Webinars
Upcoming Webinars
Valuing Marine Ecosystem Services for Better Decisions
Wednesday, April 8, 1 pm US EDT/10 am US PDT/5 pm UTC/6 pm BST. Presented by: Angela Fletcher and Glen Delaney of Earth Economics. Description: Marine and coastal ecosystems provide many ecosystem services that are essential to human communities, including food, recreational opportunities, and protection of infrastructure from natural disasters. These benefits are not often framed in economic terms, which can lead to them being overlooked in decision-making. Communicating ecosystem services in economic terms can support more holistic decision-making that accounts for the full range of benefits these systems provide. In this webinar, Angela Fletcher and Glen Delaney of Earth Economics will introduce the fundamentals of ecosystem service valuation and demonstrate how they have applied these methods in marine and coastal contexts. Earth Economics is a nonprofit economic consultancy with 26 years of experience applying valuation techniques in decision-making, policy, and project implementation. They will begin with a brief overview of ecosystem services and valuation basics, then walk through three real-world case studies that illustrate how valuation can inform conservation, restoration, and policy decisions: a valuation study of kelp forests along the California coast; the use of valuation to inform a National Marine Sanctuary application for the St. George Unangan Heritage site; and how valuation can support funding for salmon habitat restoration in the Duckabush Estuary in Washington State.
Coastal Marine Litter Observatory: Combining drones and AI for real-time beach and coastal monitoring
Thursday, April 16, 10 am US EDT/7 am US PDT/2 pm UTC/3 pm BST/4 CEST/5 pm EEST. Presented by: Kostas Topouzelis of Scidrones. Description: Marine litter is a significant environmental problem that can dramatically affect flora and fauna and have severe economic impacts on coastal communities, tourism, and fisheries. Currently, most mapping protocols for marine litter in the coastal environment rely on conventional on-site sampling, with limited ability to spatially display concentrations of coastal zone marine waste. To provide real-time, actionable data, Scidrones has created the Coastal Marine Litter Observatory (CMLO), an online platform that detects, maps, and monitors marine litter in the coastal zone using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and machine learning. UAS aerial images – collected using the Scidrones data acquisition protocol and uploaded to the CMLO platform – provide wide area coverage of actual litter, and machine learning algorithms are used to detect marine litter and categorize it (i.e., plastic, paper, metal, cloth, glass and ceramic, rubber, and wood). Marine debris in the coastal zone is then visualized through high-resolution density maps and spatiotemporal analytics, enabling scalable, operational monitoring and empowering stakeholders to take precise, data-driven action for cleaner beaches and coastlines. A free trial covering 1 km of coastline is available, allowing users to test and explore the platform’s capabilities.
Marine Manager: A tool for transparency and effective marine conservation in the quest for 30×30
Wednesday, April 29, at 11 am US EDT/8 am US PDT/3 pm UTC/10 am COT/4 pm BST/5 pm CEST. Presented by: Lina Gutierrez Cala and Leah Buckley of Global Fishing Watch. Description: With less than 5 years to achieve the global commitment of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030, transparency and accountability are more important than ever. Access to reliable information about human activity at sea is essential to support the decision-making processes required to meet this ambitious target. This webinar will introduce the Marine Manager platform, developed by Global Fishing Watch in partnership with Donna Bertarelli Philanthropy. The free and open platform serves datasets on vessel activity and presence derived from satellite tracking and imagery sources, as well as environmental datasets. By making these datasets publicly available and easy to visualize and interact with, Marine Manager supports the development and implementation of effective conservation schemes with tangible outcomes, while helping address challenges such as “paper parks” – protected areas that lack the required management and monitoring tools to meet their mandates. As of today, Marine Manager has supported multiple processes, including the designation of critical biodiversity areas, the design and implementation of management plans, and ongoing monitoring efforts. The tool complements local partners’ resources to enhance the protection of key biodiversity areas in the regions in which Global Fishing Watch operates. Through the Marine Manager platform, Global Fishing Watch aims to provide transparent, reliable and accessible information that supports informed decisions and safeguards the ocean for the well-being of the communities that depend on it.
Keep Poop in the Loop: A Global Sewage Treaty for Our Ocean
Tuesday, May 19 at 1 pm EDT/10 am US PDT/5 pm UTC. Presented by: Jasmine Fournier of Ocean Sewage Alliance, Description: Nearly half of the world’s wastewater flows untreated into our rivers and oceans, fueling biodiversity loss, threatening human health, and costing the global economy over $4 trillion annually. But here’s the good news: it’s solvable. And eliminating sewage pollution isn’t just good for the ocean; it’s good for business. Clean water means healthier ecosystems, more resilient reefs, and sustainable coastal economies because no one wants more sewage in the ocean. It’s a win-win-win. This webinar will present the vision for a binding United Nations resolution that establishes international standards, unlocks financing, and supports countries in ending sewage pollution at its source. This conversation will explore how a Global Sewage Treaty addresses a root issue across climate, plastics, biodiversity, and water scarcity; how a circular approach can turn waste into a financially beneficial resource; and the growing movement demanding global cooperation on this solvable crisis, and how you can join.
