OpenChannels Weekly Update Archives

For the week 10 April 2017

Greetings OpenChannels Community Members,

Join us Thursday, April 20 at 1pm US EDT / 10am US PDT / 5pm UTC for a webinar on Capacity Shortfalls Hinder the Performance of MPAs Globally, presented by David Gill of Conservation International and George Mason University.

Over the past two decades, marine protected areas (MPAs) have become a prominent tool to conserve marine ecosystems globally. Many unanswered questions remain regarding the ecological impacts of MPAs and the linkages between MPA management and resulting impacts, however. Using a global database of management and fish population data (433 and 218 MPAs, respectively), the authors of a major new study published in Nature found that most MPAs positively impact marine fish populations and that the magnitude of these impacts are strongly associated with available staff and budget capacity. Despite the critical role of MPA management, only 35 percent of MPAs globally reported acceptable funding and only 9 percent globally reported adequate staffing. While the global community focuses on expanding the current MPA network, these results emphasize the importance of meeting capacity needs in current and future MPAs to ensure the effective conservation of marine species.

For more information and to register, please visit https://oct.to/OCWebinar130.

Thank you for being a part of the OpenChannels Community,
-Nick Wehner, Allie Brown, and the rest of the OpenChannels Team

For the week 3 April 2017

Greetings OpenChannels Community Members,

Join us Thursday, April 13 at 1pm US EDT / 10am US PDT / 5pm UTC for a webinar on Microplastics: What we know and discussion of research needs, presented by Carlie Herring of NOAA.

Dive into the world of microplastics with the NOAA Marine Debris Program! Learn about what microplastics are, the different types, the impacts associated with microplastic marine debris, and future research needs.

For more information and to register, please visit https://oct.to/OCWebinar129.

Thank you for being a part of the OpenChannels Community,
-Nick Wehner, Allie Brown, and the rest of the OpenChannels Team

For the week 27 March 2017

Greetings OpenChannels Community Members,

Join us Tuesday, May 2 at 1pm US EDT / 10am US PDT / 5pm UTC for a webinar on Using the Ocean Health Index as an Integrated Tool for Implementing EBM and Coastal Management Approaches Globally, presented by Erich Pacheco and Johanna Polsenberg of Conservation International, and Julie Lowndes of NCEAS.

The Ocean Health Index (OHI) is the first assessment tool that scientifically combines key biological, economic, and social elements of ocean health to guide decision makers towards sustainable use of the ocean. Now working in more than 30 countries globally, the Ocean Health Index is a useful tool across geographic jurisdictions where coastal and marine policy decisions are made. Its standardized structure is repeatable and familiar across assessment jurisdictions but it is flexible to represent the important social and ecological characteristics, values, and priorities of the area assessed. Independent groups are able to lead assessments within their own waters, deciding what is important to measure and which data to include while building directly from the experiences and methods from other OHI assessments.

For more information and to register, please visit https://oct.to/OCWebinar128.

Thank you for being a part of the OpenChannels Community,
-Nick Wehner, Allie Brown, and the rest of the OpenChannels Team

For the week 20 March 2017

Greetings OpenChannels Community Members,

Join us Tuesday, April 25 at 2pm US EDT / 11am US PDT / 6pm UTC for a webinar on The SeaSketch Platform: Tools for Decision-Support and Managing Public Processes, presented by Will McClintock and Grace Goldberg of the University of California Santa Barbara.

SeaSketch is a decision support tool that supports collaborative map-based design workflows – putting science and information at the center of participatory processes. Over the past five years, SeaSketch has been used in dozens of projects all around the world – ranging from comprehensive marine spatial planning processes to community-driven conservation planning processes to facilitating collaboration between remote teams of scientists planning for data acquisition and vetting existing data sets. This webinar will give participants an overview of the SeaSketch platform, share exciting new feature additions that have been implemented to strengthen collaboration between remote teams, and highlight the resources tool developers provide so users can get the most out of their SeaSketch project.

For more information and to register, please visit https://oct.to/OCWebinar127.

Thank you for being a part of the OpenChannels Community,
-Nick Wehner, Allie Brown, and the rest of the OpenChannels Team

For the week 13 March 2017

Greetings OpenChannels Community Members,

Join us Thursday, April 13 at 1pm US EDT / 10am US PDT / 5pm UTC for a webinar on Microplastics: What we know and discussion of research needs, presented by Carlie Herring of NOAA.

Dive into the world of microplastics with the NOAA Marine Debris Program! Learn about what microplastics are, the different types, the impacts associated with microplastic marine debris, and future research needs.

For more information and to register, please visit https://oct.to/OCWebinar125.

P.S.: The media is doing a great job covering the shenanigans going on here in the US. As such, we're finding (and posting) several similar stories with different takes and information on the same topic. We're doing our best to join these stories together by linking to them in our "related content" sections.

For many of the news items below, rather than linking you to the source of the news, we'll now be linking you to the news item on OpenChannels. There, you may click the link to read the full story from its source, as well as browse any related content we've found. You'll be the champion of news trivia – enjoy!

Thank you for being a part of the OpenChannels Community,
-Nick Wehner, Allie Brown, and the rest of the OpenChannels Team

For the week 6 March 2017

Greetings OpenChannels Community Members,

Join us Tuesday, March 14 at 1pm US EDT / 10am US PDT / 5pm UTC for a webinar on Drivers and Implications of Change in Global Ocean Health as Demonstrated by the Ocean Health Index, presented by Ben Halpern of the University of California, Santa Barbara and Steve Katona of Conservation International.

