PROGRAM UPDATE: Final synthesis phase begins
With new funding from the Sloan Foundation, we have begun to synthesize research conducted in the first five years of the Gulf of Maine Area program, formed under the leadership of Chief Scientist Lewis Incze and prior Program Director Evan Richert at the University of Southern Maine. Research from Canada and the US will help to frame our final reports on the role of marine biodiversity in ecosystem approaches to management in the Gulf of Maine.
To accomplish this, we are pleased to announce that our Canadian partners have become formally integrated into the program with Dr. Peter Lawton of the Centre for Marine Biodiversity of St. Andrews, New Brunswick, now serving as co-principal investigator with Dr. Incze. We also welcome Dr. Sara Ellis who will serve as Program Manager through the final phase of the program, which wraps up in 2010.
GoMA is the regional ecosystem project of the Census of Marine Life, a ten-year initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans.
UPCOMING EVENTS: Ocean Summit, November 7 and AAAS, February 12-16
Ocean Literacy Summit
Friday, November 7, 2008
8 am to 4 pm
Boston University School of Management
The 2008 Ocean Literacy Summit includes presentations by scientists, educators, and policy makers involved in ocean literacy with a special focus on climate change and a panel on workforce development. The New England Ocean Science Education Collaborative is a network of over 30 member institutions that include aquariums, universities and research centers throughout the region.
AAAS Annual Meeting: Our Planet and Its Life: Origins and Future
February 12-16, 2009
Chicago, Illinois
The U.S. National Committee for the Census of Marine Life is organizing a session, Making Ocean Life Count: Applying Biodiversity to Marine Policy at the AAAS annual meeting. The panel includes Census scientists Dr. Nancy Knowlton (CReefs), Dr. Boris Worm (FMAP), Drs. Vera Alexander and Michael Sinclair (CoML International Scientific Steering Committee), and Drs. Paul Sandifer and Andy Rosenberg (U.S. CoML National Committee).
IN THE NEWS: Visionary Award to Evan Richert
The Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment awarded Evan D. Richert, co-founder of the Gulf of Maine Area program and other initiatives across the region, the prestigious Gulf of Maine Visionary Award for 2008.
The nominating committee focused on Evan's keen ability to bring together the right people and resources to effect change in our region. But Don Perkins, President of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute summed it up best: "No single individual has had as significant an impact on marine science in New England since Henry Bryant Bigelow" (USM news release).
Congratulations, Evan.
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT: Canada's Discovery Corridor
Canada's Discovery Corridor, a focused research effort to explore biodiversity from the near shore to the deep sea, was recently featured on National Geographic “Wild Chronicles.” The video is scheduled to air on PBS stations around the US in 2008 and can be viewed via the Media Gallery section of our website.
PUBLICATIONS: "Managing for ocean biodiversity..."
A new journal article, Managing for ocean biodiversity to sustain marine ecosystem services (Palumbi et al., 2008), is now available online through Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Dr. Lew Incze of USM, among other prominent scientists in ecosystem research, is a co-author.
If you have research papers or reports that are relevant to the objectives of the Gulf of Maine Census program, we would be pleased to include them in our online list of publications. To have your paper added, contact Sara Ellis.
