Good, Better, and Best

Our new Deputy Editor (Virginie) is taking the reins for the May issue, and so we’ll be signing these brief editor notes now so you know who is on the other end! As always, we welcome contributions from you (see the March issue for appropriate content). Please send submissions to newsletter@oceanbestpractices.org. 

Rachel Przeslawski

We’re proud to present the formation of our first task team,  TT21-01: Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity in Ocean Best Practices Development. The need for this task team arose as the OBPS aims to transparently increase the representation of diverse groups in an inclusive and equitable way, thus increasing perspectives across collaborations, projects and organizations within the OBPS community. This task team will be co-chaired by the latest members (and early-career ocean professionals) of the OBPS-SG, Cora Hoerstmann and Jordan Van Stavel. To kick-off the commencement of the task team, we will soon be sharing an open call on the TT21-01 web page. We welcome the OBPS community’s involvement in shaping and engaging our task team's efforts.  Parties (individuals or representatives of organizations) who are interested in supporting the actions of the task team are encouraged to apply to the call. More information can be found in our Terms of Reference here.

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The IOC Manuals and Guides 84 : Towards a Best Practice for Developing Best Practices in Ocean Observation (BP4BP): Supporting Methodological Evolution through Actionable Documentation,  is now available online. This guide can help authors of ocean methods, guides, manuals, and other documents to support the evolution of their documents into community-wide best practices.

Cristian Muñoz, Pauline Simpson, Johannes Karstensen, Jay Pearlman

COVID-19 has been a catalyst for major changes in work modalities - are those changes reflected in Ocean Best Practice System (OBPS) metrics?  

The OBPS is recognized by the global ocean community as a sustained operational service, offering  a methodological management system and serving as a facilitator for capacity development and training activities associated with best practice methodologies.  However, the OBPS needs to evolve in this ever-changing Brave New World, and measuring the uptake of OBPS as a system but also of its specific services is an important task to develop for improving the system and its services.

Measuring impacts of OBPS occurs by defining metrics and, based on them, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Anecdotal evidence indicates organisations/projects and individuals are starting to deposit methods into OBPS. For a more quantitative assessment,  Google Analytics (GA)  reveals evidence of trends which anecdotal evidence can miss.

Based on information from GA, we are  creating a new Metrics dashboard for the OBPS Enhanced Discovery Service (UI) that shows:

• The number of users accessing the repository has grown over three years reaching more than 30,000 in September 2020. Monthly values show pronounced variability by more than 10,000 users. >

• The diversity of accessed documents reached a maximum with more than 800 in January 2020. A general increase is seen throughout the record.
  

The initial conclusions based on the above are: (1) OBPS has reached its first maturity stage since it was created in 2017, and (2) OBPS has a loyal community of users that are exploiting around 60% of the repository capacity on a monthly basis. 

To grow, the OBPS needs a transformative change in number and broader discipline coverage of methodologies submitted. We clearly need to  expand our services and innovation as a global system of reference. 

The results of this analysis will be built into our strategic thinking in order to address these challenges to the OBPS process for the large and diverse  representatives of the broad ocean observing community, which includes observers, data managers, modelers, and end users and their applications.  We are currently upgrading the core repository capability including updating our user interface. We will announce soon when these will be available to you.

We very much look forward to continuing to expand our global community inputs. With your help, success in this endeavour will be reflected in our metrics.

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Shane Elipot (University of Miami) and Mark Bushnell (NOAA/US IOOS)

As a research oceanographer and co-chair of the newly-formed US CLIVAR Ocean Uncertainty Quantification Working Group, Shane Elipot is working to create a new drifting buoy sea surface temperature (SST) dataset at hourly resolution to accompany the position and velocity dataset. This dataset will include SST uncertainties. After developing a novel way to identify outlying data points, it’s just a matter of flagging those points as bad. But, how to flag them? Is there an existing data-flagging standard? Where to go to seek such information? The OPBS repository, of course!

