Counting whales from space with SPACEWHALE

Counting whales from space with SPACEWHALE

This webinar originally aired on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Presented by: Julika Voss of BioConsult SH. Description: BioConsult’s new service SPACEWHALE counts whales and other wildlife species from space using satellite imagery. These images are screened and evaluated in a semi-automatic process combining state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and quality assurance by marine mammal experts. SPACEWHALE can answer key questions about how many whales of which species inhabit a sea area of interest and when they occur. This allows study of previously unexplored areas and can help accelerate the designation of Important Marine Mammal Areas and Marine Protected Areas, provide environmental impact assessments for offshore wind farm operators, and offer an efficient tool for mandatory baseline monitoring of whale populations. This webinar will provide an overview of SPACEWHALE as well as discuss past projects – including a study in New Zealand comparing the results of SPACEWHALE with those of a boat-based survey – and current projects – including data collection in the Indian Ocean where SPACEWHALE will provide baseline data for the implementation of Important Marine Mammal Areas and Marine Protected Areas. Learn more at https://www.spacewhales.de.

Counting whales from space with SPACEWHALE

Vida Manglar Project: Certifying conservation actions to reduce carbon emissions and benefit local communities

This webinar originally aired Wednesday, March 6, 2024. Presented by: Paula Cristina Sierra Correa and Anny Paola Zamora Bornachera of INVEMAR. Description: Vida Manglar Project is a joint initiative of local communities and institutions to reduce the effects of climate change and conserve the mangrove ecosystems of the Columbian Caribbean. The project seeks the certification of actions that reduce carbon emissions from the loss of mangrove forests. It has achieved certifications from Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standards, allowing it to enter the carbon credit market. Some of the project’s activities include establishing conservation and restoration agreements with local communities and ranchers and creating alternative livelihoods – such as ecotourism; beekeeping; and participatory monitoring of manatee, caiman, river otters, and birds – for local communities. Project activities benefit 12.000 inhabitants that rely on mangrove forest ecosystem services, 435 families, and 14 mangrove community organizations. As a whole, the project to date has avoided the emission of about 69.000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and aims to avoid the emission of about 930.000 tons CO2 over the next 20 years.

Counting whales from space with SPACEWHALE

Mexican Mangrove Monitoring System (SMMM): Knowing to conserve

This webinar originally aired on Thursday, February 29, 2024. Recording audio is in both English and Spanish. Presented by: SMMM Team of the National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO). Description: Mangroves provide valuable ecosystem services worth billions of dollars. Countries with extensive mangrove areas have implemented management programs and conservation since the 1980s. However, the global area of mangroves continues to decline, and restoration projects and rehabilitation are having limited success, especially at the spatial scales necessary to restore functional properties. The effective long-term monitoring of mangroves is essential to identifying existing and potential threats to and improving the success of restoration and rehabilitation programs. This webinar will present the origin, development, implementation and main results of the Mexican Mangrove Monitoring System (SMMM). The SMMM identifies changes in the mangrove ecosystem through the periodic evaluation of its spatial distribution and the state of its natural and social attributes. The information generated supports the protection, conservation, and management programs of Mexican mangroves.

Counting whales from space with SPACEWHALE

Networking urban MPAs to face their diverse and unique challenges

This webinar originally aired on Thursday, February 22, 2024. Presented by: Jean-Jacques Goussard and Lilian Wetzel of the MPA Resilience Partnership, Mike De Luca of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, Mathieu Ducrocq of the Regional Network of Marine Protected Areas in West Africa (RAMPAO), and Jacqueline Gautier-DeBernardi of the Monaco Association for Nature Conservation. Description: As coastal populations become more concentrated, many of today’s coastal MPAs will become urban or peri-urban in the next few decades. This urbanization will occur against a backdrop of accelerating climate-related changes. While the concept of sustainable coastal cities is emerging, MPAs in urban contexts and their unique resilience challenges have remained largely on the sidelines of the marine and coastal conservation movement. Given the massive and diverse pressures that urban MPAs face, they are ideal pilot laboratories for marine and coastal resilience building and conservation. The MPA Resilience Partnership is therefore launching a global initiative to network urban MPAs. This webinar will present this innovative initiative and its diverse objectives for the first time and will gather webinar participants’ insights and contributions for this initiative. This initiative has arisen from insights gained from use of R-SAT (the MPA Resilience Self-Assessment Tool) which is currently used by more than a hundred MPAs worldwide.

Counting whales from space with SPACEWHALE

Mud matters: Understanding the role of ocean sediments in storing carbon

This webinar originally aired on Thursday, February 15, 2024. Presented by: Sara Hutto of the Greater Farallones Association and Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries and Doug George of NOAA. Description: The sediments of the vast ocean floor represent the world’s largest non-fossil pool of organic carbon, yet they are not well-studied or protected. The carbon in these sediments can remain stored for thousands to millions of years; however, activities such as mining, oil and gas exploration, and bottom-contact fishing can disturb sediment, resuspending it into the water column and potentially remineralizing carbon into aqueous CO2. Current understanding of marine sediment carbon along the US West Coast is limited, constraining meaningful management and protection of these critically important carbon sinks. The Greater Farallones Association, in partnership with NOAA Office for Coastal Management (OCM) and NOAA’s Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries, conducted the first systematic evaluation of marine sedimentary carbon stocks in North-central California. This webinar will discuss the importance of marine sediments in global carbon sequestration and storage. It will also present the results of this study, including an estimate of the carbon stock within the Sanctuaries’ marine sediments and identification of carbon “hot-spots” on the seafloor based on a novel spatial model of carbon density.

Counting whales from space with SPACEWHALE

Blue carbon as a natural climate solution

This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, February 13, 2024 (Australian EDT). Presented by: Peter Macreadie of the Blue Carbon Lab at Deakin University, Australia. Description: Blue carbon ecosystems (BCE), including mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, and tidal marshes, store carbon and provide co-benefits such as coastal protection and fisheries enhancement. Blue carbon sequestration has therefore been suggested as a natural climate solution. In this webinar, the Blue Carbon Lab at Deakin University will examine the potential for BCEs to act as carbon sinks, as well as the opportunities and challenges to protect or restore ecosystems for this function. Touching on local case studies and projects, the webinar will showcase how improving policy and financial approaches, engaging communities, and boosting our science can help operationalize blue carbon to achieve measurable changes to atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, provide multiple co-benefits, and address national obligations associated with international agreements.