importance of ocean observing data and products. How can you help? It’s easy! Simply:
- Write a brief statement (a couple of sentences) on how any aspect of GCOOS makes a positive difference for you, your constituents, the environment and so on.
- Email the information to GCOOS Project Manager Grant Craig at Grant.Craig@gcoos.org.
- Pictures are always nice, too!
| OEC and PSAC Meeting a Success! | |
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GCOOS hosted a joint meeting of our Outreach & Education Council and Products & Services Advisory Council Dec. 12-13 in Orange Beach, Alabama.
Participants discussed how GCOOS can best support the work of the Gulf outreach and education community, identified products and services to consider for inclusion in GCOOS Inflation Reduction Act funding, and determined next steps for the GCOOS All Things Beaches and Citizen Science products.
Chris Verlinde, OEC founding member and Chair, rotated to past-chair and Charlene Mauro, Director of the Navarre Beach Marine Science Station, stepped up as the new Chair.
GCOOS is pleased to welcome our newest members — OEC: Matthew Barrs, a student at the University of Central Florida, and Alma Robichau, representing the GOMA Education and Engagement Priority Issue Team; and to PSAC: Fred Stengard, Bama Sea Products, Inc., and Zhe Zhang, Texas A&M University. The GCOOS team gives a shout out to the amazing staff at the Hotel Indigo who set the stage for a productive meeting, and to Gulf State Park naturalists, led by Hannah Russel, for an informative tour of the dune ecosystems of the Gulf Coast environment.
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Apply Now for GCOOS Fellowship & Attend Ocean Sciences on Us | |
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Students are invited to apply for a six-month fellowship/scholarship opportunity for undergraduates offered by GCOOS. The six-month Fellowship, supported through the Howard Scholarship Fund, supports travel expenses for the successful candidate to attend the 2024 Ocean Sciences meeting in New Orleans (Feb. 18-23, 2024). It also includes the opportunity to learn how ocean observing programs like GCOOS inform decision-making in support of a healthy and productive Gulf of Mexico and the communities that depend on it.
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While Gulf coast residents may not always realize it, GCOOS data impact their lives in large and small ways almost every day. Developing such a robust ocean observing system would not be possible without strong partners and this 2023 Annual Report report provides a brief summary of the work we undertook together to support a healthy Gulf and resilient coastal communities.
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Want to know how hot it is? If there are weather alerts, harmful algal blooms or water quality issues on a beach you plan to visit? The interactive maps on All Things Beaches allow visitors to explore beaches across the Gulf of Mexico, including those that are regularly monitored and tested for water quality in coastal Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and on Florida's west coast. The guide also includes local links to beach information, including hours, parking, restrooms, showers, accessibility and other amenities.
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All Things Beaches, created by former GCOOS GIS Developer Shin Kobara and updated by current GCOOS GIS Developer Hannah Dillahunt, is free and accessible online:
- Via weblink
- Or use the handy QR code
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Data Spotlight: BioEco Portal | |
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The Biology and Ecosystems Portal of UNESCO/IOC’s Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) serves as an open access, online platform that the ocean observing community can use to discover information on marine biological and ecosystem observations generated by long-term programs.
U.S. IOOS regional partners, including GCOOS, and thematic networks like the Animal Telemetry Network and the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON), facilitate collection of marine life information as well as permanent data archival at the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and data sharing through the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) and the GOOS BioEco portal.
The portal holds information on 66 biological monitoring programs in U.S. marine waters. Ensuring sustained, systematic observation of the biology and ecosystem Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) established by the GOOS Biology and Ecosystem Panel is of particular importance for documenting marine life status and trends, especially when integrated with measures of ocean physics and chemistry. The United States contribution to the Global Ocean Observing System, the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), is an important component of the global UNESCO-IOC effort to develop Essential Ocean Variables.
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2024 Glider Workshop Planning | |
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The Underwater Glider User Group (UG2) is making plans for a 2024 Glider Workshop, building on the success of previous meetings. The date is tentatively scheduled two-and-a-half days the week of Sept. 9, 2024, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
UG2 is also seeking input from potential workshop attendees on topics to cover and other details.
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Please click here to fill out the expression of interest form and help organizers plan the agenda and confirm meeting dates, etc.
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Understanding Multi-Stressor Impacts | |
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NOAA announced $4.2 million for a four-year research project geared toward understanding multi-stressor impacts on Florida's marine ecosystems under different climate change scenarios.
This research is critical to habitat restoration projects that are already underway, including Mission: Iconic Reefs in NOAA's Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan in Southwest Florida.
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Recommendations for Gulf Oyster Restoration | |
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The Nature Conservancy Gulf of Mexico Program released recommendations for accelerating the restoration of oysters in the Gulf of Mexico. The new report suggests eight overall strategies for oyster restoration and proposes that $40-50 million in Federal money be allocated to each of the five Gulf states to implement those and related strategies. According to the report: “the Gulf states are facing an unprecedented oyster crisis. Additional decisive action is needed to address this problem. There is more funding available to restore oysters than ever before, but unless that funding is allocated and invested strategically, oysters will not recover to a self-sustaining level in the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem.”
