Seymour Marine Discovery Center offers new marine science virtual expeditions

By SalM on February 11, 2021 in News Articles

The Seymour Marine Discovery Center at UCSC’s Long Marine Laboratory is launching a new “virtual expeditions” program for marine science enthusiasts. The program, called “Scientists Saving the Oceans,” is part of the Seymour Center’s efforts to provide distance learning activities for the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first expedition, “Protecting Dolphins and Whales from Oceanic Noise,” will take participants behind the scenes with researchers in the Marine Mammal Physiology Project headed by Terrie Williams, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz and director of research initiatives at the Seymour Center.

Facilitated live through Zoom, the expedition consists of six engaging 90-minute classes. Each class session includes live-streaming time with staff and resident animals at Long Marine Laboratory. The classes begin February 8 and are limited to 20 participants. Registration form and additional details are available online.

Participants in the virtual expedition will get to interact with Long Marine Lab’s expert animal trainers and researchers to learn how they care for dolphins and seals and train them to voluntarily participate in conservation science; observe researchers in action and learn how new technologies are developed to investigate animals in the wild; and understand how studies done at the lab underpin field research aimed at protecting narwhals and other marine mammal populations around the world.

“We want to show people how we work with the resident animals, what we learn from them, and how we are able to apply that information to understand the impacts that human disturbances are having on animals in the wild,” Williams said.

Since her appointment in September as the inaugural director of research initiatives for the Seymour Center, Williams has been working to create and develop public programs at the Seymour Center that highlight the work of researchers at UCSC’s Institute of Marine Sciences. She said faculty are excited about explaining their work to the public, and being forced online by the pandemic has created new opportunities.

“A lot of us who do field research have photos, videos, and other documentation of what we are seeing in the environment year after year, and it’s an amazing resource. We are the frontline workers for the environment and are witnessing what is happening to this planet. Our scientists have stories to tell about marine life and the marine environment—these are passionate people who are trying to save the oceans, and we want to bring their stories and their science to the public,” Williams said.

To develop the Scientists Saving the Oceans program, Williams worked closely with Beau Richter, head trainer for the Marine Mammal Physiology Project, and Kevin Keedy, youth programs manager at the Seymour Center. Keedy and Richter helped transform the center’s popular Ocean Explorers summer camp into an online virtual program last summer, and Seymour Center staff have been creating a variety of distance learning programs to support teachers and families with virtual visits to the Seymour Center.

The center is offering a variety of other programs in virtual formats while its physical site remains closed to the public due to the pandemic. These include the Science Sundays lecture series; ocean-themed celebrations such as the upcoming Elephant Seal Week (Feb. 21-27), featuring at-home activities, lectures, and interviews with scientists; the Labside Chats series of online conversations with scientists; and the members-only Aquaria Explorations.

The Seymour Marine Discovery Center is a community-supported marine science education center at the UC Santa Cruz Coastal Science Campus. The Seymour Center is dedicated to educating people about the role scientific research plays in the understanding and conservation of the world’s oceans.

Waverider Buoy Research Project to Measure How Extreme Storms Impact on the Coast of Ireland

By SalM on February 10, 2021 in News Articles

A research project led by coastal and ocean scientists in NUI Galway and the Marine Institute involves the deployment of a combination of smart buoys and time-lapse imaging to measure storm impacts and support the development of coastal flood and erosion defences.

The project, Brandon Bay on the Dingle Peninsula, Co Kerry, involves:

• A new waverider buoy provided by Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland to measure wave height, wave direction, wave period, surface currents, and water temperature as well as storm impact
• Data being made available to view or download on the Marine Institute supported website Digital Ocean, a web portal to view data collected in and around Ireland’s maritime zone.
• The installation of a shoreline monitoring system along Brandon Bay at three sites, which will capture images of the beach every 10 minutes during daylight hours over the next 12 months, to identify the time periods when wave run-up is high enough to reach the dune toe and potentially cause coastal erosion. This research is funded by Geological Survey Ireland.

Dr Eugene Farrell, Discipline of Geography and Ryan Institute’s Centre for Ocean Research and Exploration (COREx), NUI Galway, said: “We want to improve existing coastal change models by developing better insights into why does change occur and how much change will occur if we dial up climate projections for rising sea levels and storminess. To answer these questions we require process-response coastal models and these are only possible if nearshore observations from wave buoys such as the one in Brandon Bay are deployed over long time periods to capture all the seasons.

