Editor's Note
It’s been quite a busy time for all things ocean best practice! We’ve just wrapped up our 5th workshop and are busy planning for new activities and programs to ensure we’re best representing and including our diverse community. Check out the issue below for a taste of some of these, as well as some important announcements!
~ Rachel Przeslawski
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Another Workshop Success
The 5th OBPS Workshop was was held virtually this year from September 20 to 27. There were 617 registrants from across the globe (see figure) and 35 sessions illustrating the wide diversity of participant interests. Marine litter held five sessions, surface radiation organized three sessions and omics/e-DNA held five. There were new topics including ocean governance, education and regional sessions for the Pacific, Latin America and Africa. We saw discussions on the Ocean Decade Programs including Marine Life 2030, Ditto, Oasis and Ocean Practices… and of course decision trees (see Feature Story below). Information on the sessions and outcomes will be available through the proceedings in the coming months. Thank you to the many folk in the OPS community who participated, led sessions and facilitated discussions, particularly co-Chairs Kelsey Leonard and Pier Luigi Buttigieg.
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Newsletter Now Bimonthly
The monthly frequency of the Good, Better, Best newsletter will now shift to delivery every two months. This will allow the editors to better focus on succinct, relevant, and well-written content, with each issue including all article types (From the Repository, Success Story, Feature Story, Image-of-the-Month, Other News, Poet’s Corner). Your next issue will therefore be delivered in December.
We’re always looking for content, and it’s a great way to promote your activities or outputs to an international audience! Please submit articles to newsletter@oceanbestpractices.org.au.
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Wikipedia Editor Wanted
Interested in learning more about the OBPS and the process behind creating a new Wikipedia entry? The Steering Group is seeking a volunteer to draft an entry for the Ocean Best Practices System on Wikipedia. Please email newsletter@oceanbestpractices.org for more information or to express your interest.
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From the Repository - Multimedia Options
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Rachel Przeslawski
The OBP Repository holds over 1400 best practices, guidelines, standards and other related resources. Most of these are documents, but the repository can also hold other types of files, including images, slide decks and videos. These types of resources have surged in popularity, as virtual conferences and workshops have become the new normal during the pandemic.
I recently tried to upload a large video file of a presentation Developing Ocean Best Practices in Australia from the recent virtual Australian Marine Sciences Association conference. The size of the file (>2GB) was challenging to upload and download, and I had to enlist of the help of the OBP administrators. Ultimately, they were able to house it in the Repository (see here). We also uploaded the video to youtube and added this link to ‘Resource URL’ on the Repository page, thus providing a more user-friendly way for people to view the presentation and allowing users to directly refer to relevant segments. For example, click here to skip straight to our Steering Group member Juliet Hermes discussing best practice endorsement.
I encourage everyone to explore the Repository and consider how you may best store, share and use multimedia related to ocean best practices.
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Success Story - Bridging Shipboard Operational and Scientific Standards
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Katie Watkins-Brandt, Shawn Smith, and Kristin Beem
Over the last year, a group of like-minded marine technicians, scientists, and data managers in the United States have worked on an initiative to identify, organize, and support working groups to begin the development of best practices related to sea-going operations on research vessels. The working groups attempt to bridge the expectation gap between operational and scientific communities. The goal for each working group is to develop a best practice document that will ultimately result in standardized operational practices and improved data quality. During the 5th OBPS Workshop, we provided an update on the status of active working groups including:
While these working groups are largely comprised of technicians within the U.S., we are looking to expand participation to the international community. Additionally, we are looking for scientific and data curation experts in the field to contribute to these best practice documents. If you are interested in participating in this initiative, we welcome all. For more information regarding a specific working group please reach out to the leads identified above. In the coming year we hope to expand participation and work closely with OBPS on the publication and endorsement of the best practice documents generated. Please contact Katie Watkins-Brandt if you have any questions, comments, or would like additional information.
Oregon State University Marine Technicians Brandon D’Andrea (left) and Kate Kouba (right) servicing atmospheric sensors. Photo credit: Kristin Beem
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Feature - What is a Decision Tree?
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Katie Watkins-Brandt, Kristin Beem, and Jay Pearlman
Formally, a decision tree is a tree-like model that acts as a decision support tool, visually displaying decisions and their potential outcomes, consequences, and costs. Starting with this definition, we hope we have not lost your interest since there were many requests for a decision tree logic at the last two best practices workshops. There are two thoughts on decision trees. One is to have a logic available for users to sort through the OBPS methods inventory to identify methods for their applications. The other is to have decision trees focussed on fieldwork. For example, we were asked about decision trees for clearing sargassum from beaches, and an example from the technicians at University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System provides an interesting perspective:
Both at-sea and at the dock, marine technicians are often time limited for routine sensor maintenance and management. It becomes cumbersome to follow a 10-page protocol for cleaning or calibrating a sensor, while the internet needs to be fixed or the science party needs to borrow a specialty tool. By creating and using a decision tree, technicians can easily determine time-based recommendations based on their current availability which, for example, may vary from minutes between CTD casts to hours during transits. Decision trees allow for an efficient means of addressing maintenance and management tasks that ultimately improve data. The technician-based working groups creating best practices for sea going operations are also working toward producing decision trees.
