The Gulf’s ocean observing community has been busy this summer! We’re tracking a record number of gliders in the Gulf and along the U.S. east coast this summer and we’re starting work on two new grants; one will help improve communications about Florida's toxic red tides and the second will create a data hub to track the toxic blue-green algae in Lake Okeechobee. There have also been plenty of webinars focused on just about every aspect of ocean observing you can imagine.
Webinars are the new way for us to connect these days when in-person conferences just aren’t possible. That goes for the annual GCOOS fall meeting as well. Instead of meeting in New Orleans, we’re organizing a short GCOOS program that will take place virtually on Sept. 30. We’re still finalizing the details and we’ll send out a special email soon with the details.
In the meantime, if you’ve got a job posting, funding opportunity or upcoming webinar and want to share the news, please send the details to GCOOS Program Assistant Laura Caldwell at Laura.Caldwell@GCOOS.org and we’ll share it through this enewsletter, on our website and on our social media channels.
Until next time,
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Recognizing an ‘OOS Leader |
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From the IOOS Program Office: New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen contributed a beautiful tribute in the Senate’s Congressional Record to Dr. Ru Morrison, former NERACOOS Executive Director, acknowledging his significant contributions to IOOS and the ocean community at large. Ru is also the first recipient of the IOOS Association Caraid Award to recognize those who have made outstanding contributions to observing and understanding our oceans, coasts and Great Lakes through vision, leadership, friendship and collaboration. We thank Ru for his dedication to the ocean observing community and wish him well in retirement. |
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New Leader: Harte Research Institute |
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From Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi: We’re proud to announce that Dr. David Yoskowitz has accepted the position of Senior Executive Director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies. Yoskowitz has been with A&M-Corpus Christi for 18 years, holding both faculty and administrative positions and currently serves as the Associate Director for Research, Policy, and Development in HRI and is the founding HRI Endowed Chair for Socio-Economics. Yoskowitz also held the position of Chief Economist for NOAA. As Dr. Yoskowitz assumes this role, Dr. Larry McKinney will become the Chair of Gulf Strategies on Aug. 31.
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Red Tide and Public Knowledge |
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We're pleased to be working with Florida Sea Grant on a new project to bridge the knowledge gap about toxic red tides caused by Karenia brevis. The project, led by Sea Grant's Dr. Lisa Krimsky, includes these objectives:
- Compile a review of current red tide communication and outreach products at the local, regional, and statewide level;
- Evaluate the public’s perception on the value and ease of use of existing red tide communication resources;
- Evaluate red tide information needs and wants, assess how demographics influence how red tide information is received and why certain delivery modes are preferred;
- Develop a communication strategy for Florida red tides comprising short-term event responses and guidance toward a long-term educational campaign, with both approaches using multilingual and multimodal outreach materials.
- Learn more
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This image shows a red tide bloom off Sarasota County, Florida. The bloom, which occurred from 2017 to 2019, was one of the longest and most widespread in the state's history, causing fish kills and the deaths of manatees, dolphins, sea turtles and other wildlife. Image courtesy of Mote Marine Laboratory's Manatee Research Program. |
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Toxic Algae and Lake Okeechobee |
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We're partnering with FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute on a new project monitoring toxic algae in Lake Okeechobee.
GCOOS is developing a web-based platform for visualizing bloom extent, intensities and the results of environmental characterization and modeling.
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Find the “Harmful Algal Bloom Assessment of Lake Okeechobee” or HALO here: https://halo.gcoos.org. (Note: The site is active, but only demo layers are currently active.)
The $2.2 million grant for the project comes from the state of Florida following recommendations by its Blue-Green Algae Task Force.
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New Glider Tracking Records |
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The GCOOS glider data portal GANDALF is now tracking a record 17 gliders at once!
Spread throughout the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and the U.S. east coast, the bulk of the fleet is dedicated to running a hurricane picket line to map ocean heat content.
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Having accurate ocean water temperature data is vital to predicting hurricane formation and strength. (We’re also tracking more than a dozen Argos floats there, too.)
The neatest thing?
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GANDALF creator Bob Currier has added new 3-D visualizations! This addition helps modelers and research teams find anomalies quickly and, if needed, allows them to investigate further.
This glider tracking tool and new visualization capabilities are especially important now, with hurricane season off to a record start and NOAA revising its predictions for an even busier end to the season — now up to 25 named storms, the most they’ve ever forecast for a season.
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Speaking of hurricanes... |
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As we move into what has traditionally been the most active 10 weeks of the Atlantic Basin hurricane season, we're already 11 names down the list of 2020 Atlantic Tropical Cyclone names provided by the World Meteorological Organization.
With Isaias, Josephine and Kyle behind us, the National Hurricane Center is currently tracking two systems that have potential to form into more organized storms over the next few days. If they do, the next names in line are Laura and Marco.
