Editor's Note
Here comes July’s News from the OBPS. In this issue, you might want to check out some new opportunities we have at the OBPS, and the exciting endorsement of the GOOS-IODE OBPS Ocean Practices and the Marine Life 2030 for the UN Ocean Decade, amongst many other key programs. I was also very pleased to see a very nice initiative for Biogeochemical Argo data with 'How to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle User Training', which uses the Ocean Best Practice Repository, as well as some fresh news from the Pacific Regional on their best practices for marine plastics sampling and survey in open ocean, amongst other news. Let's keep an eye on the many interesting upcoming events.
Please note the image of this month coming from a short video which highlights the importance of implementing best practice to avoid worst case scenarios when in the field. Indeed, failure stories can be as important as success stories, especially if we can learn from them.
Please feel free to send us your submission for the Image of the Month along with a short descriptive paragraph or your poem or story related to ocean best practices. Also, as part of a new series of feature articles reflecting endorsed program, like the Marine Life 2030, if you’d like to submit a related article on another endorsed UN Decade program, please feel free to email newsletter@oceanbestpractices.org.
~Virginie van Dongen-Vogels
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Call for contribution to the 5th OBPS community workshop: An Ocean of Values
The fifth annual Community Workshop of the IOC-UNESCO Ocean Best Practices System, “An Ocean of Values” will be held from the 20th to the 24th of September 2021. Whether you are a teacher, artist, student, researcher, policy maker, or you simply wish to share and improve practices related to what you value the most, you are more than welcome to send your contributions for this event. Please check the workshop webpage for more information and how to send your contribution, which can be a presentation, a working session, or being a volunteer,... Deadline for contribution is the 9th July 2021.
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Various Opportunities at the OBPS
The OBPS is seeking a volunteer for creating and contributing an article on Wikipedia for the Ocean Best Practice System. Please send an email to newsletter@oceanbestpractices.org to communicate your interest in volunteering for the OBPS.
On the other hand, the OBPS Task Team for the Value Chain Analysis and KPI development is seeking someone with a background in economics to work with the team on developing both OBPS value chain analysis and system key performance indicators. Please contact Nick Roden or Cristian Munoz-Mas if interested and for any further information.
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Ocean Practices for the Decade
We are pleased to announce that our programme ‘Ocean Practices for the Decade’ is one of 60 new programs and contributions endorsed under the UN Ocean Decade for transformative Decade Actions. The Ocean Practices for the Decade Programme ("OceanPractices’’) will support all ocean stakeholders in securing, equitably sharing, and collectively advancing this methodological heritage. By engaging diverse communities of practice and interlinking them through FAIR digital technologies, OceanPractices will transform how science and other stakeholders align their interests/capacities, creating ever-better practices, promoting sustainable human and ocean well-being. These practices improve interoperability and facilitate training so broader global participation naturally evolves. This program will address many of the 14 recommendations put forward in our recent paper.
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Other Decade Programs
Members of the OBPS Steering Group are also collaborating on several other endorsed programs, including ‘Coast Predict’ and ‘Ocean Observing Co-Design: Evolving Ocean Observing for a Sustainable Future’. See the full list of endorsed programs here.
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How to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle User Training
Kimberley Baldry
At the start of this year I was able to publish 8 cheat-sheets for Biogeochemical Argo data using the Ocean Best Practices Repository. The Cheat Sheets were an outcome of my 2019 SCAR research fellowship, which I felt a need to produce in order to help bridge the knowledge gap between new users and the data. The Cheat Sheets reduce information from a large number of technical resources into an easily digestible format. They have been well received in the community with over 1400 views since they were published in January 2021.