A Google search of “sea surface temperature data flagging standard” returns 1,300,000 hits – still some wading through the offerings to be done. Instead, Shane searched the OBPS repository for “temperature” and “data” and “flag” and “standard”, which returned 216 documents. He knew these documents all had merit because they originated within the oceanographic community, and they could be sorted by year to provide the most recent papers at the top of the listing. It took him just a few minutes to find the most appropriate data flagging standard to be used for his application.

When something seems simple and works well, it’s easy to take it for granted. It’s important to highlight these simple success stories to promote the use of the OBPS and demonstrate the utility of the system, to the benefit of our entire oceanographic community. Please consider sharing your success story in the next issue of our newsletter!
Shane Elipot deploying a drifter for the Global Drifter Program. Photo credit: Molly Baringer, NOAA 2012

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Murray Roberts, iAtlantic Project Coordinator (University of Edinburgh)

Funded by €10.6M from the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme, the iAtlantic project has begun a 4.5-year study to assess the status of Atlantic deep and open ocean ecosystems in space and time. International collaboration is at the heart of iAtlantic's approach. Work spans the full scale of the Atlantic basin, from the tip of Argentina in the south to Iceland in the north, and from the east coasts of USA and Brazil to the western margins of Europe and Africa. The project’s 35 core and 12 associate partners from Europe, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Canada and the USA are working closely to share expertise, equipment, infrastructure, data and personnel. iAtlantic’s work relies on both existing data and new data gathered at sea and through its experimental work – a design that’s helped deal with COVID-19 restrictions. The team are compiling diverse existing ecosystem time series data from government agencies, offshore industries and citizen scientists. iAtlantic’s new data gathering activities are underpinned by an extensive field programme of 32 research expeditions. Activities are focussing on 12 locations in the deep sea and open ocean that are of international conservation significance and of interest to Blue Economy and Blue Growth sectors. The project’s expeditions not only probe the most remote corners of the Atlantic but also provide important opportunities for enhancing human and technological capacities, driving forward cooperation between science, industry and policymakers in countries bordering the Atlantic.

iAtlantic is structured through eight work packages designed to achieve the project’s five overarching objectives:

1. Standardise South and North Atlantic Ocean observations to enable short, medium and long-term assessments of Atlantic Ocean circulation and its physico-biogeochemical environment.
2. Map deep and open-ocean ecosystems at basin, regional and local scales.
3. Assess the stability, vulnerability, and any tipping points of deep and open-ocean Atlantic ecosystems to changes in ocean circulation, and effects of single and multiple stressors.
4. Align and enhance human, technological and data inter-operability capacities for cost-effective cooperation and planning across the Atlantic.
5. Define requirements for sustainable management with industry, regulatory and governmental stakeholders to reflect societal needs and inform policy developments that ensure and encourage a sustainable Blue Economy.

Efforts to standardise and follow best practice are important to achieving each of these objectives. iAtlantic is interested in the development of best practices in the areas where our project is particularly active, from how best to manage the use of marine industry and citizen science data through to the best covid-19 management policies for offshore marine research expeditions.

For more information please visit the project website or contact the Project Office the University of Edinburgh (i-atlantic@ed.ac.uk). 

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The Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO) and Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) are pleased to announce that the POGO-SCOR Visiting Fellowship programme for 2021 is now open for applications until 30 April 2021.

The scheme is designed to promote training and capacity development, leading towards a global observation scheme for the oceans, and is aimed at scientists, technicians, graduate students (preferably PhD) and post-doctoral fellows involved in oceanographic work at centres in developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

For more information and details on how to apply please see here.

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The Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University and ONC installed a seafloor observatory in Conception Bay last month to enable real-time monitoring of oceanographic conditions and marine life. The cabled observatory was designed and built by ONC. Equipped with specialized instrumentation, the observatory monitors currents, waves, water temperature, salinity, and underwater sounds. It also features a high-resolution camera developed by SubC Imaging of Newfoundland and Labrador to collect time-lapse video of nearby flora and fauna. The Marine Institute (MI) is an associate member of ONC. Read more.

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The Arctic Research Icebreaker Consortium and the Association of Early Polar Career Scientists are running an online technical training series in April to bolster technical skills for working on a research icebreaker i. Topics include marine robotics, the challenges of atmospheric measurements, working in a laboratory when it is moving, and best practices in technical science support. For more info on the workshop see here. 

