|
June kicks off hurricane season, and I hope you’re all working on your early preparations as the forecasts are predicting an above-normal number of storms. Providing data that helps modelers make more accurate tropical storm and hurricane predictions is a core GCOOS effort — something that U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) recognized when he and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced a resolution to reauthorize the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (U.S. IOOS) last week. The bill would reauthorize IOOS for the next five years, maintaining its current funding level at $56 million annually, and bring continued support for ocean monitoring efforts that improve coastal communities, fisheries and maritime industries.
“IOOS is critical to keeping the Gulf Coast a great place to live, work, and raise a family,” Wicker said. “Reauthorizing this funding would continue the necessary ocean monitoring resources and improve our understanding of needs along the coast. This legislation would help secure U.S. leadership in ocean science and increase economic development. I look forward to seeing the continued success of this program and how it benefits our growing and vibrant maritime economy.”
We’re thankful to Sens. Wicker and Cantwell for recognizing the importance of the nation’s ocean observing system, and will be watching this bill and the companion House bill — introduced in March by U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell (R-MS) with co-sponsors Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Randy Weber (R-TX), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Amata Radewagen (R-AS), and Danny Davis (D-IL) — as they go through the legislative process.
GCOOS Board Member, Dr. Stephan Howden, Professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and Director of the Hydrographic Science Research Center who has helped lead GCOOS for more than two decades, testified about the importance of IOOS last month before the House Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee of the House Committee on Natural Resources. You can view his testimony here.
If you’d like to support these bills, the IOOS Association has created a toolkit you can use. Click here for details.
Another way you can help raise awareness about the importance of the ocean observing network is to join us in participating in Ocean Data Day on June 25 and sharing how you use, support or provide ocean data and don’t forget to use the hashtag #OceanDataDay. (Learn more below.)
Until next month,
| | GCOOS Data Server Upgrade! | | On June 30, GCOOS will upgrade the server that provides data upload services. If you are a data provider and experience any problems sending data after the upgrade, please email us a note (including specific issues you’re having) to Data@GCOOS.org. | | A Successful Spring Meeting | | |
On May 28, GCOOS welcomed nearly 70 participants to our virtual Members' Meeting. Dr. Kimberly Yates, Chair of the GCOOS Board of Directors, began the meeting by extending congratulations to GCOOS on its 20th Anniversary.
Invited speakers Kristen Yarincik, Executive Director, IOOS Association, and Krisa Arzayus, Deputy Director, IOOS, explained some of the changes across federal agencies and the implications for the Regional Associations with reductions in NOAA-IOOS staff. GCOOS was pleased to welcome Dr. Jeff Payne, Director of the Office of Coastal Management and Acting Director of IOOS.
Following their updates, GCOOS Executive Director Dr. Jorge Brenner provided status reports on the Sea Turtle Atlas and Marine Heat Waves projects, pan-regional efforts with SECOORA and CARICOOS, and Inflation Reduction Act-funded Service Delivery and Communication activities.
In the recorded portion of the meeting (click the video player below to watch), participants then learned about Dr. Stephen Howden’s work at the University of Southern Mississippi testing Hefring Ocean Scout gliders, and Dr. Brian Dzwonkowski’s work at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab deploying wave buoys to enhance rip current forecasts along the coasts of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.
GCOOS also hosted four discussion panels to promote dialogue among attendees:
- Gliders and High Frequency Radars;
- Buoys and Moorings;
- Satellite Remote Sensing;
- and Numerical Modeling; and Ecosystems.
Each was based on status reports proved by GCOOS-funded investigators.
Dr. Yates wrapped up the meeting by reminding participants that their contributions to the next iteration of the GCOOS Strategic Plan is essential, providing updates on the GCOOS Board of Director Activities, 20th Anniversary updates and closing remarks.
| | Farewell to Kamakura and King | |
In July, we will be saying goodbye to Dr. Renata Poulton Kamakura, National Academy of Sciences Science Policy Fellow at GCOOS, as the fellowship comes to a close. (Kamakura will maintain their GCOOS email address through December.) During their time at GCOOS, Kamakura has been focused on Marine Heatwaves and their impacts, most recently organizing a summer webinar series focused on the topic and completing a series of short reports on the impacts of Gulf and Caribbean Marine Heatwaves on coastal ecosystems, communities and industries.