“We already know that changes along the coast from elevated storm surge and wave run-up result in changes in seabed and beach elevations. The data captured by the waverider will play an integral part in dismantling the important connections between different storm types such as size, direction, duration, clustering and coastal response that allows us to share real time ocean observations that can be used to address coastal erosion and coastal flood protection.

Alan Berry, Manager of Marine Research Infrastructures at the Marine Institute said, “The wave buoy at Brandon Bay will enable researchers to observe and understand how our ocean is changing and determine how to respond to current and future patterns of change. Open access to this data on Ireland’s Digital Ocean website is valuable to climate researchers in Ireland and across Europe.”

The Brandon Bay long-term waverider project is co-led by Dr Eugene Farrell, Discipline of Geography, Sheena Parsons, Earth and Ocean Sciences, and Dr Stephen Nash and Andi Egon, Civil Engineering in NUI Galway, and Alan Berry and Conall O’Malley from the Marine Institute with support from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.

In September 2020, a Coastal Change Technical Working Group was established within the Irish government and tasked with overseeing the development of a scoping report on a national coastal change management strategy. They have envisaged that the scoping report will address issues related to ‘baseline and other data capture and research requirements to inform developing, implementing and monitoring a national coastal management strategy, to include potential damages assessment’.

Dr Eugene Farrell adds: “We feel it is our responsibility as coastal scientists to provide the requisite baseline information and recommendations to guide future research along the coast in order to fill knowledge gaps. This is an integral part of the Brandon Bay Waverider project and can be used as a demonstration project so that future investment in coastal infrastructure can be identified.

“Cumulatively, our approach requires a large team of experts to work together. The Maharees in Brandon Bay is already becoming a hub for coastal science thanks to the active community group in the area, the Maharees Conservation Association. There is an urgent need to increase our understanding of coastal change so that that we can better protect our coastal communities and design conservation plans for coastal ecosystems whose dynamic boundaries move in response to changing climate conditions.”

The Brandon Bay Waverider project is supported by the Marine Institute, NUI Galway and MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine research and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.

Wave data results from the Brandon Bay Waverider project can be viewed here

Photo: The wave buoy pictured after deployment in Brandon Bay on the 1, December 2020. Photo: Eugene Farrell, NUI Galway

About the Waverider Buoy

The data from the buoy is being used to validate a state-of-the-art high-resolution coastal erosion modelling system comprising of wave, tide and sediment transport models that is under co-development in Civil Engineering, Earth and Ocean Sciences and Geography disciplines at NUI Galway and the Marine Institute since early 2019. The key attraction of these specialised numerical ocean models is their predictive capability. The model predictions are first tested against real-time observations in the bay and then tested for different climate change scenarios such as rising water levels or increasing wave heights.

For example, once the model is validated using the wave buoy observations the project team can test outcomes using the OPW sea level rise scenarios: (1) conservative Mid-Range Future Scenario which uses a sea-level rise of 0.5m by the year 2100 and (2) a High-End Future Scenario, which uses the maximum projected sea-level rise of 1.05m for the year 2100.

Superimposed on these changing sea levels the group can investigate how extreme storms and wave heights will impact the coast and determine how these impacts will be manifested on the coast, such as rates of shoreline retreat or increasing vulnerability of coastal communities and infrastructure.

The yellow spherical wave rider is one metre in diameter, is equipped with an antenna and light and is anchored to the seabed by a mooring. The light will flash yellow for five seconds every 20 seconds in hours of darkness. An accelerometer mounted within the buoy registers the rate at which the buoy is rising or falling with the waves. This type of ‘heave, pitch, and roll buoy’ is the most commonly used buoy for measuring waves in deep water. It measures the surface height and slope in different orthogonal directions to yield the horizontal and vertical displacements of the buoy.

The Brandon Bay Waverider Acknowledgements

Marine Institute & Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland

The Marine Institute, supported by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, have been instrumental in the execution of this project. They have been very generous with their time (research-in-kind) and sharing their expertise and equipment. We would especially like to acknowledge the leadership of Alan Berry, Section Manager, Marine Research Infrastructures and Conall O’Malley, both from the Marine Institute.

