MBNMS RAP Meeting Summary March 11th, 2011

Research Activity Panel:
Meeting Summary
Chris Harrold, RAP Chair

Location:

McCone Building Boardroom
Monterey Institute of International Studies
499 Pierce Street
Monterey, CA

Date: Friday, March 11th, 2011; 9:00 am to 12:00 pm

* Sanctuary Advisory Council Member: Research (Primary)

† Sanctuary Advisory Council Member: Research (Alternate)

CONSENT ITEMS

Introductions/Modifications to the Agenda (Harrold)

• Scott Hamilton: new MLML Ichthyology Professor
• John Hunt: 3/11/11 is last day at Granite Canyon, 3/14/11 starts at MBNMS as Resource Protection Coordinator and Deputy Superintendent for Ecosystem Protection and Science

PRESENTATION REQUESTED BY RAP

NOAA’s Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning Program (Charles Wahle/Acting Senior scientist CMSP Program and MPA Center)

• National Ocean Policy, White House released July 2010
  • Sets up National Ocean Council (NOC)
  • Nine priority objectives (one of which is CMSP: Implement comprehensive, integrated, ecosystem-based coastal and marine spatial planning and management in the United States)
  • CMSP defined in National Ocean Policy
    • CMSP aims to:
      • Reduce conflicts among uses
      • Reduce environmental impacts
      • Facilitate compatible uses
      • Preserve critical ecosystem services
    • Nine Regional Planning Bodies (RPB); Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs)
    • CMSP has timeline (in 5 yrs, 9 LMEs will have planning process in place)
    • Science is fundamental to CMSP
      • Regional assessments
      • Regional objectives
      • Tradeoffs among competing uses
      • Projecting future conditions (e.g., climate change)
      • Adaptive management (monitoring and evaluating effectiveness of CMSP plans)
    • Local connections: what to expect
      • Regional planning
      • Engagement in RPB subgroups (science, stakeholders)
      • Regional assessments (will draw on local experts)
      • ROP Grants
      • Data calls: mapping local activities to national effort
      • Budget planning: developing new CMSP initiatives
      • NOAA Theme Teams and NOC Working Groups
  • www.whitehouse.gov/oceans
  • www.cmsp.noaa.gov
• Action: RAP would like copy of Wahle's presentation:
  • Download here: wahle_cmsp_20110311_sm.pdf

HOST PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION

The Center for the Blue Economy (Scorse)

• Background:
  • National Ocean Economics Program (NOEP), around since 1999
  • www.oceaneconomics.org
  • Clearing house for socioeconomic data (now up to date to 2004, soon to be 2009)
  • Includes Environmental and Recreational (Non-market) values
  • Publication: State of the US Ocean and Coastal Economies (2009), by Kildow, Colgan, Scorse
  • Collaborating internationally to share/standardize data
• Grant (seed money) recently received to start Center for the Blue Economy (whole center; will include science arm, will include degree program, will be umbrella for NOEP); goal to raise $20 million endowment for continued existence/funding
  • Will be hiring scientists
  • 5-yr goal to have new Masters degree in Marine Policy
  • Scorse will send/share website when created

PRESENTATION

Spot A Basking Shark Project (David Ebert/Pacific Shark Research Center/MLML)

• Dave provided species and life history information on basking shark
  • Maximum size: about 12 meters total length
  • Coastal pelagic to offshore
  • Groups of 3-10, to 500
  • Planktivorous
• Global fisheries exist
• IUCN lists as vulnerable; endangered in NE Atlantic and North Pacific
• Most research has occurred in NE Atlantic, very little to none in North Pacific
• 2010 basking shark federally listed as species of concern
• A website has been created by PSRC/MLML to gather observational data
  • Web: http://psrc.mlml.calstate.edu/current-research/basking-shark/
  • email: baskingshark@mlml.calstate.edu
  • Public can post photos, location (GPS), number of individuals, size, date/time, weather and sea state info
  • Web site previously shared with RAP (2/1/11)
• Elasmobranch life history database also available through PSRC website
• Follow-up:
  • DeVogelaere shared project info with NOAA pilots and west coast sanctuaries (CBNMS, GFNMS, CINMS, OCNMS)
  • DeVogelaere requested project info be posted to MBNMS "What’s New" and Facebook web pages

ECOSYSTEM-BASED MANAGEMENT INITIATIVE (EBMI)

Research Areas Workshop Report, and other EBMI Workshops (Erica Burton/MBNMS)