Kamakura will be Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver working with Dr. Lorien Nesbitt and the Urban Natures Lab focused on urban forestry, specifically studying how city and regional policies interact with community-level initiatives to influence urban forest structure (how many trees there are, what kind of trees there are, how big they are).
We’re also saying farewell this month to GCOOS GIS Manager and Developer Jerad King, who has been leading GCOOS’s efforts to create a new ArcGIS-based infrastructure here for serving the data that GCOOS collects and disseminates. King led the development of erddap2agol, designed to bridge data services and WebGIS. The system is designed to marry ERDDAP™’s powerful data distribution functions with ArcGIS’s user-friendly data access, storage and analysis capabilities. Erddap2agol is a python-based data service for creating, managing, and updating ERDDAP™ data on ArcGIS Online.
While at GCOOS, King also worked with GCOOS Marine Mammal Biologist and Data Scientist Megan Howson to create the Compilation of Environmental, Threat, and Animal Data for Cetacean Population Health Analyses (CETACEAN) data platform, which compiles population, environmental and threat data about marine mammals in the Gulf, and the Sea Turtle Atlas, which collects similar data for all five sea turtle species in the Gulf.
King is heading to ESRI, which developed ArcGIS, where he will be Product Engineer for ArcGIS Maritime, engaging with the global maritime industry — national hydrographic offices, port authorities, and naval organizations — to enhance the capabilities of electronic navigational charts to provide actionable navigation information for mariners. To keep in touch with King, email
We wish both of them the best of luck in their future endeavors and hope our paths cross again! To keep in touch with Kamakura and King, check out their pages on LinkedIn.
| | Celebrating a Remarkable Milestone | | |
Congratulations to Laura Caldwell, GCOOS Program Assistant for celebrating her 30(plus)-year anniversary with Texas A&M University, GCOOS’s host institution. Caldwell (wearing the striped shirt in this candid picture) graduated from TAMU in 1986 with a B.S. in psychology and a minor in industrial engineering and joined the university staff in the College of Geosciences in 1991. She transferred into the Department of Oceanography about a year later. One of the many projects she worked on there was GCOOS, which started at TAMU and then developed into a full-fledged regional association of IOOS and officially incorporated in 2005. Laura retired from TAMU/GCOOS in June 2019, but we were able to bring her back onto the fold part time as our Program Assistant. Please join us in congratulating Laura and thanking her for her many years of dedication to TAMU Oceanography and to GCOOS!
| | |
GCOOS Research Specialist, Product Developer and Co-Data Manager Bob Currier was invited to attend the 2025 Shapeshift Summit in Chicago at the end of May. Curated by the Institute of Design (ID) in collaboration with Murmur Ring, the immersion program brought together an intimate group of participants to explore real-world applications of AI to make the abstract tangible and move AI conversations from Silicon Valley to the rest of the world. Leaders from the creative, technology and business communities focused on the implications of AI on the future of design and human culture.
During the Summit, Currier gained invaluable insights into the critical importance of human-centered design in AI applications. A standout presentation by Waymo's head of UI/UX demonstrated how even sophisticated AI systems can fail users when technical accuracy overshadows usability — showing how their initial displays with everything the car's sensors detected terrified passengers, while simplified visual representations using colored tiles and chess-like pieces created trust and understanding. Currier also heard Amazon's AGI leadership present their Nova Foundation Models (Micro, Lite, Pro, and Premier) along with Canvas, Reel, and Sonic tools, reinforcing their vision that "Generative AI will transform every company, in every industry." Most importantly, the experience opened Currier's eyes to the need for inclusive design practices, recognizing that what seems obvious to scientists and engineers can be overwhelming to end users. The Summit proved highly fruitful for networking, resulting in an invitation to return as a visiting scholar to give seminars and potentially collaborate on student-led projects, bridging GCOOS's oceanographic expertise with cutting-edge design thinking.