Past Webinars
Urban Ocean: Partnering to advance clean, healthy cities for clean, healthy seas
This webinar originally aired on February 24, 2022. Presented by: Steve Morrison of NOAA, Jenna Jambeck of the University of Georgia, and Keri Browder of the Ocean Conservancy. This webinar will present the NOAA Marine Debris Program and its partnerships to curb plastic waste. It will cover the program’s overarching portfolio and goals as well as one of its programs – Urban Ocean. Led by Ocean Conservancy and in close collaboration with University of Georgia’s New Materials Institute and Circularity Informatics Lab, Urban Ocean provides a platform for city governments to connect with one another as well as with community leaders, academia, and the private sector to develop, share, and scale solutions to the ocean plastics crisis while progressing their broader urban development priorities. The webinar will showcase Urban Ocean’s recent findings and outputs, including the results of the Circularity Assessment Protocol in each of the learning cities and the recently released Urban Ocean Toolkit.
Marine Connectivity Conservation “Rules of Thumb” for MPA and MPA Network Design
This webinar originally aired on February 8, 2022. Presented by: Barbara Lausche of Mote Marine Laboratory and the IUCN-WCPA Marine Connectivity Working Group and Mary Collins of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation. To help guide, enhance, and restore ecological connectivity of the ocean, the IUCN WCPA has released a new publication entitled “Marine Connectivity Conservation ‘Rules of Thumb’ for MPA and MPA Network Design.” This publication provides broadly applicable guidance on connectivity for MPA managers. This webinar will highlight several of the 13 ‘Rules of Thumb’ and how they can help guide integration of connectivity into conservation activities – ranging from interactions across the land-sea interface to the movement of currents and migratory species around the world and across political boundaries.
Never let a good failure go to waste: Learning from conservation failure
This webinar originally aired on 25 January 2022. Presented by: Allison Catalano from work conducted at Imperial College London. How does your organization handle failure? Failure or outcomes that are less than successful are not uncommon in conservation initiatives, yet we rarely discuss failure in systematic ways that make use of the learning opportunities failure presents. Here we will discuss alternate ways to think about failure and the individual and interpersonal dynamics that make it challenging.
Planning for Coastal and Marine Heritage in a Changing Climate
This webinar originally aired on 16 December 2021. Presented by: Erin Seekamp of North Carolina State University. Heritage sites represent our inherited traditions, objects, monuments, and land and seascapes that provide cultural connections and identities as well as societal benefits.
Supporting self-financing mechanisms in MPAs
This webinar originally aired on 17 November 2021. Presented by: Guillaume Le Port and Nastazia Femmami of BlueSeeds. The webinar described two support programs: visitor fees and concession agreements. These programs empower and build MPA staff’s capacity to manage their site or network’s local financing mechanisms over the long term.
MPAs as Part of the Climate Solution: The Role of Blue Carbon
This webinar originally aired on 26 October 2021. Presented by: Sara Hutto of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. Well-managed marine protected areas (MPAs) protect valuable blue carbon habitats and processes, and they must be included in global and national mitigation and adaptation responses to climate change.
Turning the tide of parachute science
This webinar originally aired on 21 October 2021. Presented by: Paris Stefanoudis of the University of Oxford and Sheena Talma of the Nekton Foundation. Parachute science is the practice whereby international scientists, typically from higher-income countries, conduct field studies in another country, typically of lower income, and then complete the research in their home country without any further effective communication and engagement with others from that nation.
Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation
This webinar originally aired on 13 October 2021. Presented by: Samuel Brody of the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas at Texas A&M University at Galveston, Carlos Martin with the Brookings Institution’ Metropolitan Policy Program, and Carolyn Kousky of the Wharton Risk Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Sea level rise will cause interrelated challenges in communities around the United States. The issues extend far beyond land use planning to affect housing policy, financing for public infrastructure, insurance, fostering healthier coastal ecosystems, and more.
How to do science so it influences marine policy and management: A panel discussion with a focus on Latin America, Caribbean, and African contexts
This webinar originally aired on 28 September 2021. Moderator/panelists: Peter Edwards of The Pew Charitable Trusts (moderator), Rodrigo Arriagada of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (panelist), Nicole Leotaud of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (panelist), and David Obura of CORDIO East Africa. Many environmental scientists find that their research has less impact in the real world than they hoped for or expected.
Using an incremental approach for “wicked problems” in fisheries management and marine EBM
This webinar originally aired on 16 September 2021. Presented by: Jon Hare of NOAA Fisheries Ecosystem-based management is a ‘wicked problem’, that is, a problem that is…