The Marine Institute is a State agency responsible for marine research, technology development and innovation in Ireland whose remit is: “to undertake, to coordinate, to promote and to assist in marine research and development and to provide such services related to research and development, that in the opinion of the Institute, will promote economic development and create employment and protect the marine environment.” This project exemplifies how scientific progress can be made when academics link up with management agencies like the Marine Institute.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland is Ireland’s national energy agency aiming to create a cleaner energy future by making Ireland’s energy sustainable, secure, affordable and clean. SEAI supports the Irish offshore renewable energy sector by advising the government on policy, offering grant support schemes, developing test site infrastructure, and providing information through the Ocean Energy Ireland portal. The Brandon Bay wave rider provided by SEAI will be part of the wave monitoring network of coastal buoys operated on behalf of SEAI by the Marine Institute.

The Marine Institute work with P&O Maritime Logistics who co-led the technical parts of the deployment including the installation of the base station and also the actual deployment.

NUI Galway

The NUI Galway Research Office provided funding support. This office is part of the Office for the Vice President for Research and works closely with the Innovation Office, the Researcher Development Centre and other professional services supporting the NUI Galway research community. We would especially like to acknowledge the support of Aengus Parsons, Director of the Research Office and Professor Lokesh Joshi, Vice President for Research for their support.

MaREI

MaREI is the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine research and innovation co-ordinated by the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) at University College Cork and also based in NUI Galway. We would especially like to acknowledge the support of Dr Stephen Nash in Civil Engineering in NUI Galway. The data from the wave buoy are an integral part of an ongoing MaREI funded PhD programme in NUI Galway.

Maharees Conservation Association and partners

The ongoing coastal and ocean research is not possible without the support of the Maharees community. We are very excited to contribute to our scientific understanding of coastal and ocean dynamics in the bay area with the hope that the results will support ongoing efforts by the community to build their resilience to pressures from storms and people. We would especially like to acknowledge Mr Paddy Buckley and his family for allowing us to install the base station in their home in the Maharees. The NUI Galway team would also like to thank Kerry County Council, National Parks and Wildlife Service and OPW for supporting coastal research in the area.

Source: afloat.ie

We need a global movement to transform ocean science for a better world

By SalM on February 9, 2021 in News Articles

The ocean is our planet’s largest life-support system. It stabilizes climate; stores carbon; produces oxygen; nurtures biodiversity; directly supports human well-being through food, mineral, and energy resources; and provides cultural and recreational services. The value of the ocean economy speaks to its importance: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that by 2030, $3 trillion USD will be generated annually from ocean sectors such as transportation, fishing, tourism, and energy (1). Unsustainable resource extraction, pollution, climate change, and habitat destruction are on the rise and affecting many parts of the world’s oceans (2). The ocean is rapidly changing, and yet the ways in which these changes will play out are not yet clear.

Although improved management and conservation have helped to reduce threats and restore some key ecosystems, the basic benefits that people receive from a healthy ocean are in overall decline (3). If left unchecked, a growing and resource-hungry human population will add additional pressures on the ocean. Scientific research, experimentation, data collection, monitoring, and modeling provide the knowledge, frameworks, and evidence needed to model and explore the environmental consequences of policy and development proposals and thus to chart a sustainable future ocean.

The current scale, pace, and practice of ocean scientific discovery and observation are not keeping up with the changes in ocean and human conditions. We need fundamental changes in the way that researchers work with decision makers to co-create knowledge that will address pressing development problems. Researchers need to share their data more freely and sooner so that their work can inform decisions in near real time. Academia, government, and industry need to find new and better ways to collaborate and innovate. Huge gaps in scientific capacity and capability around the world will require that we fundamentally change the way we train and employ researchers from developing countries. Above all, we need to dramatically expand the breadth of disciplines that are directly involved in new transdisciplinary ocean research.

Marine mammalogy must battle against unpaid work, argues petition

By SalM on February 8, 2021 in News Articles

Hundreds of scientists worldwide have petitioned an international marine-mammalogy society to take a stand against unpaid positions such as internships and work experience placements, arguing that uncompensated work presents barriers to diversity and inclusion within the discipline.

The petition, which was signed by 727 marine-mammal researchers and others, was sent to the Society for Marine Mammalogy (SMM) in July requesting that the society change its code of ethics “to reflect that all workers in the field of marine mammal science should be compensated for their labor” and to bar any advertising on its website for unpaid internships. The petition had circulated for about a month on Twitter and on a public listserv for marine-mammal science, called MARMAM.

The petition has ignited heated discussion on the listserv and elsewhere about the value of unpaid work and of diversity in science. Charles Littnan, the society’s president, says that its board of directors will wait until the issue cools down before considering whether to add guidance about pay and diversity to the society’s code of ethics. “We have taken the petition seriously,” says Littnan. He says that the membership is discussing it this month.