|
| |
The next webinar in the GCAN Summer Series will feature Coastal Carbon Cycling with Dr. Kanchan Maiti from Louisiana State University (LSU). Maiti is Professor and Chair in the Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences and Shell Professor in Oceanography/Wetland Studies. Research conducted at the Marine Geochemistry Laboratory led by Dr. Maiti explores interlinked topics related to transport and transformation of carbon, nutrients and contaminants in coastal and deep ocean systems utilizing geochemical tracers and autonomous observation platforms.
|
| Developing Best Practices for Ocean Data | | Here at GCOOS, we celebrate and monitor the Gulf 365 days per year, 24 hours a day — so June being World Ocean Month is our favorite time of year! Just three years ago, the Global Ocean Observing System hosted the Ocean Decade Co-Design Workshop on World Ocean Day to kickstart the development of a roadmap to advance ocean best practices. | | Southeast U.S. MBON team members visit Jean Lafitte Swamp during a meeting focused on developing ocean best practice for Essential Ocean Variables and Essential Biodiversity Variables. | | |
Participants, including GCOOS and Southeast Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) partners, joined conversations aimed at employing user-focused co-design to transform the GOOS design process.
Since then, the Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS), a project of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, has grown into a repository for ocean research, operations and application methodologies, providing transparent and accessible ocean best practices for ocean research and observation. Among the themes are air-sea interactions, biogeochemical profile data, capacity development, data interoperability, marine biodiversity, operational forecasting and organizational cooperation. GCOOS continues to work with MBON partners engaged in ongoing development of the OBPS.
-
Learn more about the OBPS
| | |
About the History Spotlight
This year, GCOOS is celebrating its 20th Anniversary. Throughout the year, we’ll be highlighting historic data and activities from the Gulf’s ocean observing community in our enewsletter, on our website and through social media. Have a slice of Gulf data history that you’d like to share? Please email Nadine Slimak with details — there might even be prizes!
| | |
Speaking of Ocean Data… Join Us in Making History with the Launch of Ocean Data Day!
| | |
Please join GCOOS, the IOOS Association and the 10 other Regional Associations this Wednesday, June 25, as we launch Ocean Data Day! This new observance will celebrate the critical role ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes data play in business and commerce, research and safety for everyone in the United States. We’re celebrating during World Ocean Month, to showcase the power of data to sustain our ocean and coastal resources.
Interested in joining the celebration? The IOOS Association has created pre-made graphics and messaging that you can use or customize for your platforms.
You can also highlight how you use, support or provide ocean data by creating your own graphics and social media posts! Please use be sure to tag the IOOS Association and (if you’re in the Gulf) GCOOS by using the following social media handles:
- On Facebook: @GCOOS
- On X: @IOOSAssociation; @GCOOS1
- On LinkedIn: @ioos-association; @GCOOS
- On Instagram: @GCOOS_1
And don’t forget to use the hashtags: #WorldOceanMonth #OceanDataDay #DataBelowtheSurface #IOOS and #GCOOS!
| | New Wave Buoy Off Alabama | | |
Dauphin Island Sea Lab has launched a new Sofar Spotter buoy as part of the Alabama Real-Time Coastal Observation System to help support National Weather Service Rip Current forecasting and general maritime safety.
The wave buoy, is about 10 miles south of Dauphin Island, Alabama, on the 20m isobath (30°05'30.1"N 88°12'43.2"W), says PI Dr. Brian Dzwonkowski, whose research is focused on understanding relationships between coastal/estuarine circulation and hydrographic conditions and the associated dynamics as well as interactions between the coastal ocean and atmospheric phenomena.
The buoy, funded by GCOOS as part of the Supporting Coastal Resilience with Inflation Reduction Act supplemental NOAA-IOOS award, collects and reports significant wave height, mean wave direction, surface water temperature, and barometric pressure. NWS-Alabama requested the buoy to enhance their rip current advisories and validate their predictive models. Its data will be added to the GCOOS Data Portal. DISL is also working on an additional buoy aimed at enhancing public safety to be deployed south of Pensacola Beach.