If 21 named storms are exceeded, names will be taken from the Greek alphabet. The first and only tropical storms to be named with the Greek alphabet in the Atlantic Basin were during the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic Hurricane season that recorded 31 tropical or subtropcical cyclones, including Tropical Storms Alpha, Gamma and Delta, and Hurricanes Beta and Epsilon.
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The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is proposing to offer approximately 78.8 million acres for a region-wide lease sale scheduled for November 2020. Lease Sale 256, scheduled to be live-streamed from New Orleans, will be the seventh offshore sale under the 2017-2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. Lease Sale 256 will include approximately 14,755 unleased blocks — all of the available unleased areas in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
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The ‘Ocean Enterprise’ Study and Webinar |
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The Marine Technology Society will host a webinar in September focused on the “ocean enterprise” — the for-profit and not-for-profit businesses that support ocean measurement, observation and forecasting. These businesses and organizations support the infrastructure that is critical for maritime commerce and the blue economy, developing the infrastructure necessary to generate new data and to work with publicly available data to deliver value-added products and services to ensure the safe, responsible, and successful running of maritime commerce.
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The Study: IOOS is currently conducting a study and asking businesses that provide infrastructure or develop products that support or conduct ocean observation and measurement, to participate in its 2020 study. Learn more and take the survey.
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The Webinar: Noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020. The webinar will introduce the 2015 Ocean Enterprise Study and the importance of its results and will provide the preliminary results from the follow-up 2020 study. Details & registration.
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Healthy Ecosystems & Living Resources |
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Northern Gulf Hypoxia Update |
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Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium have completed the 2020 hypoxia cruise, finding a much smaller hypoxic zone than predicted in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Forty-one percent of the continental U.S. drains into the Gulf of Mexico through the Mississippi River. The nutrients from human activities that flow with it creates an annual hypoxic or “dead zone” — an area with low or no oxygen that has major impacts on fisheries — in the northern Gulf. In some years, this dead zone has been as large as Rhode Island. Dead zones can have a destructive affect on Gulf fisheries, which provide 20 percent of the nation’s seafood production and $1 billion in commercial landings.
The average size of the dead zone between 2015 and 2020 was 5,407 square miles. The 2020 dead zone was 2,117 square miles. The zone was originally predicted to cover 7,769 square miles, but thanks to water column mixing brought by the winds associated with Hurricane Hanna, it was the third smallest recorded since mapping began in 1985. The image above shows a map of 2020 bottom-water dissolved oxygen concentrations.
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The U.S. Department of the Treasury has approved a RESTORE Act grant award of $7.62 million for the construction of the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Oyster Hatchery and Research Center at USM’s Gulf Coast Research Lab at Cedar Point in Ocean Springs. The grant is administered by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ).
The center is currently in the design phase, and it is anticipated that USM will provide approximately $1.2 million in state funding for facility construction costs in addition to the RESTORE Act funding. An additional $4 million in RESTORE Act funding was included in MDEQ’s restoration planning for procurement and installation of the aquaculture systems equipment but has not yet been submitted to the U.S Department of the Treasury pending final design.
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NOAA has released the 2020-2029 Ocean, Coastal and Great Lakes Acidification Research Plan that builds upon acidification science accomplishments made in the last decade and responds to newly emerging requirements in this field. In coordination with international, interagency, and external academic and industry research partners, the present NOAA Acidification Research Plan aims to support science that produces well-integrated and relevant research results, tools, and products for stakeholders.
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The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Galveston District, and Texas General Land Office (GLO) have entered into a memorandum of understanding to address coastal restoration in Texas. This effort is intended to streamline and synchronize Gulf of Mexico sediment resource identification for Texas coastal protection and restoration projects and plans.
A series of ongoing events, including sea level rise, land subsidence and reduced sediment, are resulting in the loss of beach, dune and wetland systems that act as a storm buffer to the mainland of Texas. These events are reducing the effectiveness of coastal features to protect people and land-based infrastructure from future storms.
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GCOOS Webinar Series: Emergency Preparedness |
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The GCOOS Webinar Series recently presented Bradley Hubbard, Senior Emergency Response Specialist for Shell Oil Company. His topic: "Emergency Preparedness and Response for Offshore Oil & Gas Operators."
As part of Shell Emergency Management, he provides emergency preparedness and response support to offshore operations throughout the Gulf of Mexico. Among his responsibilities are response planning, incident command system training, exercise support and on‐site incident management for Shell assets.
- Did you miss it? Watch it now!
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Webinar for ‘Actionable Science’ Funding Opportunity |
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The NOAA RESTORE Science Program’s funding competition for planning actionable science is now open and NOAA has scheduled webinars about the opportunity for Aug. 20, 21 & 25.
