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New Glider Tested in Prince William Sound
The first AOOS-funded "Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management" glider mission was successfully launched earlier this year in Prince William Sound. The glider, equipped with seven different environmental sensors as well as a receiver that listens for tagged fish, made real-time detections of tagged herring as part of a large scale herring restoration project. The glider has flown two missions thus far, and is currently on its third - which will demonstrate the ability to fly out of Prince William Sound to Resurrection Bay. Read the full article here.
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New Report Released
Learn about the most recent science and observations in and around the Bering Sea. AOOS, in partnership with the International Arctic Research Center at UAF, our community advisory board, scientists & community members brings you the Bering Science Winter 2020/2021: Communicating science in and around the Bering Sea report. Read the report
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US-Russia Science Corner Webinars
AOOS and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) are collaborating to host a series of webinars, the “US-Russia Science Corners.” These webinars are aimed to increase awareness of research occurring in both US and Russian waters, and encourage collaboration or connection between research programs to further our understanding of the Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, and Arctic Ocean ecosystems.
In these webinars, US and Russian experts share an overview of current research they are conducting in the Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, and Arctic Ocean, and discuss approaches to address knowledge gaps and information needs that will allow for a more complete understanding of the ecosystem.
The first webinar in this series was held as a panel discussion at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium in January 2021, and covered a wide range of ecosystem components. The second webinar was held on April 7th and focused on seabirds. Future webinars are being planned to focus on fish and marine mammals. These webinars are open to the public to learn, listen, ask questions, and share observations. Simultaneous English-Russian interpretation will be provided, and the webinars are recorded and posted on the AOOS and WWF websites.
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AOOS Partnership Highlight: AMBON
The Arctic Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (AMBON) supports sustained biodiversity observations in the Chukchi Sea. The team, led by Dr. Katrin Iken of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, has been underway since 2015 and has a goal of documenting all species of this Arctic ecosystem from microbes to whales.
Why? Because the Arctic Ocean influences global climate and connecting the water column and bottom-dwelling organisms that drive a complex food web is fundamental to understanding ecosystem processes. Dramatic temperature increases and seasonal ice loss are leading to significant changes in the structure of marine ecosystems and how they function. Chukchi Sea water masses, part of an expansive, shallow continental shelf system, support abundant primary production and diverse animal communities—on the seafloor, in the water column and at the interface of the air and ocean where world-class populations of millions of seabirds feed.
Read the full article here.
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News from our Executive Director
 AOOS has a new Executive Director! Sheyna Wisdom became AOOS' second director January 1 2021, replacing Molly McCammon who has transitioned to a part-time Senior Advisor position. Wisdom is a marine mammal biologist and former manager of Fairweather Science with extensive experience in Alaska ocean research, and especially the Arctic.
“Having been on the job for four months, I must first express my sincere gratitude for Molly staying on to help with this transition. As you can see from my picture above, I am fully safety trained to jump in head first. The incredible breadth of work in which AOOS participates is truly extraordinary and I am both honored and excited to be a part of this team. While it has been challenging to learn this complex program and get to know the staff in the middle of a pandemic, we are all working together well.” said Executive Director Sheyna Wisdom.
AOOS has started out this spring with several AOOS staff retreats to get to know each other and identify opportunities for improvement. As the AOOS staff, as well as numbers and type of projects have grown in size and complexity each year, so has the need for tools and resources to improve our program. Sheyna’s experience of project/program management in the private sector for the last 20 years will help with this effort.
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Ocean Acidification Network Update
Ocean acidification (OA) work in Alaska continues to expand with over 40 researchers involved in OA research or monitoring in some capacity. Brief updates on research project status, results, and plans were recorded during a January research update session. AOOS and the network continue to support efforts to strengthen and expand community sampling, and are working with regional Tribal coordinators on systems to share and interpret data collected by communities. A beautiful 9-minute video on OA community sampling efforts in Southcentral Alaska was produced by the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery.
In early 2021, the network welcomed several new steering committee members: Kris Holderied (NOAA Kasitsna Bay Lab), Scott Goodman (Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation), and Jeff Hetrick (Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery). The steering committee will be planning a statewide OA State of the Science Workshop for early 2021 as well as pursuing data synthesis and new products to help Alaskans understand OA. Finally, we'd like to give a shout out to the Dimond High School National Ocean Science Bowl team who won Best Paper and Best Research project for their paper on ocean acidification at Alaska's statewide Tsunami Bowl! Read an OA Network interview with the team.
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AOOS Staff takes course on Unlearning Racism
AOOS staff and four colleagues are enrolled in a semester-long course called URGE: Unlearning Racism in the Geosciences. The course has included readings, lectures by authors and thought leaders on the national stage, and pod deliverables. The course has helped us look at our implicit biases with regard to race in our personal lives and on the work front and think through AOOS policies, practices and engagement. We'd like to send appreciation to the URGE organizers for providing this stimulating and free opportunity, and Seth Danielson (UAF), Sue Saupe (CIRCAC), Donna Aderhold (PWSSC), and Scott Pegau (PWSSC) for joining our pod and creating rich and candid conversations. We will be thinking about ways to continue this focus at AOOS after the course ends in May.
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US IOOS to serve as a mentor during Google’s Summer of Code
The U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System has been accepted as a mentor organization for Google’s 2021 Summer of Code (GSoC). Established in 2005, GSoC invites students to propose programming projects to vetted open source organizations. Accepted projects, to be announced in May, commence in June following a short introductory period for the student to get to know their mentors and the organization they’re partnered with. GSoC students can make direct contributions and functionality enhancements to the software projects they work on, and may continue to stay involved as regular contributors after their GSoC projects are completed.
IOOS has suggested several possible areas for proposals that include topics in machine learning, cloud storage, ERDDAP, and more. Interested students can learn more on IOOS’s organization page.
More information on IOOS’ open source oceanographic data software can be found on the IOOS GitHub site.
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AOOS Meets with Researchers
On February 22 AOOS hosted a meeting with all of the Principal Investigators (PIs) from our 5-year IOOS Cooperative Agreement. The 4-hour workshop was separated into the four ocean monitoring themes: Marine Operations, Coastal Hazards, Water Quality, and Ecosystems. The goal of the PI meeting was to introduce the new Executive Director, Sheyna Wisdom, to the wide breadth of AOOS projects and researchers. Researchers presented an overview of their research, as well as a discussion of the future of the projects. We also had some great discussions on future work. Ideas included: increased leveraging of resources from industries and agencies across Alaska; continued testing of technology to improve monitoring data collection; continued synthesis of coastal monitoring data collection methods (HABS and OA); increased ecosystem monitoring; and continued outreach to identify new needs and services for stakeholders.
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