-
Click here for ARCOS landing page and here for the Sofar buoy data.
| | |
The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) has introduced its updated online GIS-based mapping tool for the sanctuary. It hosts data layers for bathymetry, management zones, oil and gas activities, mooring buoys and oceanographic data. Data layers can be turned on or off and other external data can be added to the map. Additional FGBNMS dashboards can be found on the portal’s Data Resources link.
| | June marks the start of Hurricane Season in the Gulf and Atlantic. To highlight how the data GCOOS collects and disseminates supports seasonal forecasts and protects human communities, we’ve added a special hurricane section to our enewsletter again this year. If you’ve got a hurricane data highlight or other hurricane-related news you’d like to share between now and November, please email our communications lead, Nadine Slimak, at Nadine@VettedCommunications.com. | | |
As the Gulf of America braces for another hurricane season, we asked Marcus Ogle, GCOOS Associate Director, to outline the critical role that data plays in safeguarding coastal communities and industries and provide an overview of the 2025 Hurricane Season. With degrees in Atmospheric Science and Oceanography from Texas A&M University and more than a decade of experience in the oil and gas industry — including the collection of vital data for hurricane forecasting and analysis — Ogle has first-hand knowledge of the power of informed decision-making in the face of natural disasters.
| | |
Gliders, high frequency radars (HFR) and buoys are essential ocean observing tools that provide critical data for hurricane forecasting. Gliders measure subsurface ocean temperature and salinity, revealing the ocean’s heat content that fuels hurricanes and improves intensity predictions. HFR map ocean surface currents over broad coastal areas, which is vital for understanding how a storm interacts with the ocean and for predicting storm surge. Buoys, both moored and drifting, deliver long-term time series of real-time surface observations of atmospheric pressure, wind speed, sea surface temperature, and waves, offering direct insights into conditions at the ocean's surface and within the storm's path. GCOOS actively collects and provides all this vital data to NOAA for improved forecasting, ultimately aiding in public safety and preparedness.
Understanding these critical data sources sets the stage for what forecasters are predicting for the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season — which is forecast to be above normal.
- NOAA’s National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicts 16-19 named storms, six to 10 hurricanes, and three to five major hurricanes.
- Echoing this outlook, Colorado State University (CSU) reaffirmed their predictions on June 11, forecasting 17 named storms, nine hurricanes, and three major hurricanes.
These outlooks are primarily driven by unseasonably warm sea surface temperatures across the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of America, combined with a transition to ENSO-neutral conditions. While La Niña typically favors more active Atlantic hurricane seasons, a neutral phase can still allow for significant activity, especially when paired with warm waters and weak wind shear. June has been relatively quiet thus far, but that’s not necessarily an indicator for the rest of the season, which historically peaks in September. It’s important for coastal communities to remain vigilant and informed as conditions become increasingly more favorable as we move into summer.
| | Updates to Autonomous Vehicle Dashboard, GANDALF | |
Just in time for hurricane season, we’ve unveiled a new version of GANDALF, our autonomous vehicle tracking dashboard that helps pilots navigate their vehicles and visualizes ocean data the vehicles gather in real time and near-real-time. Forecasters rely on ocean temperature and other data from autonomous vehicles like Slocum gliders to help predict storm development, intensity and even movements.
GANDALF version 2.0 offers significant improvements in rapid layer loading, new legends and three-day hind-, now- and forecast animations on the model outputs.
We’ve also added the NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC) General Charts as a new tile layer. Because the ENC data already includes ocean depths and buoys and beacons, we’ve removed those as separate layers. The new ENC layer is much more performant and contains far more detail. (Users can continue to set opacity using the slider.)
GANDALF also now offers water temperature and salinity anomaly comparisons that are run automatically and updated in near real-time.
Thanks to GCOOS Product Developer Bob Currier and Scientific Computing Specialist Xiao Qi for implementing these amazing updates!
