Webinars
Upcoming Webinars
buoy.fish: Harnessing new technology to prevent lost and abandoned fishing gear in the coastal ocean
Thursday, February 6, 1 pm US EST/10 am US PST/6 pm UTC. Presented by: Jameson Buffmire of buoy.fish. Description: Lost and abandoned fishing gear (aka ‘ghost gear’) continues to trap and kill marine wildlife long after it has served its intended purpose. In addition, the buoys and lines used to find and retrieve pots ensnare and kill endangered species and foul vessel propellers. A recent article in Science (Richardson et al., 2022) estimated that more than 25 million pots and traps are lost and abandoned every year. buoy.fish, in partnership with the Global Ghost Gear Initiative and Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, takes advantage of recent advances in wireless technology, cloud services, internet connected devices, and machine intelligence to provide cost-effective GPS-enabled floats that allow the identification, tracking, and recovery of remote fishing equipment. Previous connected/intelligent floats have been limited by the cost and power needs of satellite connections and the short range of cellular connections. buoy.fish uses Low Power, Long Range Wide Area Networking protocols that extend the range of terrestrial wireless networks to cover meaningful near coastal areas – and with the addition of field deployable gateways, vast swaths of the ocean. buoy.fish’s intelligent floats look like traditional fishing floats and are similarly durable and easy to deploy and operate but can broadcast their location over more than 30 miles of open ocean to ensure their recovery.
Transforming Coral Reef Monitoring with MERMAID
Thursday, February 20, 11 am US EST/8 am US PST/4 pm UTC/5 pm CET/8 pm GST (UAE). Presented by: Dr. Emily Darling, Director of Coral Reef Conservation and Co-Founder of MERMAID, Wildlife Conservation Society; Dr. Rita Bento, Research Associate, NYU Abu Dhabi; and Dr. Angelique Brathwaite, Science Director, Blue Alliance Marine Protected Areas. Description: Did you know that less than 15% of the world’s coral reefs have been monitored? This data gap makes it difficult to track changes and protect these critical ecosystems. Join us for an engaging webinar to explore MERMAID, a global platform for coral reef monitoring. Launched in 2018, MERMAID is now empowering over 2,000 scientists from 70+ organizations across 46 countries to collect, analyze, and act on coral reef data. By simplifying field data collection and analysis, MERMAID enhances workflow efficiency and enables rapid assessment of reef health. In this webinar, we’ll provide an overview of the MERMAID platform and highlight its application in two unique contexts: 1) Centralizing coral reef data from the Arabian/Persian Gulf for global reporting and 2) Monitoring small-scale Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Philippines. This webinar will offer valuable insights into how MERMAID is driving impactful coral reef conservation efforts worldwide and how as a manager it can help you improve your monitoring workflow.
Indigenous Roots of Circularity and How Traditional Knowledge Can Guide Water Management
Wednesday, February 26, 1 pm US EST/10 am US PST/6 pm UTC. Presented by: Shanondora Billiot (United Houma Nation Citizen), Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University; Yolanda López-Maldonado (Yucatan, Mexico), Human Ecologist and Geographer; and Mr. Dune Lankard (Eyak Athabaskan), President and Founder of Native Conservancy. Description: Current demands on freshwater, driven by climate change and population growth, have led municipalities, water stewards, and academics to focus on conserving scarce freshwater resources. This shift has spotlighted the concept of a circular water economy—a system that emphasizes conserving and reusing freshwater instead of conventional methods of limited treatment and discharge. While circularity may seem novel from a modern, Western perspective, Indigenous cultures have practiced it for millennia, embedding it into their ways of life and environmental stewardship. This webinar will explore these enduring cultural practices and their modern implications for conservation, policy, and ecology. Participants will gain insight into the foundational principles of circularity and the essential role Indigenous peoples play in sustaining these practices. This session, featuring Indigenous scholars Dr. Shanondora Billiot (United Houma Nation Citizen), Dr. Yolanda López-Maldonado (Yucatan, Mexico), and Mr. Dune Lankard (Eyak Athabaskan) alongside other experts in policy and water rights, will highlight how traditional knowledge can guide contemporary water management approaches.
Assessing the alignment of ecosystem-based management principles in marine spatial planning
Wednesday, March 5, 10 am US EST/7 am US PST/3 pm UTC/4 pm CET. Presented by: Ibon Galparsoro of AZTI. Description: Ecosystem-based marine spatial planning (EB-MSP) is a holistic approach to MSP. It embeds the principles of the ecosystem-based approach (EBA) into the planning process with the aim of jointly managing sustainable human activities and environmental health by accounting for ecosystem processes. However, despite the growing recognition of its benefits, EB-MSP is generally not fully implemented in management plans. The EB-MSP assessment tool is a comprehensive Decision Support System (DSS) which aligns each step of the EB-MSP implementation process to the required data, knowledge and tools. The DSS enable both strategic guidance and technical solutions based on best practices to deliver a comprehensive EB-MSP. The tool is available at https://aztidata.es/EB-MSP, and a new open access publication about the tool is available https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01975-7.