Within the broader best practices community, there is a common interest in the development of decision trees as tools for aiding in best practices. While decision trees may vary depending on the sensor, system, method, or target audience, there is a desire from the entire OBPS community to understand how to design and develop decision trees to be effective and useful tools.
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Andrew Carroll and Kristy Brown
In 2020, I led a survey as part of the NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub to map and sample parts of the world’s southern-most coral reefs in the Lord Howe Marine Park, 600km off Australia’s east coast. While divers have surveyed the shallow waters of Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs, the deeper shelf environments surrounding the reefs were largely unknown. We used multibeam sonar, autonomous underwater vehicles (deployment of AUV Sirius pictured here) and stereo-baited remote underwater videos cameras to map and document benthic communities and associated demersal fish assemblages. These platforms facilitated the first study of the mesophotic ecosystems of both reefs, which are a hotspot for Galapagos sharks and Black cod – a listed threatened species that is uncommon in coastal Australian waters, but abundant and well-protected in this remote marine park. What was really exciting about this survey (apart from ex-tropical cyclone Uesi!) was putting into practice the suite of National Best Practice Field Guidelines for monitoring Australian waters, which includes the field manual for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles.
Please send us your Image-of-the-Month along with a short descriptive paragraph to newsletter@oceanbestpractices.org.
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Release of the Ocean Observing System Report Card 2021
The Ocean Observing System Report Card 2021 provides insight into the status of the global ocean observing system, assessing networks’ progress, focusing on the challenges needed to keep improving this system, and encouraging collaborations and new partners to join the ocean observing community.
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E-DNA Data Publication
OBIS-USA through the work of CeNCOOS and MBARI has published their first eDNA dataset to OBIS and GBIF. They're not the first to publish this kind of data, but it is a first for this network.
The Publishing DNA-derived data through biodiversity data platforms guide and newly released DNA Derived Data Extension were key to making this happen, both of which are accessible in the OBPS Repository.
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IODC 2022 - Abstract submissions due 29 October
The International Ocean Data Conference 2022- The Data We Need for the Ocean We Want will be held in Sopot, Poland between 14-16 February 2022 as a hybrid event. The main objectives of the Conference will be (i) to consider regional and global strategies and policy needed to achieve the digital ecosystem; (ii) to discuss existing and required technological developments and their implementation; and (iii) to identify future directions in ocean data and information management. The mentioned objectives will furthermore be considered within the multi-sectoral vision of the Ocean Decade. As a member of the OBP community, please consider paricipating in the Conference, either by presenting a paper or a poster in one of the following sessions:
- SESSION 1: GLOBAL STRATEGIES AND POLICY
- SESSION 2: IMPLEMENTING THE DIGITAL COMMONS
- SESSION 3: LOOKING FORWARD
All abstracts should be submitted electronically here by the deadline of Friday 29 October 2021 (23:59 CEST).
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Habitat mapping of the world's shallow coral reefs is complete
The Allen Coral Atlas partners have announced that after three years, 450+ research teams and counting, and two million satellite images, the world’s first satellite-based coral reef monitoring system has achieved global coverage. Combined with the Atlas' monitoring system launched earlier this year, the Allen Coral Atlas is now the most complete, consistent, accurate and continually updated resource for coral scientists, policy makers and regional planners.
Here is a blog post about the completion of the global maps, and here is a toolkit that provides images, infographics, GIFs, and text for your use.
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Poet's Corner - Sail Away
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Rabindranath Tagore
Early in the day it was whispered that we should sail in a boat,
only thou and I, and never a soul in the world would know of this our
pilgrimage to no country and to no end.
In that shoreless ocean,
at thy silently listening smile my songs would swell in melodies,
free as waves, free from all bondage of words.
Is the time not come yet?
Are there works still to do?
Lo, the evening has come down upon the shore
and in the fading light the seabirds come flying to their nests.
Who knows when the chains will be off,
and the boat, like the last glimmer of sunset,
vanish into the night?
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- Ocean Decade Kick-off in the Western Pacific, 25-26 November 2021, Virtual. Register here.
- EMSO Time Series conference: ‘Observing Ocean Sound’, 20-22 October 2021, Canary Islands Spain
- International Ocean Data Conference, 14-16 February, virtual and Sopot Poland
- Oceans 2022, 21-24 February 2022, Chennai India
- Ocean Sciences Meeting 2022, 27 Feb - 4 Mar 2022, Honolulu, HI (USA), hybrid
- International Indian Ocean Science Conference, 14-18 March, Goa India
Please regularly check the Events section of our webpage for updates.
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