-
Please let them know if you find these new features useful or have any questions. Email Info@GCOOS.org
In the meantime, we’re also experimenting with “AGENTIC” GANDALF, a natural language version of the dashboard that uses an AI interface. We’re not yet in the beta stage, but watch this space for updates on when you can test it!
| | Hurricane Season Glider Operations | | |
Uncrewed systems, which can operate even during dangerous conditions, gather and transmit critical ocean temperature and salinity data in near-real-time that can be used immediately by hurricane modelers to help predict how and where storms will develop and how intense they could become. These factors are critically important for protecting lives in the face of destructive hurricane-force winds and storm surge.
GCOOS is helping to coordinate and sponsor multiple glider missions in the Gulf region throughout the 2025 hurricane season.
-
The data will be available on GANDALF, so bookmark its location now to follow along throughout the season!
Here’s a short summary of GCOOS-coordinated deployments:
- TAMU’s Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG): Deploying a single glider for a 90-day mission, funded via the main GCOOS award. (Expected end of June/early July)
- The University of Southern Mississippi (USM): Deploying four 15-day glider missions through a special hurricane-related disaster supplement to the main GCOOS award. USM will also conduct a 90-day mission under funding from the GCOOS main award. (July/August)
- University of South Florida (USF): Deploying one 90-day mission under the funding from the inflation reduction act project, and they will also conduct two 30-day missions under the GCOOS main award project. (July/August)
- Mote Marine Laboratory (MML): Planning two missions. (July/August)
- GCOOS glider pilots will also coordinate deployments of three Navy gliders. (July/August)
GCOOS missions are supported through core funding via the U.S. IOOS Office, as well as through a disaster-related supplement and the Inflation Reduction Act. Please note that GANDALF also tracks all autonomous vehicle deployments in the Gulf led by our partners, including deployments from Rutgers and Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada’s (CICESE) Grupo de Monitoreo Oceanográfico con Gliders (GMOG), that are not funded via GCOOS but the data is contributed to the IOOS Glider DAC.
| | Improving Forecasts with GulfCORES | | |
In advance of the most intense period of the Atlantic Hurricane Season in September, GANDALF is currently tracking six gliders, including four that are part of the “Gulf Consortium for Offshore Risk Reduction Engaging Stakeholders” or GulfCORES program led by Dr. Steven DiMarco, Director of TAMU’s Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG), with Principal Investigator Felimon Gayanilo, GCOOS Systems Architect and Co-Data Manager.
GulfCORES, funded by the Gulf Research Program’s Understanding Gulf Ocean Systems (UGOS), is designed to improve forecasts using multiple federal and industry operational modeling centers, utilizing data assimilation of available real-time data and project-funded observations of HFR covering three key regions — Yucatan Straits inflow, the northern eddy-shedding region and Florida Straits outflow — Loop Current pressure point mooring, and adaptive sampling with gliders and APEX-EM floats.
Critical to GulfCORES’ approach is collecting and assimilating near real-time vertical profiles from gliders and floats of co-located temperature, salinity and direct current velocity observations down to 2000m. The project is also using proprietary drifter data and results from its industry-accepted frontal analysis and the review, quality control, and curation of data collected by drillships and rigs (BSEE/NTL) and current profiles collected along LC/LCE tracks will be conducted. GulfCORES will have direct access to historical data resources and web services through GulfHub and GCOOS (and through GRIIDC GRP funding) for model validation and assessment.
| | Glider missions include waters in both the U.S. — where GERG is currently operating two gliders in the Florida Straits and near the Loop Current — and Mexican waters, where CICESE is operating two vehicles in the Yucatan Basin. Combined, these glider missions are designed to sample the precursor of the Yucatan and Loop currents to increase understanding of Eddy detachments. | | A CICESE glider deployed in the Caribbean. | | |
Glider missions are designed to provide real time data that will help compute ocean heat content along the glider trajectories and validate ocean heat content satellite products based on in-situ statistics between altimetry and in-situ ocean heat content computed from historical ARGO databases, said Enric Pallàs Sanz, Research Scientist with CICESE.
