Ocean Best Practices Newsletter

Welcome to the first issue of 2021! We hope that you all had a restful holiday break and were able to find some joy despite the varied challenges we all faced (and many continue to face) last year. This issue focusses on the UN Decade of the Ocean which was officially launched last week with the event ‘A Brave New Ocean’ (available to watch on YouTube and Facebook). We’re all looking forward to seeing how the proposed projects develop and how they connect with ocean best practices.

The Ocean Best Practices System has a new poster on display at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). Unfortunately, most of us are unlikely to visit Oostende anytime soon so you can also view it here. We are planning to follow this up with an infographic of the OBPS and are seeking volunteers with graphic design experience. Please email newsletter@oceanbestpracties.org if you can help!

It only just seems like the last Evolving and Sustaining Ocean Best Practices workshop has finished, and we’re already moving into planning phases for the next one! Our 5^th workshop will be held 20 Sept – 1 Oct 2021. Please register your interest now so you can stay updated!

Cora Hӧrstmann
We are excited to share our article “Perspectives on Documenting Methods to Create Ocean Best Practices” focusing on the challenges and opportunities of ocean observation method documentation that we just published in Frontiers in Marine Science under the research theme Best Practices in Ocean Observing.

We contextualise our guide for documenting best practices (Towards BP4BP) and reflect on how the effective documentation of ocean methods, standards, and guides can help to improve discoverability, interlinkages, and thus the evolution of distributed methods into common best practices within the ocean community. Further, we discuss multiple dimensions of method documentation, including the importance of ethics and inclusivity. We thus hope to support the community's collaborative actions through practical guidance on method documentation, ultimately helping to meet societal goals as the UN Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development advances.

Jay Pearlman

The OBPS-Steering Group and many partners in the ocean community submitted a proposal to the IOC called “Ocean Practices for the Decade”. A brief summary of the proposal outlines the urgency and approach to interoperability and partnering for the Ocean Decade.

Humanity’s connection to the ocean is based on how we act and react to its multifaceted wonder. Our “ocean practices” are an essential bridge between humanity’s cultural and natural heritage. 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.

Access to information and knowledge about the ocean to achieve the UN Ocean Decade’s outcomes and objectives requires coordinated and interoperable observations and analyses from local to global scales and across disciplines. Thus, coordinating the ocean methodology - including guidelines, policies, standard specifications, and protocols - that underpins cooperation and interoperability is essential.

The OceanPractices has five high level objectives:

Enable the development, adoption, and continuous evolution of context-sensitive methodologies and best practices related to ocean research, operations and applications to support the UN Ocean Decade objectives and goals.
Accelerate the co-development and convergence of methodologies across ocean communities into community-accepted, trusted and interoperable best practices and standards.
Sustain a trusted and FAIR- and CARE-compliant system through which the ocean community permanently archives and accesses its methods, standards, guidelines and other methodological content.
Facilitate the creation of a federated network of complementary and seamlessly interoperable methodology management systems, bringing together UN IGOs, non-UN IGOs, NGOs, regional and global programs, projects and the private sector.
Foster community-led capacity development in ocean best practices to enable equitable access to information, technology and knowledge and facilitate more ocean science that is fit for purpose.

We are open to new partners as institutions or individuals. Please join us by emailing jay.pearlman@fourbridges.org.

“As the countries all over clamber to contain the spread of COVID-19, many economic activities have ground to a halt, leading to marked reductions in air pollution. Multiple sources indicate we are now living through an unrivalled drop in carbon output, offering a silver lining in an otherwise depressing story.”

Read more about the intersections between the pandemic and climate change in Manish Muhuri’s article in Earthzine, ‘Climate indicators in the COVID-19 season’.

A new article in Nature addresses some of the issues that are being increasingly considered in the ocean best practice community related to diversity, inclusion, capacity building, and knowledge sharing. In this article, researchers from Native American and Indigenous communities explain how colleagues and institutions can help them to battle marginalization. Read it here.

Despite the usual complexity of working in the deep sea—with a global pandemic to boot—Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) successfully maintained, upgraded and expanded hundreds of offshore, inshore and coastal ocean observing instruments and sensors this year. This interactive ESRI story map summarizes the year’s highlights and successes in advancing technology, science, community engagement and partnerships on all three of Canada’s coasts. Click here for the full interactive experience.

Serenity Pearlman, Age 11

Plocan is the marine research center of the Canary Islands. We met my grandpa and grandma’s friend Gercende Courtois de Viçose. That name makes her sound like royalty. She used to study and grow giant clams and octopuses (not octopi apparently, which sounds much better). They had all kinds of projects, with huge tanks full of sea life. We also got to visit the turtle rescue center.

Gercende believes that they can grow abalone in a way that is good for the environment, yummy, and cheap enough to make money. More safe, healthy food and good jobs for people on the island would be awesome. Seems like a good thing to figure out. I like that her research would make our home a better place to live. Figuring out how to start a whole new business is hard work. Mom and I think science is cool and really hope they succeed. Dad just wants to be invited to the BBQ.

Learn more about the research project, and read the full blog here.

We highly recommend this thought-provoking blog post by ecologist Jeremy Fox in which he tackles some of the existential questions related to best practices [excerpt below]:

“….when exactly do we need codified “best practices” in science or academia? Not just “best practices” regarding data sharing–“best practices” regarding anything. Because it’s my admittedly anecdotal impression that people often recommend “best practices” in situations in which best practices don’t exist or aren’t clear. There are even cases in which recommending “best practices” can produce confusion rather than clarity as to what our practices should be. So here are my current thoughts as to when we do–or don’t–need agreed-upon “best practices”. Read more.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released NOAA: 50 years of Science Service & Stewardship to celebrate its achievements from 1970 – 2020. Read it here.

If you have a recipe or culinary tip to share, please send it to newsletter@oceanbestpractices.org.

Chili Lime Fish Cakes

Ode to an Ocean Decade

Jay Pearlman

A wise woman said:
To go fast, go alone
To go far, go together
Achieve the now impossible

Move beyond tragedy of the commons
Through rational and inclusive discussion
Respectful of differences,
And diverse insights

Focus on the possible
And the impossible
Reach beyond what you can grasp
And reach it together

So are the challenges
Of the Ocean Decade
To achieve what has not been done before
for society through science

The National Academies held its kick-off of the US Ocean Decade Program “OceanShots“ on February 3 and 4^th. This was an opportunity to listen to community leaders and engage with each other through posters and breakout sessions. Ninety posters were offered on a wide range of subjects. The participants considered complex problems in moving ocean research and applications forward. Read more here.

Please regularly check the Events section of our webpage for updates.

Good, Better, and Best

Another year, another decade

Updates from the Steering Group

New OBPS Poster

2021 Workshop Dates Announced

Best Practices for Best Practices (BP4BP)

Feature - Ocean Best Practices: A Foundational Element for the Ocean Decade

Other News

COVID and the Climate Crisis

How to Include Indigenous Researchers and Their Knowledge

Ocean Observation Highlights from Canada

Fish and Abalone Farm

Don't Be So Quick to Recommend 'Best Practices'

NOAA'S 50th Anniversary Special Issue

Best Practices Cooking

Poet's Corner

Ode to an Ocean Decade

Meeting Summary - OceanShots: US Ocean Decade Program

Upcoming Events