• Research Areas Workshop Report written, "Facilitating Research in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary: Summary of the 2010 Workshop"
  • Jennifer Brown (MBNMS) will send Workshop Report within two weeks to the “ONMS Conservation Series” publication for external review
  • An earlier draft, was reviewed by MBNMS staff and workshop participants
  • MBNMS staff would like RAP's input on the workshop report during the external review period by the Conservation Series
  • We are soliciting two types of comments from them:
    • Editorial comments on the report (e.g., grammar, syntax, report structure) - this input will help to clarify the content of the report.
    • Information gaps related to 'research areas and facilitating research in the MBNMS' - the report summarizes the information we gathered at the workshop. We know there are still gaps in our information and we would like RAP’s input on what gaps exist and who to contact to fill those gaps.
  • Process for gathering information related to 'research areas and facilitating research in the MBNMS', includes:
    • Workshop
    • Summary Report
    • Expanded data gathering – contact member of the regional science community that may have information that was not gathered at the workshop.
    • Create summary of new data
  • Unique and Rare Workshop
    • Date: Tuesday May 24th
    • Location: NMFS Santa Cruz Lab
    • DRAFT Title: Unique and Rare Features of Biological, Oceanographic, Geological, and Cultural Significance in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
    • DRAFT Goal: The goal of the workshop is to identify biological, oceanographic, geological features and submerged cultural resources that are unique and rare in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and to identify supporting data sources and information gaps.
    • Definitions:
      • Feature: A feature is a particular component of MBNMS.
        • A feature includes, but is not limited to, species (individuals, populations), biological communities, ecosystems, biological diversity, habitats, biological processes (e.g., succession, trophic interactions), physical processes (e.g., upwelling), and human activities (e.g., fishing, tourism).
      • Unique: A feature that is unique is one of a kind, remarkable or unusual.
      • Rare: A feature that is rare has a low frequency of occurrence in space and/or time.
    • We are happy to have feedback from the RAP on potential attendees. Attendees would have information on unique and rare features related to the 4 resource categories biological, oceanographic, geological, and submerged cultural resources.

RAP RESEARCH PRIORITIES

Regional Contributions to NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Research Efforts (DeVogelaere)

• Following up from last RAP meeting, Ocean Acidification (OA) was one of the RAP priorities for 2011 (we may broaden this to Global Climate Change at a future meeting)
• The National Marine Sanctuary Program and broader NOAA groups are developing ocean acidification plans, and the Monterey Bay Area is not represented in terms of existing capabilities. To poise the region for future funding and to best contribute to societal needs for this information, the profile of the Monterey Bay in terms of OA experience needs to be better recognized.
• RAP members will be contacted to survey their institutions for the following information:
  • What OA research is being done at your institution?
  • What are the OA research capabilities at your institution?
  • What are critical research needs related to OA?
• This information will be compiled by MBNMS staff; and inserted in NOAA plans as appropriate. Some of the OA projects will be highlighted on the SIMoN web page. The RAP discussed perhaps writing a "white paper" on OA, depending on the information compiled.
• MBARI and the Center for Ocean Solutions have potential initiatives on piloting OA studies in the Monterey Bay, and these efforts should be coordinated with any independent MBNMS efforts

SANCTUARY RESEARCH UPDATE

None

SANCTUARY ADVISORY COUNCIL UPDATE

None

SUGGESTED FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS

• Need to replace John Hunt: WQ primary (RAP process), and RAP Vice-chair (SAC process)
• Beach COMBERS Program
  • Better understanding of, and providing support to, Beach COMBERS program (per DeVogelaere)
  • How Beach COMBERS program linked to oil spill response (GFNMS) and how beach COMBERS data fits into response (per Hunt)
• Marine policy update by Adina Abeles (per Harrold)
• How is MBNMS and region involved and/or linked to NOAA’s Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning effort (per Lindholm)

Announcement from Public

• Sean Van Sommeran (Pelagic Shark Research Foundation): offered to help with basking shark spotting; and student research
  • http://www.pelagic.org/

Future Agenda Items (running list):

• SIMoN
  • SIMoN Special Status Species Project (Jennifer Brown)
• Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea (COMPASS)
• Data integration across monitoring programs (e.g., water quality, PISCO, MARINe, IOOS), and availability to the public
• Recent event: Supreme Court allows Navy Sonar (per John Hunt)
• Predicting sea level rise for the state of California (Larry Breaker, JPL, OPC)
• CeNCOOS update (new website: activities)
• High-res models of CA (Cayan or Dettinger/USGS)
• National Weather Service Forecast Office (Tom Evans, Warning Coordination Meteorologist)
• EBMI/IEA presentations
  • MBNMS EBM Initiative
  • IEAs, including those that have been implemented (e.g., Phil Levin, Frank Schwing, John Stein; per Yoklavich)
• MPAs
  • State MPA monitoring projects (Jason Vasques)
• Ken Johnson work in Elkhorn Slough (per McPhee-Shaw)
• Marine Policy issues (Sacramento; D.C.) that may need science input (per Ramp; Aimee David volunteered; or Adina Abeles)
• Climate Change (dedicated meeting; per McPhee-Shaw) \
  • Global view
  • CA coast (Lisa Sloan, UCSC; sea level rise, Breaker)
  • GFNMS/CBNMS Ocean Climate Initiative (e.g., GFNMS staff: Kelley Higgason or Maria Brown)
  • GFNMS/CBNMS Climate Change Impacts Report (e.g., Largier)
  • What differences MBNMS might observe (per Starr)
  • Local/MBNMS (who? Curt?)
  • Perhaps MBCORC hosts a 1 or 2 day science meeting (per Storlazzi)