Some unpaid positions in marine mammalogy have requirements specific to field-based research; among these are full-time internships that last for months in remote locations. But the issues that the petition addresses, including how unpaid positions limit the diversity of junior researchers in any field, are widespread. Data are not available on the number of unpaid positions across all scientific disciplines worldwide, but anecdotally, they are thought to be numerous. The petition authors note that large US marine-science and conservation organizations — including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the wildlife charity WWF — employ unpaid workers.

A 2014 report by the Royal Society in London, found that scientists and researchers who had economically advantaged backgrounds were more likely to enter the scientific workforce and to succeed professionally¹.

The SMM petition was co-organized by Eiren Jacobson, an ecologist at the University of St Andrews, UK; Margaret Siple, a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara; and Chloe Malinka, a zoophysiologist at Aarhus University in Denmark. They say that the idea for the petition grew out of this year’s #ShutDownSTEM and #Shut Down Academia initiatives that developed from the Black Lives Matter movement. Scientists and academic researchers worldwide ceased work for a day on 10 June to protest against anti-Black racism. White scientists and academics were asked to quietly reflect on what they could do to address systemic racism. The three petition organizers say that the petition is their response to that question.

Junior scientists in marine mammalogy are expected to have at least one or two unpaid research experiences to qualify for a graduate programme, Siple says. Students who must pay for their studies, or who have families to support, are pushed out of the discipline because they cannot afford to work in unpaid positions, the organizers say.

All three of the petition’s organizers have worked as unpaid interns. Malinka’s food and lodging were provided when she did a three-month internship in 2011 in a European nation, and the non-monetary support was the only reason that she could afford to work without compensation, she says. But not everyone can afford to do so: “If you have a family depending on you, you wouldn’t be able to do that,” Siple says (see ‘Find a work placement that works’).

The organizers wanted their SMM petition to reach beyond scientists who had successfully navigated unpaid positions. “We explicitly invited people to sign the petition who were considering careers in marine mammal science and couldn’t participate because of this requirement,” Jacobson says.

Those in other scientific disciplines have also picked up on the petition, says Eric Archer, a marine-mammal geneticist at the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California, who co-chairs SMM’s diversity and inclusivity committee. “I’ve received e-mails from people outside of marine mammalogy who are re-evaluating their positions. It has gotten people thinking about where this particular issue sits in the pipeline.”

The petition prompted discussion and disagreement on the MARMAM listserv, which has many SMM members. Phillip Clapham, a zoologist who recently retired from the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, Washington, says that an unpaid eight- or nine-month stint at a small non-profit research institution after his undergraduate programme was crucial to his career success. He started his post entering whale observation data, and several months later he helped to collect those data. Eventually, he joined the research team.

“We would all like to have ample funding so you could offer at least some level of pay to bright young people,” Clapham says. But he adds that small non-profit groups typically cannot afford to pay workers. If pay is mandatory, he says, opportunities such as the one that changed him — from a young man travelling the world on savings from restaurant jobs and a small inheritance into a dedicated scientist — will disappear.

Auriel Fournier, a wetland bird ecologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says that the scientific community does not hear much about those who are unsuccessful in science. “The people who miss out on these ‘opportunities’ are unrepresented in the discussion” about unpaid work, says Fournier, who has been writing about the issue for years and who co-authored a 2019 study on unpaid work and access to scientific professions². Successful scientists talk about how they benefited from unpaid work, she says, but we hear little from the people who are forced to drop out of science in part because they can’t afford to work without pay, she adds.

Fournier lasted a month in an unpaid internship that she had during her undergraduate years. She had to quit that position when she could no longer pay for her tuition, rent and other necessities. After that, she accepted only paid internships.

Today, she says, early-career scientists reach out to her to ask what they should do to curb unpaid work, when they don’t have the power to make changes that they would like to see. “I think as we move up the career ladder, we can play a larger role in making sure the way we do our science matches our values,” Fournier says. “A lot of folks have internalized the idea that science is a meritocracy and their success is due only to their hard work. It is hard to realize that your success may be related to your gender, to your race or to the unpaid job that you had the money to take.”

Source:nature.com

Maritime UK welcomes Associated British Ports to the Diversity in Maritime Charter programme

By SalM on February 5, 2021 in News Articles

Maritime UK, the umbrella body for the maritime sector, has welcomed Associated British Ports (ABP) as the latest business to join the Diversity in Maritime Charter programme.