The Cheat Sheets were a way for me to communicate what I have learnt about the Biogeochemical Argo Program from my learnings as a PhD student. My attendance to the BONUS-Integral IOCCP Biogeochemical Training Workshop in 2019 also significantly enhanced my technical knowledge on biogeochemical sensors, some of which I communicate through the Cheat Sheets. Any PhD student can tell you about a wealth of information that they have had to learn in their field in order to conduct their research. I feel incredibly satisfied that I have been able to recycle my learnings by communicating it for the benefit of others, and that OBP has allowed me to successfully distribute them via the Repository. It almost makes up for COVID-19 cancelling my plans to visit my collaborators in France!
The OBP Repository is an excellent tool for the community to publish training resources. The Repository assigns each resource a DOI and makes it findable through the search tool. I found the submission process easy to navigate. I encourage all Early Career Ocean Professionals to produce community training materials for the Repository where they can, to reduce, reuse and recycle their own training experience for others.
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Marine Life 2030 endorsed as a UN Ocean Decade Program
Frank Muller-Karger
The Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC), an arm of the United Nations, officially endorsed Marine Life 2030, the Ocean Biomolecular Observing Network (OBON), Ocean Practices for the Decade, and core elements of the Global Ocean Observing System to officially be part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030). These are among 66 actions endorsed by the UN on World Ocean’s Day.
The goal of the UN Decade of Ocean Science is to do “the science we need for the ocean we want.” The primary goal of the 10-year Marine Life 2030 program and the Ocean Biomolecular Observing Network is to establish a globally coordinated system to deliver actionable knowledge of ocean life to those who need it – promoting human well-being, sustainable development, and ocean conservation. Marine Life 2030 and OBON integrate biology and biodiversity expertise across many institutions, countries, and disciplines.
Understanding the connection between human societies and life in the sea requires collaboration and using methods to compare information from one place to another and over time. For example, it is important to understand how corals, seagrasses, fish, or other communities are changing. Also, to understand whether or how local changes are happening in a regional context. The Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS) is a key element in helping people connect and share methods, standards, and best practices so we can compare observations and make sense of differences in the data.
Many questions remain about how the abundance of marine organisms is changing over time in response to climate change, pollution, acidification, and more. Countless species remain to be discovered and knowledge of the ocean’s 200,000+ known species is fragmentary at best – all of this, at a time when human activities are causing the extinction of some 1 million of the estimated 8 million plant and animal species on the planet.
The Ocean Best Practices System serves as a connector and facilitator between several existing groups, such as the US Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), the GEO BON Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON), the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS), the World Conservation and Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), the Ocean Knowledge Action Network of Future Earth, and many more. In addition to a host of national and international government partners, Marine Life 2030 and OBON include more than 30 NGO partners and over 50 academic partners across the globe. Groups or individuals interested in participating should contact Kristen Minogue.
This is the first article in a planned series on endorsed UN Decade programs and how they fit into ocean best practices. If you’d like to submit one, please email newsletter@oceanbestpractices.org
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Mark Bushnell
While best practices are necessary, they must be coupled with training and experience to achieve success. Please do not think that after reading a best practice you are qualified - the word practice carries some weight. It is important to practice the best practice to implement it. Here we see a well-intentioned crew member struggling with a deployment. Those witnessing this effort should have immediately halted operations to discuss the proper way to control a line on a capstan, e.g., a palm rested on the capstan line wraps rather than two or three wraps around the crewmember’s hand.
While entertaining now, this could have ended very badly and can serve as an educational opportunity.
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OBPS for Macroalgae Carbon Sequestration
Rebecca Zitoun
Ocean Visions is pleased to release the first in a series of five “living” digital road maps designed to identify specific pathways forward to accelerate the development and testing of ocean-based carbon dioxide removal approaches. The Macroalgae Cultivation and Carbon Sequestration Road Map is now live and available to potential users here. The cultivation of macroalgae has the potential to play a critical role in sequestering carbon, but a supportive framework is lacking for pilot projects. This road map is intended to provide this framework, allowing a diverse, global community the opportunity to collaborate and help scale the field.
