The Ecosystem Indicator Partnership (ESIP) is a committee of the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment. ESIP is developing indicators for the Gulf of Maine and integrating regional data for a new Web-based reporting system for marine ecosystem monitoring. Activities of ESIP initially center on convening regional practitioners in six indicator areas: coastal development, contaminants and pathogens, eutrophication, aquatic habitat, fisheries and aquaculture, and climate change.

ESIP needs your help! (May 2008)

In March 2008, ESIP released the new Indicator Reporting Tool (www.gomoos.org/esip). This tool is a great step forward for presenting data on six key issues to a diverse pool of users in the region. We are now in the process of determining short-term and long-term revisions that will make this tool more efficient and useful.  Each of the six issue-area committees is committed to make the indicator data readily accessible from one source and to ensure it is easy for you to use. We need your help. Please take the time to answer our short survey. The survey is only 6 questions long and shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. Your responses to the questionnaire (linked below) will greatly assist us in our revisions.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=HIstJzRa3JEKs15QbSTTzg_3d_3d

ESIP's Steering Committee during a meeting in Boston, Massachusetts May 8, 2008. From left to right: Jason Link, Adria Elskus, Charlie Strobel, Marilyn ten Brink, Gary Lines (back row), Diane Gould, Christine Tilburg, David Keeley (back row), Anita Hamilton (back row), Kathryn Parlee, Jim Latimer, Jawed Hameedi (back row).

ESIP news archive

ESIP Indicator Reporting Tool

 

In 2006 ESIP began an exciting process of providing up to date contaminant and nutrient data for the Gulf of Maine. This process involved an intense data-discovery period, statistical assessment of priority datasets, and database/tool development. The ESIP Indicator Reporting Tool uses novel technologies to bring together data from Gulfwatch, GoMOOS, and Mussel Watch. In addition, point-source data and eelgrass extent are also available. Check back later this spring as more indicators are incorporated into the tool.

ESIP Monitoring Map

 

Interactive map of monitoring sites
The long-term goal of ESIP is to provide Web-based access to synthesized monitoring data collected in the Gulf of Maine and its watershed. Numerous government agencies and non-government organizations conduct monitoring programs in the region. The purpose of the ESIP Monitoring Map is to provide information regarding where monitoring programs exist in the Gulf of Maine. Although data can be accessed by following data links back to the parent organization, the purpose of this map is not to provide data. Instead, this map provides a means of assessing the type of monitoring data that is available in the Gulf of Maine. Data from these programs will be made available in the ESIP Indicator Map, under development now.

Questions about how to use the ESIP Monitoring Map? Download the revised ESIP Monitoring Map User Guide 2 (PDF, 1.3 MB).

To add your program to the ESIP Monitoring Map, please contact ESIP Program Manager Christine Tilburg.

Data displayed on the ESIP Monitoring Map can be downloaded in database files or accessed via Web Mapping Services (WMS). Click here for more information.

Funding to develop the pilot version of the ESIP Monitoring Map was provided by the Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET).

The Gulf of Maine regional indicators and reporting initiative is guided by the following objectives:

• Provide baseline data and information, using historical data where available, about ecosystem conditions against which future changes can be compared;
• Develop ecosystem indicators for assessing the state of the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy that have a scientific grounding and that are relevant to management issues of concern in the region;
• Provide consistent, scientifically-sound, credible information that can be used to strengthen environmental policy and guide management decisions with environmental and social implications;
• Utilize a collaborative, interactive process that involves a variety of partners and data sources; and
• Ensure that information reaches decision-makers within the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy region in a manner that is useful to them.

Although decision-makers receive information from multiple sources, the Gulf of Maine indicators and reporting program will uniquely convey linkages between science, management, and ecosystem goals at a regional scale and elucidate connections between ecosystem conditions and human needs. This initiative will begin with modest short-term goals and gradually extend the scope of its effort to expand 1) the depth and breadth of management-relevant issues that are covered, 2) the level of integration across specific management issues, 3) the spatial scale of focus, and 4) the audience that is reached through products of this program. It will rely heavily on partnerships with existing government agencies, environmental organizations, community groups, business and trade groups, academic institutions, and other programs operating within the region and at national and international scales.

• A Strategy for Gulf of Maine Ecosystem Indicators and State of the Environment Reporting (PDF, 344 KB)
• Gulf of Maine Indicators: Final Report of Listening Sessions and Evaluation of Tides of Change Report (PDF, 327 KB)
• One-page summary (PDF, 32 KB) of the two documents listed above

Gary Matlock
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Susan Russell-Robinson
United States Geological Survey

 
Anita Hamilton
Fisheries and Oceans Canada


Charles Strobel
United States Environmental Protection Agency

 
Kathryn Parlee
Environment Canada

Climate Change Subcommittee

Coastal Development Subcommittee

Contaminants Subcommittee

Eutrophication Subcommittee

Fisheries and Aquaculture Subcommittee

Aquatic Habitats Subcommittee