30 x30? What about the other 70%? Cumulative analysis of place-based marine regulations for a more holistic marine protection picture
Wednesday, May 14, 1 pm US EDT/10 am US PDT/5 pm UTC. Presented by: Claire Colegrove and Alex Driedger of ProtectedSeas. Description: While hundreds of nations have committed to the global 30×30 target, much work remains to reach that goal and sustainably manage the remaining 70%. Regulatory protections are crucial for marine management efficacy, and accurate data on in-place management measures are essential for assessing existing marine protections and informing the creation of new areas. However, collecting and interpreting marine regulations can be challenging due to often unavailable or difficult-to-access legal instruments. Overlapping measures and siloed management add further complexities. ProtectedSeas Navigator contains data on worldwide regulations for MPAs, fishery management areas, and other place-based marine managed areas (MMAs) and considers restrictions cumulatively across overlapping areas using spatial aggregation techniques to provide insights into overall protection. This cumulative analysis of regulations in overlapping marine managed areas offers insights into overall uses and protection across ocean spaces, enabling better protection assessments, planning, and management. As an example, initial analysis in California revealed several ocean spaces where individual MMA protections were minimal, yet when combined with protections from other overlapping MMAs, resulted in more highly regulated spaces with enhanced protection.
Past Webinars
Applying Behavioral Insights to Improve Marine Conservation
This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, May 17, 2022. Presented by: Claudia Quintanilla and Katie Heffner of Rare. Description: Environmental challenges are also behavioral challenges; solving them requires behavioral solutions. Rare and its Center for Behavior & the Environment (BE.Center) applies behavioral science to help tackle some of the world’s most pressing environmental issues. This webinar will explore behavior-centered design, how it can be applied to marine conservation programs, and examples of successful cases from around the world – with challenge areas ranging from marine pollution to small-scale fishery management. Presenters will share actionable resources tools and other practical guides to apply behavioral insights in marine conservation programs.
Ocean Governance for MPA Managers: Exchanging experiences between South-East Asia and the Atlantic
This webinar originally aired on Thursday, May 5, 2022. Presented by: Purificaciò Canals, Team Leader of the Ocean Governance Project. Description: The European Union Ocean Governance project brings together partners from North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia to improve the work of MPA managers in the field. The Ocean Governance project has developed two self-assessment tools for MPAs – the Coastal Resilience Self-Assessment Tool and the Marine Mammals Self-Assessment Tool. It also connects regional and national networks and learning exchanges of MPA managers, promotes transboundary cooperation for marine protection, and is working to restore sites in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines. This webinar will provide an overview of the whole project as well as present the two self-assessment tools.
Using Regulatory Data to Inform Marine Spatial Planning Efforts
This webinar originally aired on April 28, 2022. Presented by: Deirdre Brannigan of ProtectedSeas. Being able to access rules and regulations in marine protected areas (MPAs) is critical to understanding which MPAs or OECM (other effective conservation measures) have restrictions in place to meet conservation goals. The ProtectedSeas Navigator mapping project is a one-stop resource for policymakers to find out where MPAs are located as well as discover the existing regulations and evaluate their various levels of protection. This regulations-based tool can be used to inform protection analyses and aid in forecasting other areas that need protection. Currently ProtectedSeas has data for over 15,500 MPAs in more than 106 countries –the only place this comprehensive repository of information and data exists. ProtectedSeas is in a formal public-private partnership with the US NOAA MPA Center. This webinar will be of special interest to MPA managers, resource protection staff, policy makers, scientists, and the conservation community who are interested in assessing ocean conservation regulations and protection metrics.
BlueMooring: A sustainable solution for managing MPA moorings and financing marine conservation activities
This webinar originally aired on April 6, 2022. Presented by: Yousr Ben Fadhel and Louis Vercauteren of BlueSeeds. BlueSeeds is a French company that helps MPAs reach financial sustainability and increase the effectiveness of their conservation activities. BlueSeeds believes that one way of supporting MPA managers is to provide them practical tools that can make their day-to-day management work easier while also financing some of their conservation activities. To this end, BlueSeeds has developed a web app that MPA managers can use to manage the booking of their MPA moorings. With this tool, MPA managers can control and monitor the recreational use of the MPA, communicate more easily with visitors, and generate conservation revenues from the paid booking of moorings managed through the web app.
Verra Standards for Sustainability, Resilience, and Carbon (including Blue carbon, Coastal Resilience, and Plastic Waste Reduction)
This webinar originally aired on March 16, 2022. Presented by: Sinclair Vincent, Anna Mortimer, and Kristen Linscott of Verra. Verra is a nonprofit organization that develops and provides standards that drive investment toward high-impact activities addressing environmental and social challenges across the globe. The rigorous process to meet Verra’s standards include independent verification and issuance of claims and credits. Verra’s standards are employed by a broad variety of governments, corporations and other private actors, and NGOs around the world. This webinar will present Verra’s programs in climate and sustainability focusing on standards in Blue Carbon to sequester carbon dioxide, Coastal Resilience to improve protection of human and environmental assets, and Plastic Waste Reduction to reduce waste ending up in the environment and incentivize recycling.
New tool for assessing the environmental impacts of wave energy projects
This webinar originally aired on March 1, 2022. Presented by: Ibon Galparsoro of AZTI. Marine renewable energies are gaining momentum around the world due to the need to develop safe energy sources that can help the world decarbonize and fight climate change. However, the full potential of energy from waves, currents and wind has yet to be tapped – in part due to uncertainty about how energy conversion devices may impact the marine environment. AZTI has developed a new tool – the WEC-ERA Tool – to assess the ecological risk of wave energy converters. This is an open-access tool for managers, decisionmakers, industry and others to evaluate the environmental risks associated with new wave energy projects. The tool evaluates how three different wave power conversion technologies – oscillating water column, oscillating wave surge converters, and wave turbines – affect the ecosystem. The system addresses all phases of the lifecycle of those power conversion technologies, from installation to operation to dismantling. This tool is intuitive and easy to use. The characteristics of the proposed installation are entered (i.e., number of units, total authorized surface, installed production capacity in megawatts, project lifespan in years, and area reserved for the equipment). Results consider possible impacts on the seabed and native bird, mammal, fish, reptile, and cephalopod species.
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.