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Healthy and Resilient Gulf RFA | |
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The EPA Gulf of Mexico Division has announced the opening of the Healthy and Resilient Gulf of Mexico 2023 request for applications funding opportunity. EPA plans to award five grants of up to $6 million each through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Priority areas are 1) Water Quality Improvement; 2) Protect, Enhance, or Restore Habitat; 3) Environmental Education; and/or 4) Strengthen Community Resilience.
This RFA seeks applications for a partnership of five or more eligible entities, and two of the partners must be small community-based organizations. All projects must take place in disadvantaged communities.
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See details and the RFA here
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Hurricane Season is a Wrap | |
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The Atlantic Hurricane season officially ended. Here’s a few fun facts:
- Some 80 gliders were deployed for a variety of mission purposes and contributed temperature and salinity profiles to the NOAA operational ocean model, RTOFS.
- GCOOS/USF captured data during Hurricane Idalia, which helped the ROTFS more accurately forecast the track!
- About one-third of those gliders were deployed for hurricane missions, funded primarily via the 2022 Disaster Relief Supplemental Act, monitoring essential ocean features known to impact hurricane intensity (e.g. eddies, freshwater barrier layers, subsurface cold pools, etc).
- The U.S. Navy contributed 12 gliders to the hurricane tracking effort
GANDALF, the GCOOS autonomous vehicle tracking and piloting dashboard, documented 1,584 'wet days' for 2023, including:
- Six Saildrones during hurricane season
- 28 total vehicles tracked
- Data points collected included temperature, salinity, CDOM, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, backscatter and depth-averaged currents.
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Healthy Ecosystems & Living Resources | |
UNESCO Announces Collaboration Among NOAA, USGS, NPS and OBIS | |
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With the U.S. rejoining UNESCO, the National Park Service, NOAA, UNESCO, and USGS are working together to further enhance cooperation on the exchange of scientific knowledge, expertise and best practices in ocean biological observations.
Platforms like UNESCO/IOC’s biology and ecosystems portal of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS), hosted by USGS, are instrumental in supporting the exchange of knowledge. Enhanced cooperation includes strengthened coordination of advancements and integration of traditional and emerging technologies, such as environmental DNA, underwater acoustics, imaging, and remote sensing, into the observation system.
Joint work will include developing automated data flow pipelines to publish various marine life observations, including coral reef monitoring, animal telemetry, passive acoustics, and eDNA data to OBIS. Increasing the public availability of records on marine biodiversity, including taxonomy, abundance, and ecological observations will provide more comprehensive characterizations of marine ecosystems necessary for better understanding and management of our natural capital that sustains life on Earth. “Trusted, interoperable marine life information is at the foundation of this partnership, our collective efforts to advance science and stewardship, and ultimately our ability to manage and protect critical living resources for future generations,” said Nicole LeBoeuf, NOAA Assistant Administrator and U.S. Representative to the IOC.
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New Data Visualization Tool for Reefs | |
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NOAA’s National Coral Reef Monitoring Program has unveiled a new data visualization tool, which provides free and easy-to-access information on the status of U.S. coral reefs.
Stakeholders, scientists, managers and students have a one-stop information hub to access and understand NOAA’s shallow tropical coral data that they can customize to focus on coral trends across specific timescales, locations, coral or fish species, climate data and socioeconomics.
The GIS-based tool allows you to see where and when data were collected, visualize status and trends, and download summarized data in an easier way than ever before.
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Texas A&M University (TAMU)
DiMarco Named Head of GERG
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Dr. Steve DiMarco, Professor of Oceanography and Ocean Engineering, has been named as Director of the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG) at TAMU. GERG is a Board of Regents approved Center of Excellence established in 1987 and has 30 full-time research, technical and business staff, graduate students and student workers. DiMarco follows past directors Dr. Anthony H. Knap (2013-2023), Dr. Norman L. Guinasso ’84 (2004-2010), Dr. Mahlon C. Kennicutt II ’80 (1998-2004), and Dr. James Brooks ’75 (1975-1996).
DiMarco has been at Texas A&M University since 1992. The five-building GERG research campus is at 833 Graham Road, College Station, Texas.
| U.S. and Mexico strengthen scientific collaboration | |
In a big step toward strengthening scientific coordination for our shared waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Maria Elena Orantes, Consulado General de México en Houston, and her staff presented GERG’s Drs. Tony Knap and Steve DiMarco with research visas at the Consulate Office in Houston, Texas. The visas allow GERG to participate in a research project in Mexican waters called "UGOS MASTR Gliders Mission 2023" in collaboration with CICESE and the Ensenada Scientific Research and Higher Education Center UNAM Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. "It was a pleasure and honor for Tony Knap, Matt Smith and I to meet the Consulado General de México en Houston Maria Elena Orantes and her staff who personally presented us with our Research Visas,” said Dr. DiMarco, Director of GERG. “This is an important step forward to enhance oceanographic collaboration and our teams can’t wait to get in the water in January 2024.”