ABP has commenced its Diversity in Maritime Charter journey with two of its regions, Southampton and East Anglia, which have been particularly successful in implementing initiatives to attract a more diverse workforce. Twenty volunteers from across the business also helped create a grassroots-led action plan for further improvement, which the company is hoping to roll out across all of its locations.

In July 2019, ABP was the first UK port operator to provide female personal protective equipment (PPE). The move represented a great step in ABP’s efforts to support the role of women in maritime, whilst also further improving safety standards and choice for its workforce. In line with its commitment to increase the number of female hires, in 2020, women represented 57% of ABP’s graduate intake and the company appointed four women into senior management roles.

The Charter journey is a major undertaking as it holds organisations accountable for closing the diversity and inclusion gap. To become a Charter organisation, there is a requirement for businesses to share baseline data including the total proportion of women in their workforce and in areas including middle and senior management and to set target data for either five or ten years. The targets form a large part of individual company action plans, which also include a commitment to implement specific projects and initiatives. Through the life of the programme, Maritime UK regularly engages with charter organisations to assess progress and identify areas for new programmes and activity whilst providing a platform to share best practice and challenges with others.

he Charter is a pivotal initiative in the Diversity in Maritime programme. Eleven organisations are now Charter organisations: Bruntons Propellers, Shoreham Port, Fleetwood Nautical Campus, MFB Solicitors, Royal Fleet Auxiliary, Hutchison Ports – Port of Felixstowe, IHS Markit, PNTL, Forth Ports and ABP’s Southampton and East Anglia regions.

Charter companies are supported by Maritime UK’s Diversity in Maritime programme and supported by a wealth of resources, toolkits, networks and initiatives including:

• Diversity in Maritime networks: Four networks, Women, Mental Health, Pride and Ethnicity, were established and expanded on as part of the Diversity in Maritime programme. The networks bring together individuals from protected characteristics, and allies, from across the maritime sector in a safe-space environment to share good practice and discuss barriers faced. The networks are supported by four working groups who create solutions to combat barriers.
•Online toolkit: a continuously updated online toolkit with best practice guides and policies
• Interview Pool: which loans maritime women to companies that may lack diversity on interview panels. Research by the Women in Maritime Network identified all that more diverse interview panels or panels with HR professionals with diversity are more likely to recruit a diverse workforce. However, several smaller companies highlighted that they do not have access to such recruiters within their staff. The interview pool provides a facility for these companies to access relevant skills and expertise
• Speaker Bank:  provides a database of diverse speakers for panels and conferences with specific industry expertise

The first step to becoming a Charter Company is to sign the Pledge. Over 120 companies have now been signed the statement of intent to demonstrate commitment to making progress on diversity.

Alison Rumsey, ABP Chief Human Resources Officer and Maritime Skills Commissioner, said:

“At ABP, we are committed to building a more inclusive, diverse and open working community, so that colleagues can be themselves at work every day. I am incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made so far and look forward to continuing to build on these strong foundations in future.”

Sue Terpilowski, Co-Chair of the Diversity in Maritime Taskforce said:

“I am proud to celebrate ABP becoming the latest company to join the Charter family and shining a spotlight on two of their regions, Southampton and East Anglia. Women’s equality cannot wait, and we believe achieving a balanced workforce at all levels in the maritime sector will undoubtedly improve culture, behaviour, outcomes, profitability and productivity. We look forward to welcoming other companies into the programme.”

Ben Murray, Director of Maritime UK said:

“We are very pleased to see ABP take this important step on their journey to creating a more inclusive working environment. As a major employer in the sector, their progress will really help move the sector forward. We’re all thinking about how we can Build Back Better, and that must include a workforce that reflects the society in which we live – so that everyone can find a place in our sector, and so that our businesses reap the economic benefits that a diverse workforce is proven to unlock.”
Source: Maritime UK

Larger science role needed in marine policies creation

By SalM on February 4, 2021 in News Articles

2021 marks the start of the UN Decade on Ocean Science – a chance to move away from past mistakes where EU decisions were not always made based on the best available science or even went against scientific advice, writes Antonia Leroy.

Dr Antonia Leroy is the head of ocean policy at the WWF European Policy Office.

Scientific understanding of the world around us is essential. It allows us to grasp the impacts of human activities, to inform our decisions about how to best preserve our natural world and its ecosystems – of which, we are a part.

We know how crucial scientific advice and evidence are for informing our relationships with our seas.