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News from the Pacific Regional: OBP on marine plastics sampling and survey in open ocean
Dr. R. Venkatesan (National Institute of Ocean Technology Ministry of Earth Sciences)
The National Institute of Ocean Technology is jointly working with the National Centre for Coastal Research to study the presence of plastics (macro and micro) in the North Indian Ocean. This was sanctioned by the Ministry of Earth Sciences. Under this programme a Best Practice methodology is being developed following internationally used practice. Various sampling gears to collect and isolate macro and micro plastics on surface, mid-water column and seabed have been developed. This could be part of UN Decade Activity of OBPS.
In the last two years, even during Covid pandemic, 460 samples were collected from 106 sampling stations during 11 cruises. Laboratory studies including microscopic analysis, FTIR and SEM-EDS analysis. Interesting observations on the complexity of Marine Plastics with Oil spill and bio-fouling organisms were found and are being analyzed. Studies on accumulation and dispersal of plastics in eddies and seasonal gyres in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea are also initiated. In addition, under the Indo-Japan collaboration efforts are initiated to work with JAMSTEC Japan.
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EMODnet Jamboree Special Session: Ocean Best Practices – Improving data access and interoperability
This special session was hosted by the EMODnet Secretariat on the 16th June 2021 in the framework of the EMODnet Jamboree and was co-organised by the EMODnet partnership, the IOC Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS) team, and other key external initiatives. The Chairs were Jan-Bart Calewaert (EMODnet) Secretariat and Frank Muller-Karger (OBPS).
The session included short presentations by OBPS and EMODnet to provide a high level framework with key developments, status and opportunities to set the stage for discussions on new methods in using EMODnet and OBPS. An overview of OBPS was provided by Johannes Karstensen with Conor Delaney outlining the standards used in EMODnet, followed by testimonies from EMODnet developers, data providers and users giving insights into experience in creating and adopting standards and best practices of EMODnet, underpinning data infrastructures and initiatives.
Plenary Discussion focussed on four topics:
- What can EMODnet do next to contribute EU expertise to global ocean best practices?
- What processes to put in place to create EMODnet best practices
- EMODnet as OBPS Ambassador/s
- EMODnet as a regional best practice: What does EMODnet already do well, and what can EMODnet do more?
- Collaboration with training and capacity development expertise - what is needed and how can we address it?
- How can EMODnet collaborate more into the future with OBPS e.g. EuroSea, JERICO, ENVRI-FAIR, other
- Globalizing the data collaborative - engagement in the Ocean Organisation
All agreed it was a very good session with many participants, a lot of enthusiasm and lively, well moderated discussion. Key messages from this session and access to the presentations will be made available shortly.
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Ocean Decade Laboratories
The Ocean Decade Laboratories connect diverse actors from around the globe to maintain the momentum of the High-Level Launch. As a series of online sessions structured around the seven Ocean Decade Outcomes, the Laboratories are a platform for catalyzing partnerships and co-designing Decade Actions. These Laboratories starts this month with an Inspiring and Engaging Ocean on the 7-8 July 2021, where society understands and values the ocean.
For further information on the Ocean Decade Laboratories, please check here.
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Ocean Innovation Prize Application Now Open
As part of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (‘the Ocean Decade’), the Blue Climate Initiative is thrilled to announce the launch of a global US$1 Million Ocean Innovation Prize to inspire, fund and support innovations that mitigate climate change through ocean-related strategies. Applications are encouraged as soon as possible. The competition deadline is September 15, 2021 at 23:59 PST. Visit here for more information and to apply.
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What would you like to see happening now and in 10 years
One Earth, one ocean, and a first Ocean Decade
Time is flying so let’s start the operation
An ocean of values and much more are great invitation
Reflecting on how we can together join our time, effort, and best practices
While acting from local to regional to global scales,
The ocean is connecting us all, so let’s set our sails
Reflecting on how ocean is not only science but give us many services
From playing, discovering, performing, feeding, healing,
The ocean is bringing much to us
So let's not miss the bus
And be part of this ocean adventure on this new Decade coming
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