The research project, funded by the National Academy of Sciences Gulf Research Program, is an international effort to advance understanding of the complex current system in the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to improve the wellbeing of all communities in the Gulf by improving extreme weather forecasts and informing decisions made by those in offshore energy industry and management, as well as resource managers focused on living resources.
|  | Pictured from left to right: Juan Pablo Cortes Villalobos (Mexican Consulate Office Staff), Steve DiMarco, Professor and GERG Director, Consulado General de México en Houston Maria Elena Orantes (Consulate General), Anthony Knap, Research Scientist, GERG Past Director (retired), Matthew Smith, Oceanography Graduate Student, GERG Ocean Technology Intern. | Recognizing 10 Years of Operations | |
City of College Station Mayor John Nichols (center with Dr. DiMarco) presented a proclamation celebrating “Ten Years of Ocean Autonomous Vehicle Ops Day” to GERG Director Dr. DiMarco on Dec. 11. The proclamation recognized GERG for the group’s ocean vehicle observations that are routinely used by federal agencies such as the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, and IOOS, as well as state agencies such as the General Land Office, Texas Center for Environmental Quality, and Texas One Gulf. Way to go team! | |
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Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP)
Sad News
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ESIP announced the passing of Jeff de La Beaujardiere (pictured here after receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)), an active ESIP community member for more than 20 years, which began when he was a computer scientist working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Jeff served at the NOAA/NESDIS Data Management Architect and worked behind the scenes to secure NOAA's role as a funding sponsor of ESIP, a step that was crucial in solidifying ESIP as a broad-based, sustainable community organization. He was also influential in the ocean observing community as a senior systems architect at IOOS.
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You can view his memorial board here
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U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS)
IOOS Appoints Baize as Economist
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Zack Baize has been appointed as Ocean Industry Economist at IOOS, where he will continue to support the New Blue Economy/Ocean Enterprise activities associated with IOOS IRA investments, including serving as lead for the Ocean-based Climate Resilience Accelerators (OCRA) program and Marine Technology Society collaborative activities. Additionally, he will be adding Ocean Enterprise Study and NOAA commercialization activities to his portfolio.
Welcome aboard!
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IOOS Advisory Committee Seeks New Members | |
IOOS is seeking 10 new members to serve three-year terms on its Advisory Committee. As a Federal Advisory Committee, membership on the IOOS Advisory Committee is required to be fairly balanced in terms of viewpoints represented and the functions to be performed, as well as including the interests of geographic regions of the country and the diverse sectors of our society (business and industry, science, academia, and the public at large). To assess the eligibility of a possible candidate please refer to the federal register notice.
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GCOOS: Marine Mammal Biologist/Data Scientist
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Texas A&M University: Sea Grant Director
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Board on Gulf Education and Engagement: Program Officer
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The University of Southern Mississippi: Associate Marine Instrumentation Specialist
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The University of Miami (RSMAS): Tenure or Tenure-Track Professor
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GOOS Biology: Data Manager
- Mote Marine Laboratory
Postdoctoral Positions:
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National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration: National Centers for Coastal Ocean Sciences, NRC Research Programs
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Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute: Postdoctoral Fellowship
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National Research Council: Research Associateship Programs Postdoctoral and Senior Research Awards
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Smithsonian Environmental Research Center: Animal Teletmetry Postdoctoral Fellow
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Mississippi State University: Postdoctoral Associate
Fellowships:
- Susan L. Williams National Coral Reef Management Fellowship
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National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration - Coastal Management Fellowship
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National Academies of Science, Engineering and Mathematics: Early Career Fellowships
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Department of Defense: Visualization of Coastal Data, Coastal Vulnerability Assessment Fellow
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National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration – Translating Coastal Research into Application
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The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine – Early Career Research Fellowship
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National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration: American the Beautiful Conservation Initiative
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National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; Gulf Research Program: Understanding Climate-Induced Mental Health Impacts
- Gulf of Mexico Alliance
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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 on-demand information about the Gulf’s coastal and open ocean waters that is accurate, reliable and benefits people, ecosystems and the economy. | |
Dr. Jorge Brenner, Executive Director • Dr. Barbara Kirkpatrick, Senior Advisor • Dr. Uchenna Nwankwo, Oceanographer • Dr. Chris Simoniello, Outreach & Education Manager • Felimon Gayanilo, Systems Architect, Co-Data Manager • Bob Currier, Product Developer, Co-Data Manager • Tuomo Saari, Scientific Computing Specialist • Hannah Dillahunt, GIS Developer • Jennifer Vreeland-Dawson, Program Coordinator • Grant Craig, Project Manager and HABscope Volunteer Coordinator • Nadine Slimak, Public Relations & Content Marketing, Vetted Communications, LLC • Laura Caldwell, Program Assistant | |
In Memoriam: Matt Howard, 1952-2018
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