ESIP, the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment’s (GOMC) Ecosystem Indicator Partnership, introduced potential users to the webtools to use and the information they may gain by using them, at a joint workshop. Immediately after the workshop, designers made revisions to the tools to meet users’ needs.
ESIP and the Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS) held the spring workshop at the innovative Seacoast Science Center in Rye, New Hampshire.
As a result of feedback from the workshop, where users test-drove the tools and relayed their observations directly to those who developed them, an update of the Indicator Reporting Tool is planned, based on GoogleMap.
Participants spent the morning on presentations of the tools, which are intended to assist users is obtaining information about various issues in the Gulf of Maine, such as eelgrass extent, contaminant information, and sea level rise. During the afternoon, participants tested the tools and relayed their feedback to the designers.
“ESIP/NERACOOS brings together valuable data time series relevant to the health of the Gulf of Maine ecosystem that are not otherwise available in one place,” said Richard A. Wahle, Ph.D., research professor the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences. “As a researcher interested in the drivers of population dynamics in marine species, I see great potential in the further development of ESIP’s Indicator Reporting tool.”
The ESIP program itselfiarose from a shared need perceived by regional managers and scientists. More than 100 participants met in 2002 at an Atlantic Northeast Coastal Monitoring Summit in Durham, NH, convened by EPA to create a network and identify monitoring needs.
“Biological indicators are a powerful tool to assess environmental status and trends in estuaries that are subject to multiple stressors. The ESIP/NERACOOS workshop provided a start on a collaborative approach that will allow diverse groups to share in approaches, data and information that will help a wide range of programs,” said Paul E. Stacey, research coordinator, Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.
“The Reserve will certainly benefit in our mission to protect, restore and manage Great Bay through the information sharing, tools and perspective the collaboration has the potential to provide,” Stacey added. “Indicators are also a great way to communicate to the public about human impacts on these precious and unique resources, and what actions they can take to help address those problems.”
In 2004, managers and scientists at a Northeast Coastal Indicators Workshop began the process to develop a set of indicators in seven major categories: fisheries,aquaculture, eutrophication, contaminants, coastal development, aquatic habitat and climate change. The same year, the GOMC was designated by governors and premiers to “provide timely and responsive information to decision-makers (including a comprehensive state of the environment reporting and indicators series).”
In 2006, ESIP was formed to create a regional ecosystem indicators and reporting program.
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