The Ocean Health Index (OHI) is a scientific assessment framework that combines and compares biological, physical, economic, and social elements of ocean health to assess how sustainably ocean resources are utilized within a given region. The OHI team recently published its fifth annual global assessment. For this webinar, lead scientists Benjamin Halpern and Steven Katona will discuss changes in OHI scores over five years, possible causes and consequences of those changes, challenges and opportunities for composite indicators to incorporate the best available science each year, and lessons learned in repeating and improving the OHI assessment each year.

For more information and to register, please visit https://oct.to/OCWebinar124.

P.S.: We're pleased to announce a new section of OpenChannels devoted to curating the dizzying array of news coming out of the White House, as it pertains to ocean and coastal conservation. We're calling it Trump Watch. You can follow the coverage at /trump-watch. Good luck and godspeed, Team Ocean!

Thank you for being a part of the OpenChannels Community,
-Nick Wehner, Allie Brown, and the rest of the OpenChannels Team

For the week 27 February 2017

Greetings OpenChannels Community Members,

Join us Thursday, March 9 at 1pm EST / 10am PST / 6pm UTC for a webinar on Implications of Spatial Connectivity and Climate Change for the Design and Application of MPAs, presented by Mark Carr of University of California at Santa Cruz and Sarah Robinson of Critical Inquiries Research.

The US Marine Protected Area (MPA) Federal Advisory Committee (FAC) has a Connectivity Subcommittee charged with understanding how knowledge about ecological spatial connectivity and climate climate change can be incorporated into the design, use, and management of effective MPAs and MPA networks. The committee has summarized the current scientific understanding of: 1) different types and scales of connectivity and their ecological implications, 2) how connectivity processes create ecological linkages among marine areas, populations, communities, and ecosystems, and 3) how connectivity impacts conservation outcomes in MPAs. This webinar will summarize the work of the FAC on the implications of spatial ecological connectivity for the design and application of MPAs in a changing ocean. This work forms the basis of the FAC's recommendations to the US Secretaries of Commerce and the Interior for future US MPA management and policy.

For more information and to register, please visit https://oct.to/OCWebinar123.

Thank you for being a part of the OpenChannels Community,
-Nick Wehner, Allie Brown, and the rest of the OpenChannels Team

For the week 20 February 2017

Greetings OpenChannels Community Members,

Join us Tuesday, February 28 at 1pm EST / 10am PST / 6pm UTC for a webinar on Washed Ashore: Combining art and science to raise awareness of marine plastic pollution.

The Washed Ashore Project uses community art created from marine debris with the help of thousands of volunteers to raise awareness about plastic pollution in order to spark changes in the consumer habits that have generated this global issue. Over the past two years, with NOAA support, Washed Ashore has worked to create a curriculum based on the goals of our project. The lessons bring together art and science to help students understand the plastic pollution issue and communicate about it using the language of the arts. Workshops to introduce the curriculum and receive feedback were held at Washed Ashore exhibit venues around the country and the curriculum was piloted in Bandon, Oregon, where Washed Ashore is based.

In this webinar, Patrick Chandler, the Washed Ashore curriculum author and project manager, will discuss his experience using art to communicate, conducting teachers’ workshops, curriculum development, and share lessons learned.

For more information and to register, please visit https://oct.to/OCWebinar122.

Thank you for being a part of the OpenChannels Community,
-Nick Wehner, Allie Brown, and the rest of the OpenChannels Team

For the week 13 February 2017

Greetings OpenChannels Community Members,

Join us Wednesday, February 22 at 1pm EST / 10am PST / 6pm UTC for a webinar on Impact Investing to Fund Marine Conservation.

There has been a lot of talk about impact investing as a source of funding for marine conservation priorities. What is impact investing? How does it work, and what can managers do to attract impact investors to fund their projects?

Join us for a webinar with Kelly Wachowicz, Managing Partner of Catch Invest, an impact investing firm supporting fishermen, conservation, and communities. Kelly will talk about investing to support sustainable fisheries and fisheries transitions and share several case studies that highlight some of the opportunities and challenges with this emerging funding tool.

For more information and to register, please visit https://oct.to/OCWebinar121.

Thank you for being a part of the OpenChannels Community,
-Nick Wehner, Allie Brown, and the rest of the OpenChannels Team

PS: I'm delighted to say we have a new addition to the OpenChannels team, Allie Brown, who will be serving as our new Project Assistant. From now on, you can thank Allie for finding most of the news and literature we share. Feel free to contact her any time at abrown [at] openchannels.org.

For the week 06 February 2017

Greetings OpenChannels Community Members,

Join us Wednesday, February 15 at 1pm EST / 10am PST / 6pm UTC for a webinar on Debt Conversions to Finance Action on the Blue Economy for Small Island Developing States, presented by Robert Weary of The Nature Conservancy.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are highly vulnerable to climate change. However, extremely high public debt ratios make it difficult for these countries to invest in modifying infrastructure and improving coastal and flood protection. Protecting the “blue economy” of island states will ultimately reduce vulnerability of both marine ecosystems and the economy as a whole (e.g., through sustained fishing grounds and tourism). And debt conversions allow national governments to free capital streams and direct them into climate adaptation and marine conservation activities that ultimately will restore natural and human resilience to threats of climate change. Join us on this webinar to learn more about relevant debt conversions including how they are financed, managed, utilized, and retired.

For more information and to register, please visit https://oct.to/OCWebinar120.

Thank you for being a part of the OpenChannels Community,
-Nick Wehner, OpenChannels Project Manager, and the rest of the OpenChannels Team