- A data catalog, designed specifically for hydrodynamic modelers, has been designed, developed, and published at https://ugos.info/.
|
| GCOOS Summer Webinar Series: How Hot is Too Hot? | | |
As Earth warms, the frequency of marine heatwaves (MHW) is increasing. To learn about the impacts of these events on marine life and coastal weather in the Caribbean, Gulf and Southeastern U.S., GCOOS kicked off the first of three webinars in its Summer Webinar Marine Heatwave series. The first webinar on June 12, featured speakers Lizzie Harris, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), and Megan Howson and Jerad King from GCOOS, who shared details about how environmental data — including temperature data —are being used in species management. For the TPWD, impacts on fish kills, potential impacts to fish migration and spawning, and potential consequences for recreational harvest, slot length and bag limits are of concern and for highly mobile species like marine mammals and sea turtles, secondary impacts of MHW, such as increased energy expenditure, prey availability, nesting behavior, the frequency, duration and intensity of HAB events and severe storms, are of concern.
The first webinar is archived on the GCOOS website and YouTube channel.
| | |
Next up in the series will be MHW and Oysters this Thursday, June 26, with presenters Dr. Andrea Tarnecki, Auburn Shellfish Lab, Dr. Jeff Plumlee, LSU/Louisiana Sea Grant and Blair Morrison, Mobile Bay National Estuary Program.
The series wraps up on July 10, with MHW and Coastal Weather with presenters Dr. Brian Dzwonkowski, University of South Alabama/Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Dr. Shawn Milrad, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Dr. Coral Lozada, Houston Methodist Academic Institute.
| | |
Healthy Ecosystems & Living Resources
| | 2025 Hypoxia Forecast Released | | |
Dr. R. Eugene Turner, Boyd Professor, at Louisiana State University, and Dr. Nancy N. Rabalais, Distinguished Research Professor and Shell Endowed Chair in Oceanography and Wetland Studies at LSU have released their hypoxia forecast for 2025. This “dead zone” — an area of low to no oxygen that can kill fish and other marine life — occurs annually off the Louisiana coast and is the second largest human-caused coastal hypoxic area in the global ocean. Nutrients from the Mississippi River watershed, particularly nitrogen, fertilize the Gulf’s surface waters to create excessive amounts of algal biomass that sink to the bottom where decomposition leads to oxygen depletion. The low oxygen conditions in the Gulf’s most productive waters stress organisms and threatens living resources. Various models use Mississippi’s May nitrogen load as the main driving force to predict how large the dead zone will be in late July.
The LSU forecast of the hypoxic zone size for late July 2025 is that it will cover 12,470 square km (4,815 square miles) of the bottom of the continental shelf off Louisiana and Texas. The 95% confidence interval is that it will be between 10,900 and 14,266 square km (4,209 and 5,508 square miles). This estimate is based on the assumption that there are no hurricanes or unusual wind events in the two weeks before the monitoring cruise, or during the cruise.
The predicted hypoxic area is about 90% of the size of Puerto Rico and equal to 88% of the 1985-2024 average of 14,133 square km. If the area of hypoxia becomes as large as predicted, then it will be about 2.8 times the size of the Hypoxia Action Plan goal to reduce the zone to less than 5,000 square km (1,931 square miles) by 2035.
Only minor reductions in the nitrate loading from the Mississippi River to the Gulf of America have occurred since the formulation of the Hypoxia Action Plan environmental goal in 2001. Learn more about the Hypoxia Task Force here.
-
Read the full forecast here
NOAA uses the LSU forecast, along with forecasts developed by a host of other organizations to compile its hypoxic zone prediction. Read more about that here.
| | Fish & Sea Turtle Restoration Plans Released | | |
The Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group released its Final Restoration Plan 4 and Environmental Assessment: Fish and Water Column Invertebrates and Sea Turtles (PDF, 317 pages), committing more than $210 million to 10 projects to help restore natural resources injured by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf. Six projects will help restore fish and water column invertebrates, and four projects will help restore sea turtles. The projects will be implemented over the next eight to 15 years.
| | Citizen Science Fisheries Data Webinar | | |
The next in SECOORA’s “Coastal Observing in Your Community” webinar series focuses on the SMILE project (Size Matters: Innovative Length Estimates), which is a collaborative citizen science initiative led by Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) empowering recreational divers to contribute to fisheries science. Using a low-cost, waterproof camera equipped with a mounted laser, trained volunteers capture underwater images of reef fish, which are then processed through an AI workflow to estimate fish lengths in situ.
