Submitted Ideas
1
Limited Access to Key Ocean Information
Posted by Grace Goldberg | California, United States
As a concerned & interested citizen with a science background, I still can't get direct information about how the marine reserves off the California coast are performing. When climate anomaly events hit, like the Blob or the mass coral bleaching this past year, I'm not able to get a look at science recent enough to be relevant. Outdated data collection, management and dissemination work flows dominate how researchers and government entities observe and understand MPA effectiveness and other marine resource questions. This greatly inhibits timely science-based decision making in addition to my personal desire to get the facts. In the context of multiple dynamic stressors on our marine resources and special ocean places, we are long overdue for 21st century data collection, cloud storage and visualization technologies that support researchers, decision-makers and public access alike.
I agree, and would add that we need a good accounting of ocean harvest figures. These are involved with international treaties, monitored and reported by whom and to whom? I have talked with several USA agencies, nobody seems to know. In California
we have many small & large projects for habitat restoration for salmonids – how do we know these are not just resulting in
increased harvests in international waters?