Which chemicals are toxic to wildlife and must be kept out of the water? How many turtles, dolphins and whales are accidentally caught in fishing nets every year, and how is this affecting their populations? What will the environmental impact of constructing a new port facility be? How many tonnes of fish can we catch within sustainable limits that allow stocks to recover?

The bigger picture

Globally, our ocean and the marine resources that hundreds of millions of people depend on are in trouble. Overfishing, pollution, shipping and coastal development are just some of the pressures which are having measurable impacts on the entirety of our ocean, from shallow waters to the deep sea.

Climate change will increasingly interact with these stressors – sea levels are already rising and waters are becoming warmer, more acidic and losing oxygen.

With over a third of fish stocks overfished, in a trend which has been worsening for decades, the threat to fisheries industries and coastal communities worldwide is unprecedented: under a no mitigation, high emissions scenario, marine invertebrates, fishes and non-fish vertebrates are forecast to drop to 15% of 1986-2005 measures by the end of this century.

Our home waters

It is therefore incredibly disappointing to see the EU say one thing in response to this kind of evidence and then do another. For example, in blatant violation of the Common Fisheries Policy’s legally-binding objective to end overfishing by 2020, about a third of the quotas for annual seafood catches set by EU Fisheries Ministers in December were higher than scientifically advised.

Commissioner Sinkevičius has himself expressed disappointment that “the ministers were not ready to fully take into account the scientific advice and agree on more ambitious effort reductions that would have allowed us to restore the fish stocks to sustainable levels”.

Beyond fishing, European seas are poised to become increasingly busy places for maritime transport, increasing the risks to marine habitats and species of collisions, as well as damage from anchors and pollution.

This is out of step with the need to tackle the decline of marine biodiversity. Less than three months remain for member states to submit their national plans for the sustainable use of their seas (marine spatial plans) to the European Commission, but the likelihood is that many countries will miss the deadline.

Looking ahead

Over the next 10 years, which the UN has named its ‘Decade on Ocean Science’, the EU will strive to deliver on its commitment to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – one goal of which, Goal 14, is dedicated to our ocean.

Over the same time period, the EU will be implementing its 2030 Biodiversity Strategy, which aims at effectively protecting at least 30% of the EU sea space, including 10% under strict protection, while introducing a Nature Restoration Plan that will deliver healthier marine ecosystems.

As the EU works to fulfil these commitments, it must pay heed to the Decade’s initiative and strive to improve its scientific understanding of the place on Earth that is responsible for every second breath we take and provides each EU citizen with nearly 27 kilograms of the food they eat every year. It’s worth remembering that we still know more about the surface of the moon than we do about our ocean.

As our seas open up to new economic prospects like offshore wind and farming of sea flora, robust scientific exploration of these activities is essential to gain a fuller understanding of the short- and long-term environmental effects of such maritime industries, and thus mitigate the impact they have.

Nevertheless, there are currently few instances where the cause of oceanic decline and potential solutions remain uncertain. Investments (political, financial and societal) should be urgently directed towards proven solutions and existing technologies, compliance with data collection systems, and effective policies to help mitigate the climate crisis and restore biodiversity.

Where there is insufficient data, policy decisions must not be delayed; rather, decision makers must adopt a precautionary approach to ensure that human activities do not harm the marine life and resources on which we all depend.

The evidence is already in: the repercussions of such decisions have rippling effects across all sectors of life, industries and human generations. Conversely, scientific research must better reflect that humans are part of ecosystems and work to break down silos, fully embracing the socio-economic dimensions of ocean management decisions.

For instance, the lack of gender-disaggregated data in fisheries-related activities remains a major constraint to improving gender equity and equality in the sector. Hopefully, the Decade’s call for increased interdisciplinary marine research and dialogues will drive such an integrated approach to maritime policies going forward.

At a time when we must meet objectives set on both climate and biodiversity issues, science is needed more than ever to help us agree effective and ambitious policies, tools and practices that help secure a health balance between people and planet.

Source: euractiv

Women in Oceanography Still Navigate Rough Seas

By SalM on October 29, 2020 in News Articles

Female scientists have weathered bias, lack of support, and unsafe work environments since the dawn of oceanography.

In 1872, the British Challenger expedition sailed around the globe on a voyage to study and sample the world’s oceans. The expedition is thought to be the first scientific oceanographic cruise.

Of the 243 people on board the Challenger, not one was a woman. Women weren’t allowed on ships, research or otherwise.