- When: Noon ET Tuesday, June 24
- Who: Dr. Jennifer Loch, Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF)
- Registration
| | UG2: Early Career Science Spotlight Webinar | | Did you miss the most recent Underwater Glider User Group (UG2) webinar “Early Career Spotlight”? If so, check out the recording now! The webinar featured Frank Mcquarrie, Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, Turner Johnson, University of California San Diego, Alice Ren, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Jack Slater, Virginia Institute of Marine Science. | |
Comments Open: Chandeleur Islands Restoration | |
Louisiana and Open Ocean Trustees have released the Draft Restoration Plan for Chandeleur Islands for public input.
| | Gulf Council Creates Anonymous Voicemail Line | | |
The Gulf Council advises NOAA Fisheries on managing the federal fisheries in the Gulf of America. Council decisions are guided by science, public input and the Magnuson-Stevens Act and promote sustainable use of Gulf resources to achieve the greatest overall benefit to the nation. The Gulf Council recently launched a new anonymous public comment voicemail line to broaden stakeholder access to federal fisheries management and encourage more voices to be heard, especially from those who may not feel comfortable providing comment through traditional methods. Anyone can now call and leave a 3-minute voicemail with their input on fisheries issues, without needing to provide a name or personal information. To ensure complete anonymity, voicemail transcriptions will be provided to the Gulf Council and no call log or audio recordings will be retained.
| |
-
Hello.gov - Sr. Cloud and Data Engineer
-
National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine; Gulf Research Program: Program Officer - Environmental Protection and Stewardship Board
-
University of Miami: Assistant Professor in Physical Oceanography
- Mote Marine Laboratory
-
University of Louisiana at Lafayette – Research Associate; Water Quality Monitoring
Postdoctoral Positions:
-
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute: Postdoctoral Fellowship
-
National Research Council: Research Associateship Programs Postdoctoral and Senior Research Awards
-
Mississippi State University: Postdoctoral Associate
-
Downeast Institute: Research Scientist
Fellowships:
-
National Academies of Science, Engineering and Mathematics: Early Career Fellowships
- Department of Defense: Visualization of Coastal Data, Coastal Vulnerability Assessment Fellow
| |
-
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Gulf Research Program: Environmental Literacy for Community Resilience
-
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Gulf Research Program: Empowering K-8 Through Place Based Education
-
Gulf of Mexico Alliance: Increasing Participation in Clean and Resiient Marine Programs
-
Seagrant: Addressing Priority Research, Extenision and Education Needs
-
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: Early Career Research Fellowship
| | 29 June - 3 July: NMAE 2025, Lafayette, Louisiana | | 18-20: UG2 Underwater Glider User Group, St. Petersburg, Florida, Details coming soon. | | Dr. Jorge Brenner, Executive Director • Marcus Ogle, Associate Director • Dr. Uchenna Nwankwo, Oceanographer • Dr. Chris Simoniello, Outreach & Education Manager • Dr. Renata Poulton Kamakura, Science Policy Fellow • Felimon Gayanilo, Systems Architect, Co-Data Manager • Bob Currier, Product Developer, Co-Data Manager • Tuomo Saari, Scientific Computing Specialist • Xiao Qi, Scientific Computing Specialist • Megan Howson, Marine Mammal Biologist and Data Scientist • Sandeep Jilla, Software Developer • Siobhan Kassem, Interim GCAN Coordinator • Grant Craig, Project Manager and HABscope Volunteer Coordinator • Nadine Slimak, Public Relations & Content Marketing, Vetted Communications, LLC • Laura Caldwell, Program Assistant | | | | |