The Skimmer on Marine Ecosystems and Management

The team that produces MEAM and MPA News is creating a new website to help ocean planners and managers share knowledge more easily and in more ways, beyond just newsletters. It is scheduled to launch in a preliminary "beta" version in the coming weeks. We will notify you when it…

Games are often considered as simply a form of entertainment. However, they can play important roles in other activities as well. By applying an aspect of fun to education, for example, games can communicate messages in ways that pure instruction sometimes cannot. And by transforming problem-solving processes into games, novel…

In the early 1990s, the videogame company Maxis had a major hit with its SimCity franchise: players designed cities from scratch and experienced an array of intended and unintended consequences in the process. Wanting to apply the successful model to other games, Maxis published one that remains the closest the…

Streamlined permitting presents a trade-off for agencies Dear MEAM, Thanks for another interesting and useful issue. I am struck by what I think is an important connection between your April/May issue's discussion of trade-off negotiations, and Charles Ehler's insights on the myths and realities of marine spatial planning ("Perspective: 13…

By Tundi Agardy, MEAM Contributing Editor (tundiagardy@earthlink.net) The long-running BBC radio program Desert Island Discs asks public figures what things – including musical choices, a book, and a luxury item – they would take with them to a deserted island. The program has inspired many similar challenges over the years….

Success in management often comes down to convincing people to behave a particular way. Provide a persuasive argument and your audience is more likely to follow your suggestion. Provide an unpersuasive argument…good luck. That may seem like simple advice, but crafting a convincing argument is as much art as science….

Presentations from International Marine Spatial Planning Symposium available online Thirty presentations from the International Marine Spatial Planning Symposium – held 14-16 May 2012 in Rhode Island, US – are available at http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/baird/2012_marineplanning/2012_marineplanning.html. (Scroll down that webpage to find the presentations.) The meeting brought together MSP practitioners from 10 countries to…

Editor’s note: The goal of The EBM Toolbox is to promote awareness of tools for facilitating EBM processes. It is brought to you by the EBM Tools Network, an alliance of tool users, developers, and training providers. By Sarah Carr Are you headed to Oakland for the Society for Conservation…