The rate of women’s professional involvement in oceanography is sometimes referred to as a “leaky pipeline.” Initially, the flow of young women into the profession is strong but dwindles as they choose to leave for numerous reasons.

But nearly a century before the Challenger, a woman by the name of Jeanne Baret sailed around the world on a scientific expedition of her own. Baret disguised herself as a male assistant on a 1766 voyage led by the French admiral and explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville to document plants and ecosystems in distant countries. Baret is the first woman on record to have circumnavigated the globe.

Science, especially science on ships, has a long history of excluding women. And since the beginning, women like Baret have undermined and pushed back against the rules. Women finally secured the ability to participate in scientific cruises in the United States in 1959 and now lead expeditions, research institutions, and federal agencies.

For the 2019 World Oceans Day theme of “Gender and the Ocean,” the United Nations writes that the empowerment of women and girls is “still needed” in all aspects of ocean-related sectors, including marine scientific research.

Women and men enroll in undergraduate and graduate programs in oceanography in equal numbers, according to a 2014 study in Oceanography. (Numbers for gender-nonconforming individuals were not reported.) But only 15% of full or senior faculty positions across 26 U.S. institutions were held by women in 2014. The authors found that women “continue to drop out as they progress along the tenure track,” which they note is similar to other disciplines in science.

LuAnne Thompson, a physical oceanography professor at the University of Washington, said that the field has been trying to fix the leaky pipeline for decades.

“People recognized it was a problem, but they thought of quick fixes,” Thompson said. Initiatives pushed the hiring of more female faculty in the 1990s, she said, but gave little thought to the cultural change needed to support them.

Climate change responsible for record sea temperature levels

By SalM on October 27, 2020 in News Articles

Global warming is driving an unprecedented rise in sea temperatures including in the Mediterranean, according to a major new report published by the peer-reviewed Journal of Operational Oceanography.

The Research in Inclusive Innovation

By SalM on October 27, 2020 in News Articles

At the core of Inclusive Innovation is the rule that individuals from networks that have been underestimated those frequently expected as recipients of advancements yet normally left out of the plan and improvement lead, partake in, and advantage from the development.

Most importantly, at that point, we mean the examination inserted in the Inclusive Innovation model to serve the networks’ endeavours in characterizing a need challenge and planning arrangements moulded by what is getting known as setting ability. Setting skill is perceived as close information, picked up by lived insight, of a considerable test and the elements that make answers for the test locally serviceable.

While we anticipate that these endeavours should be educated by surviving examination and arrangements as of now in the commercial center, tenacious instructive disparities show the insufficiencies of most current approaches and developments to serve minimized networks. Most current methodologies are not serving those they mean to, particularly those from underestimated networks, and we should investigate new and refined cycles, for example, Inclusive Innovation that places supremacy on setting aptitude.

A more critical gander at value-driven exploration

This origination of exploration sounds misleadingly basic on a superficial level, yet that straightforwardness disguises the multifaceted nature just beneath.

Numerous specialists driven by worries about the pertinence, appropriateness, and utility of their exploration in instructive practice are participating in long haul associations with locale frameworks and expert groups. Organized improvement networks, for example, the Carnegie Math Pathways NIC and the Building a Teaching Effectiveness Network, and exploration practice organizations, for example, those in the National Network for Education Research-Practice Partnerships (NNERPP), the Research Alliance for NYC Schools, and the UChicago Consortium on School Research, are only a few notable models.

Endeavors at beginning with networks’ communicated objectives, viewpoints on foundational training difficulties, and wanted results move past applying exploration to rehearse—which is fundamental and needs profundity of contextualized encounters past the region framework—to genuinely serve the requirements of a network’s students.

Additionally as of late observed more assets and thought pieces shared that evaluate how conventional exploration approaches maintain white predominant standards. While value driven researchers, backers, and activists have for quite some time been calling for change, their voices are beginning to be heard and regarded a smidgen all the more extensively. The charge to scientists to cure run of the mill research approaches incorporates:

• detailing research inquiries to zero in on framework disappointments—not understudies—as the issue
• rethinking the racial accomplishment hole as a hole in circumstance and access and to consider the “instruction obligation”
• decolonizing information and exploration strategies
• what’s more, questioning information representations that utilize shortage outlining and bigoted suppositions

Reexamining research under Inclusive Innovation

Examination work under the recently dispatched Center for Inclusive Innovation, went past exercises from training disapproved of exploration and set up research exercises that uproot white-predominant standards that are destructive to generally minimized networks. Taking a learning position, we are wrestling with some key inquiries and contemplations emerging from the model of Inclusive Innovation, for instance:

• How would we as scientists acquire trust with network individuals as accomplices and co-pioneers in research, and accommodate customary ways to deal with information assortment and examination with the damage they have dispensed on minimized networks before?
• How would we reexamine being a scientist as network individuals co-lead and completely partake in each period of examination?
• How do those with lived experience challenge us to contemplate the information that is gathered?
• How would we utilize new information assortment techniques that place network needs and network benefits at the middle in a climate that generally organizes effectiveness, consistency, and unwavering quality across settings, above distinction, investigation, and comprehension of unpredictability?
• How would we widen the meaning of information to incorporate types of realizing that depend on oral conventions, are lavishly contextualized by associations among network individuals, and influence network resources? Also, what does it resemble to utilize this information in research?

What kinds of results will networks we serve to organize, and how would we measure those results? As Ken Shelton as of late commented in a feature address to the League of Innovative Schools, the main inquiry we ought to present is, “And how are the youngsters?” Comprehensive and cheap information probably are not promptly accessible for the most significant result of kids’ prosperity.

What sorts of progress pointers will uphold networks’ plan, advancement, and execution of arrangements tending to the need difficulties they distinguish? Interval and yearly accomplishment tests in perusing and math, which are promptly accessible, are likely excessively removed from numerous arrangements that networks co-plan and execute, and would not really cover with the results wanted by the network. This issue isn’t new in useful exploration, however one which should be tended to head-on.

So, we are rethinking questions each examination venture must answer: Who has the ability? What considers information and proof? Who chooses? Who characterizes the results, gathers the information, and investigates and gives it significance, and how do these cycles intensify the voices of those with setting skill?

As we leave on these endeavors, we welcome joint effort and thought organization with networks and with individual analysts endeavoring to establish comprehensive and impartial practices drove by networks and driven by their necessities. Most importantly, we are appreciative for the occasion to work and co-plan with networks to assemble this new instruction research field.

Source: digitalpromise.org

What does RRI exactly mean in marine and maritime?

By SalM on October 23, 2020 in News Articles

Marine and maritime research organisations should be responsible while doing their research and innovation. What does this exactly mean? Here are 6 KEY recommendations for responsible research and innovation.

1. ETHICS is an integral part of the whole research process. By getting the ethics right, research excellence can be achieved.

2. GENDER EQUALITY: Research organizations should work against the under-representation of women in science and gender inequalities within organizations and in performing research.

3. OPEN ACCESS & DATA: Research results and data should be available for free to the public and other researchers so that they can be re-used, reviewed and replicated.

4. PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT: Research organisations should more collaborate with societal actors during the research process to align science to society’s values, needs

5. SCIENCE EDUCATION: Efforts must be made to educate citizens and equip them with scientific knowledge so that they can participate in the debate on research and innovation.

6. GOVERNANCE: Governance affects all other key dimensions of responsible research and innovation (RRI), especially how knowledge is created and shared.

During the 2000s, significant work has been done on the concept of responsible research and innovation supported by EU projects. However, most of the projects related to the institutional change of research organizations (RPOs) and research funding organizations (RFOs) focused on one of these key dimensions individually. But what about the other five? We developed the GRRIP Project with an integrated approach. We are working on creating a sustainable, growing and proactive marine and maritime RRI community.

Our practical RRI framework will help these research organisations to implement institutional and cultural change. Because Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) can fundamentally improve research in the Blue Economy.

• RRI IN MARINE RESEARCH: We incorporate responsible research and innovation into the governance framework of five maritime and maritime institutions.
• ENGAGEMENT OF ALL RELEVANT STAKEHOLDERS: We engage the quadruple helix in all aspects of Responsible Research & Innovation governance: Academia, industry, policy, and society.
• FUNDING POLICIES: We examine how funding bodies can encourage academia towards Responsible Research & Innovation via its funding policies and interaction.

4 research performing organisations (RPO) and 1 dual-function RPO and research funding organisation (RPO/RFO) in the marine and maritime sector are selected to work on their action plans (total 5 RPO&RFO) to achieve institutional and cultural change.

Its efforts in implementing RRI in marine research organizations GRRIP wants to align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and thus assist in ending poverty, contribute to marine food security and sustainability, promote science education, improve research fundamentally about renewable energies, climate change, or sustainable use of the ocean and much more.