The award is designed to provide natural resource managers, researchers and other stakeholders with funding to plan a research project that informs a specific management decision impacting natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico. Approximately $2.5 million is available to fund an estimated 20 projects for one year.
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In 2010, the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon resulted in the largest man-made disaster in U.S. history. Today, each Gulf state administers restoration funds and programs. Additionally, other agencies and organizations are also tasked with administering programs designed to restore Gulf habitats and better understand Gulf ecosystems.
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Using the Ocean as an Energy Generator |
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Congrats to Dr. Cliff Merz, Program and HF Radar Operations Director for the University of South Florida’s Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System. Merz was recently named as one of the National Academy of Inventors' senior members for his work to advance marine-based renewable energy.
Marine-based renewable energy includes energy production from a range of methods including tidal stream and tidal range, ocean currents, waves, thermal energy and salinity gradients. Merz's work includes a patent for a technology that uses seawater concentration differences for renewable salinity gradient power generation.
The award is timely, as a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management-funded study conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has just been published on the feasibility of various offshore energy resources in the Gulf of Mexico. The study considered which technologies offer the most promise to meet future energy needs.
NREL researcher and lead author Walt Musial concluded that offshore wind energy showed great promise and that existing oil and gas industries in the Gulf can leverage ocean-based capabilities to expand their businesses and capitalize on new energy opportunities.
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GCOOS maintains a jobs listing for positions and fellowships in the ocean observing community. Want to advertise a position? Email Laura Caldwell
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National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Gulf Research Program: Environmental Program Director; Board on Offshore Energy and Safety Director; Board on Education and Engagement Awards Specialist
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Alaska Ocean Observing System: Executive Director and Coordinator of the Alaska Algal Bloom Network
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Bureau of Ocean Energy Management: Acoustic Modeler
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NOAA's Center for Satellite Applications and Research: Oceanographer
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Mote Marine Laboratory: Senior Research Scientist in Shark or Manatee Biology, Florida Red Tide Initiative; Phytoplankton Culture Specialist and Staff Analytical Chemist, Exotoxicology Program; Florida Red Tide Initiative Postdoctoral Scientist; Aquarium Biologist; Coral Restoration Postdoctoral Researcher; Information and Data Coordinator; Environmental and Occupational Safety Officer
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Florida International University: Open-rank faculty position in Phycology
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Genwest Systems, Inc.: GIS Analyst
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The Water Institute of the Gulf: Data Architect for Environmental Resources
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Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ): Science Officer Genetic Data
Postdoctoral Positions:
- NOAA: National Centers for Coastal Ocean Sciences, NRC Research Programs
Fellowships:
- Margaret A. Davidson Graduate Fellowship
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GCOOS maintains a listing of funding opportunities. Have an opportunity you'd like to advertise? Email Laura Caldwell
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- FY 2020 Ocean Technology Transition Project
- NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research FY2021 Federal Funding Opportunity
- Gulf of Mexico Alliance Funding Calendar
- NEP Coastal Watershed Grant Program
- ROSES-20 Amendment 30: Ocean Salinity Field Campaign Final Text and Due Dates
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18, 21-25 & 30: Ocean Best Practices Workshop IV Virtual |
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30: GCOOS Members Meeting. Virtual. |
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5-20: Oceans 2020 Gulf Coast and Oceans 2020 Singapore have been combined into a virtual conference featuring a mix of live and on-demand events. Details.
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1-3: Bays and Bayous Symposium, Golden Nugget Biloxi Hotel and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. “Sound Science, Sound Policy: A 2020 Vision for the Future." Begins at noon on Tuesday, Dec. 1; ends at noon on Thursday, Dec. 3
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GCOOS is the Gulf of Mexico regional component of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and the only certified system dedicated solely to the Gulf of Mexico. Our mission is to provide timely, reliable and accurate information on the open ocean and coastal ocean waters of the Gulf of Mexico to ensure a healthy, clean, productive ocean and resilient coastal zone. |
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Dr. Barbara Kirkpatrick, Executive Director • Bill Lingsch, U.S. Glider User Group Coordinator • Dr. Chris Simoniello, Outreach & Education Coordinator • Felimon Gayanilo, Systems Architect • Dr. Shinichi Kobara, Assistant Research Scientist, Product Developer • Bob Currier, Research Specialist, Product Developer • Marion Stoessel, Senior Research Associate • Dr. Steven Baum, Associate Research Scientist • Jennifer Vreeland-Dawson, Research Associate • Grant Craig, Program Coordinator • Nadine Slimak, Public Relations & Content Marketing, Vetted Communications, LLC • Dr. Chuan-Yuan Hsu, Post Doctoral Research Associate • Robbie Iles, Graduate Research Assistant • Laura Caldwell, Program Assistant
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In Memoriam: Matt Howard, 1952-2018
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