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An Ocean Gliders Best Practices Workshop, supported by the H2020 EuroSea project, will be held virtually May 11 – 25, 2021. The workshop goal is to reinforce existing glider programs by developing best practices around all glider activities such as preparation, deployment, data management, sensor calibration and data processing. The collective effort will ensure that the valuable data acquired by gliders around the globe will be inter-comparable and used by a broader community to better understand our ocean. Discussions and working sessions will be conducted for about two hours per day for each working group during the two-week period.
 The workshop goals are to:

1. Reinforce the OceanGliders.org community
2. Make progress on a comprehensive “Towards OceanGliders Best Practices” paper
3. Development of variable-based Standard Operational Practices (SOPs)

Further details including registration can be found here.

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In response to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, UNESCO has established an Ocean Literacy Portal to build ocean literacy and networks through the sharing of resources. Programs include the OceanTeacher Global Academy which provides a comprehensive, professional-level, web-based training platform to support classroom, hybrid, and online learning.  Other organisations that have developed ocean literacy materials include the Australian Marine Environment Protection Association and the US-based National Marine Educators Association.

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Nations around the world are moving forward with plans for the UN Decade of Ocean Science and Sustainable Development. Australia recently hosted an inspiring panel representing the truly diverse sectors with interest and buy-in to our oceans. They spoke of the opportunities provided by this coming decade to coordinate and generate public interest in sustainable and evidence-based use of our marine resources. You can watch Ocean Decade: What Does Success Look Like for Australia’s Ocean Stakeholders here or visit the website.

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Mario Cabral, Newsletter Regional Representative for Asia-Pacific
 

The Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) Network of Local Governments (PNLG) held its annual meeting intended for its 51 members, a forum of local governments for sustainable coastal development. The PNLG is recognized as one of the major driving forces in realizing the goals of Sustainable Development Strategy for the Seas of East Asia (SDS-SEA). The PNLG forum was held in Xiamen PR China on November 24, 2020, for the first time simultaneously both online and offline due to the pandemic. The main theme was Marine Eco-Civilization, Blue Economy. The number of participants who attended were 35 people from 6 PNLG member countries (Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Timor-Leste and Vietnam), as well as PNLG-associated members.

The meeting began was officially opened by the president, Madam Hj. Noraini binti Haji Roslan (Mayor of Subang Jaya, Malaysia) with the contents of the acceptance of South Bangka Regency (Indonesia) as a regular member and FISO as an associated member. The next session was filled with a presentation of 2020 work summary and 2021 work plan of the PNLG secretariat, introduction of new PNLG members and signing of the PNLG charter as a core event, then continued with a technical workshop session entitled on 1) Sustainable Ocean Development: Challenges, opportunities and role of Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) system; 2) Ocean Governance and ICM Implementation towards a Blue Economy Development: Lessons from the scaling up of SDS-SEA implementation in Thailand; 3) Integrated Ocean Management for Sustainable Ocean Economy; 4) Marine Spatial Evaluation and Planning of ICM; 5) Evaluating the Effectiveness of ICM System: Way forward for the East Asian Region. More information can be found in the Forum Proceedings 
.here

Tapioca Pudding

Virginie van Dongen-Vogels

This cooking recipe is from one of our best chefs (Leah) onboard the RV Cape Fergusson - a reward following the servicing our IMOS mooring in the Great Barrier Reef.

There are so many ways maybe to make tapioca pudding, but this one is one of the best I have tasted so far:

• 1L of any milk.
• 2/3 cup tapioca/sago
• ½ tsp salt
• ~1.2 cup honey, sugar, or maple syrup
• 3 eggs
• Cinnamon, nutmeg, pinch cloves, ginger (grated fresh), vanilla (this is the creativity bit).

Cook until grains are almost transparent (medium heat).
Add honey, sugar or maple syrup
Beat the eggs, temper with mixture and return to pan on low heat until thickened.
Add some chia seeds (optional)

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

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