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.
Past Webinars
Marine Wilderness 10+10 Project: Bringing Back the Wild
Marine Wilderness is a powerful vision of functional, healthy and resilient marine life that regenerates populations of wild species interconnected to form productive food webs…
A Climate-Smart Approach to Adaptive Management of North-central California Coast and Ocean Habitats, Species, and Ecosystem Services
The Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Climate-Smart Adaptation Project for the North-central California Coast and Ocean is an effort to integrate adaptive management..
Principles for Effective Stakeholder Engagement in Marine Planning: Training #2
Marine planning is a comprehensive, integrated, and complex process that often seeks to coordinate decisions and activities across numerous ocean stakeholders…
iMarine Data e-Infrastructure Initiative for Fisheries Management and Conservation of Marine Living Resources
iMarine is an open and collaborative initiative aimed at supporting the implementation of an ecosystem approach to fisheries management and the conservation of living marine resources.
Interactive panel discussion on utility and feasibility of cleaning up ocean plastics
In this interactive panel discussion, three experts on ocean plastics will discuss the utility and feasibility of marine debris cleanup, and will take audience questions…
Building Capacity to Sustainably Manage Increasing Recreational Uses in MPAs
Recreational uses of MPAs are expanding rapidly in the US and around the globe. While promising many benefits to users and the sites..
Marine and Coastal Datasets of Biodiversity Importance
This webinar originally aired on July 1, 2014. The availability and appropriate use of marine and coastal data form the foundation of effective decision-making. The…
Preparing for Disaster at MPAs
The presentation will focus on the need to consider disaster response planning for marine protected areas using the example of the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) in Mississippi…
Principles for Effective Stakeholder Engagement in Marine Planning: Training #1
Marine planning is a comprehensive, integrated, and complex process that often seeks to coordinate decisions and activities across numerous ocean stakeholders…
Listening to our Sanctuaries: Understanding and Reducing the Impacts of Underwater Noise in Marine Protected Areas
This webinar originally aired on May 8, 2014 Presenter(s): Leila Hatch of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Click Here to view on YOUTUBE