We hope this note finds you refreshed and looking forward to 2024. Last year was one of significant growth for the Center and many of our projects progressed rapidly. Follow us on LinkedIn for more regular updates between quarterly communications for what's sure to be an exciting year at COMIT!

In October we welcomed Roxann Vistocci as our new program assistant. She joins COMIT with over 15 years of experience spanning field-based ecology, education, and business administration and management. Roxann also owned and operated a small business when living in Colorado.

Before joining our team, Roxann was most recently at USF’s College of Education as a Conference and Events Planner for Check & Connect – a State Personnel Development Grant-funded project focused on keeping at-risk students in school.

Team member, Sarah Grasty, traveled to Monaco to participate in the annual Map the Gaps (MtG) Symposium in November. A large focus of this year's meeting was dedicated to crowdsourced bathymetry. Sarah was thrilled to be invited as a panelist for the 'Citizen Science around the World' session. The talks were streamed and can be rewatched on MtG's YouTube page.

Colleagues from around the world working on seafloor mapping projects, many of which are also involved in CSB initiatives.

In more CSB news, the Crowd the Bay team is hosting a follow-up stakeholder engagement meeting on February 19, 2024. The timing centers around the Gulf of Mexico Conference which gets fully underway on the 20th in Tampa, FL.

We invite anyone interested in participating and/or learning more about the program to attend (in-person only). Our team will recap the results from the inaugural meeting held in September 2023, share the highlights of the program's progress over the last several months, and discuss what's in store for Crowd the Bay in 2024.

One last bit of exciting CSB- related updates is that COMIT is now a Trusted Node!

Via this agreement with the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), we have joined a network of other entities contributing CSB data to the IHO's international repository, the Data Centre for Digital Bathymetry (DCDB).

It isn't feasible for every mariner collecting CSB to submit their data into the repository. It's therefore the responsibility of Trusted Nodes to manage, format, and submit CSB data to the DCDB. We look forward to serving as stewards for our Crowd the Bay participant data as well as helping to increase the amount of timely bathymetry data available in the Tampa Bay region.

Student Spotlight

If you didn't know, our students absolutely ROCK! PhD student, Rosemary Burkhalter-Castro, and Master's students Margaret Hanley and Steven Paul (left to right, below) have started part-time work with NOAA Coast Survey. All while still working full time on their graduate degrees. Led by Miya Pavlock, our students have joined the External Source Data (ESD) team.

We thank our partners and collaborators for continuing to offer such fantastic work experience opportunities for COMIT students.

In November COMIT was awarded a Florida High Tech Corridor (HTC) Grant to support four paid USF undergraduate student internships for the Spring 2024 semester. Two of these internships will be for the duration of the semester and the remaining two (dubbed "mini-ships") will be concentrated around a field experience mid-semester.

Later this month, Zoe Brooker and Shana Korn will join the COMIT team for the semester. In March, Katherin Abreus-Rodriquez and Riley Benson will also join the team with the start of the mini-ships. Read their profiles, as well as those of our other interns, on our website!

Katherin Abreus-Rodriquez

(Chemistry)

Riley Benson

(Digital Comms & Multimedia Journalism)

Zoe Brooker

(Geography/GIS)

Shana Korn

(Psychology & Environmental Science)

Aside from being tasked with their own projects under COMIT's mentorship, our new interns will have bi-weekly professional development sessions and learn about different oceanographic sampling and survey methods.

This opportunity includes a field experience that builds on the Collaborative Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE) Program organized last year by Jay Law and Yoggang Liu (who split their time between COMIT and the College of Marine Science's Ocean Circulation Lab). The CORE program and protocol will be repeated, but with a stronger emphasis on hydrographic surveying techniques.

Thanks to the Florida HTC Undergraduate Research Initiative for supporting our interns this semester!

Snippets

COMIT is establishing a backscatter calibration site in the Tampa Bay area, with Stephan O'Brien, PhD leading the charge. Preliminary data were collected from 6 sites last year and 1-2 of them will be re-sampled this spring. Depending on the results, Stephan will select one of the sites as the dedicated Tampa Bay multibeam backscatter calibration site. More to come!

Stephan O'Brien served on the Solutions Review Team for the Neptune Award at the Ocean Exchange's meeting in Ft. Lauderdale on October 30, 2023. The Neptune Award is given to the solution that advances our understanding of the ocean and helps minimize our impact on these resource. The 2023 award went to REMORA Technical, a company using biomimicry from remora fish to track migratory species.

Meetings and Presentations

COMIT's Year 3 Annual Review is coming up February 13 - 14 in St. Petersburg, FL. We're looking forward to hosting our NOAA colleagues and program managers, as well as our industry partners and external collaborators. A public report about our year three activities is under development and will be shared in the next newsletter.

The Gulf of Mexico Conference (GOMCON) is being held February 19 - 22, 2024 in Tampa, FL. Several COMIT members plan to attend and present. Registration is open at early-bird pricing until January 19th.

Florida Ocean's Day, co-hosted by the Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO), Mote Marine Lab, and the Florida Ocean Alliance, is scheduled for February 6, 2024 at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee. COMIT plans to attend this year in support of our colleagues, as well as talk with legislators about the importance of mapping activities in the State of Florida. We also look forward to expressing our appreciation for the Legislature's support of USF's new Environmental and Oceanographic Sciences Research and Teaching Facility.

The Florida Coastal Mapping Program (FCMaP) is holding its 2024 Annual Summit as a hybrid meeting (in-person option in St. Petersburg, FL) on March 26-27, 2024. The purpose of the summit is to bring together stakeholders, in person and virtually, to discuss recent mapping activities and future plans and strategies to achieve a mapped Florida. Registration is open!

The College of Charleston's annual BEAMS (BEnthic Acoustic Mapping and Survey Program) symposium is coming up, April 12 - 14, 2024 in Charleston, SC. Registration will be available mid-February!

Publications

A recap of 2023 publications from (or related to) COMIT's activities.

Chen, J., Weisberg, R. H., Liu, Y., Zheng, L. 2023. Hillsborough bay inflow modification study: An application of the Tampa Bay Coastal Ocean Model, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 281-108213.

Chen, J., Liu, Y., Weisberg, R. H., Murawski, S., Gilbert, S., Naar, D., Zheng, L., Hommeyer, M., Dietrick, C., Luther, M., Hapke, C., Meyers, E., Moghimi, S., Allen, C., Tang, L., Khazaei, B., Pe’eri, S. Wang, P. 2023, Hydrodynamic response to bathymetric changes in Tampa Bay, Florida, Deep Sea Research II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 212, 105344.

Chen, J., Weisberg, R. H., Liu, Y., Zheng, L., Law. J., Gilbert, S., Murawski, S. 2023. A Tampa Bay Coastal Ocean Model (TBCOM) nowcast/forecast System, Deep Sea Research II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 211, 105322.

Liu, Y., Weisberg, R.H., Zheng, L., Hubbard, K.A., Muhlbach, E.G., Garrett, M.J., Hu, C., Cannizzaro, J.P., Xie, Y., Chen, J., John, S., Liu, L.Y. 2023. Short-term forecast of Karenia brevis trajectory on the West Florida Shelf, Deep-Sea Research Part II, 212, 105335.