A hearty welcome is in order for new team members who have joined us in the last quarter. Dr. Kristopher Krasnosky started in late-November and Dr. Stephan O'Brien joins the team this week. Both Drs. Krasnosky and O'Brien hold Senior Research Scientist positions in COMIT. Each person brings a unique set of skills and expertise to the Center that will compliment and bolster current research priorities and projects.

Last but not least - Dr. Nicole Raineault formally joined COMIT in late 2022. She is the Chief Scientist of the Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO) and will oversee coordination with the Florida Coastal Mapping Program (FCMaP) and solidify FIO’s fleet and membership in COMIT’s Crowd-Source Bathymetry project.

It was a packed house! Pictured here are most of our review attendees, aside from our virtual participants who were greatly missed.

It was a pleasure to host several NOAA colleagues during our annual program review, which was held October 24th to 26th in St. Petersburg, FL. We were joined by personnel spanning several line offices, including the Office of Coast Survey, the Integrated Ocean and Coastal Mapping (IOCM) working group, the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO), and the National Geodetic Survey (NGS). 

COMIT's Director, Dr. Steven Murawski, gives an overview of the Center's year two activities.

Despite a packed schedule, there was ample time for productive, in-depth discussions during the three-day meeting. The last day also featured panel sessions with collaborators from external agencies and industries. The topics included: workforce development; the National Strategy for Ocean Mapping, Exploration and Characterization (NOEMC) and Seabed 2030; and finally lessons learned from Hurricane Ian. We greatly appreciated all of our panelists, as these discussions were a big hit among participants.

Day three of the review featured a series of panels. Pictured here (left to right) are panelists Dr. Yonggang Liu (USF/COMIT), Dr. Nic Alvarado (NOAA), Dr. Chuanmin Hu (USF), and Capt. Michael Kahle (USCG) who discussed Post-Event Opportunities which was extremely topical in the wake of Hurricane Ian's landfall a few weeks prior.

Our students' research was another highlight of the review which included periodic lighting talks held throughout the meeting and a poster session during the first day's evening reception. You can see some content from COMIT students, including digital versions of their posters, by following the links under their bios.

COMIT student, Catalina Rubiano, showcases her poster during the first evening's mixer (left) while fellow student (and recently-declared PhD!), Mitchell Hastings, gives a lightning talk on his dissertation work (right).

There are many thanks in order as it takes a village to make an event like our review run smoothly and successfully!

We extend our appreciation to Saildrone, Woolpert, and the Flood Hub for sponsoring our mixers.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute was gracious in providing our meeting space, along with helpful assistance from their facilities services specialist, Dylan Lambros.

We also would like to recognize Nic Alvarado and Sherryl Gilbert for photographing the event.

A full report of COMIT's year two activities will be made publicly available in early-2023 via our website - stay tuned!

Meetings and Presentations

In October, Harrison Clark, presented COMIT's Crowd-Sourced Bathymetry (CSB) plans for a trial project at the Southeast Acoustics Consortium (SEAC) meeting in St. Petersburg, FL from October 11th to 13th. Harrison primarily works on a separate project investigating Greater Amberjack abundance, but has become a key team member in the CSB project and other COMIT outreach efforts. COMIT Co-PI Chad Lembke also presented at the meeting on the use of small fisheries echosounders on oceanic gliders which fostered a larger discussion on using similar technology on mobile, uncrewed vehicles.

A slide from Grasty's CSB presentation at the COMIT program review in October 2022 outlining potential goals of the project.

Our CSB project lead, Sarah Grasty, was part of a panel on CSB at the Florida Coastal Mapping Program (FCMaP) summit in early-December, together with fellow panelists, Jennifer Jencks (NOAA-NCEI/IHO), Brian Calder (UNH/CCOM-JHC), and Tim Kearns (Great Lakes Observing System). The panel discussed everything from incentivizing CSB programs to the technical details of data loggers. Sarah will attend the upcoming CSB working group meeting hosted by NOAA and the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) in Boulder, CO in January 2023 after which we expect to refine COMIT's project plans.