Program Update – April 2012
Members of the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) Office staff attended the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Marine Mammal Program Review Poster Session and Reception on April 17 in Arlington, Virginia. The session included posters featuring research projects funded through NOPP. Dr. Marie Roch presented a poster on her research, which was funded through NOPP in FY 2011, titled “Acoustic Metadata Management and Transparent Access to Networked Oceanographic Data Sets.” For more information on Dr. Roch’s research, click here.
Members of the NOPP Office staff also participated in an exhibit booth at the Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference (GMREC), which was held in Washington, D.C. from April 24-26. The theme of the conference was “Expanding Networks, Lowering the Cost of Energy.” Opening remarks were provided by U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R – AK) and attendees included regulatory specialists, offshore renewable energy developers and innovators, federal agencies, policymakers, researchers and members of non-governmental organizations.
The Interagency Working Group on Ocean Partnerships (IWG-OP) met on April 10 at the Consortium for Ocean Leadership to discuss the level of engagement the IWG-OP should take in carrying out specific actions within the National Ocean Policy (NOP) Implementation Plan. In particular, the Priority Objective Coordinate and Support is closely aligned with the goals and capabilities of NOPP and many components of other Priority Objectives also rely on partnerships. The Biodiversity Ad Hoc Committee, a subcommittee of the IWG-OP, met on April 26, also at Ocean Leadership. The group received updates on workshops and meetings that have recently taken place including the 5th International Meeting on Deep Sea Corals that took place in Amsterdam and included over 87 presentations and participants from 27 countries, and the Animal Telemetry Network Workshop that took place mid-March in Washington, D.C. with the goal of developing a strategic plan for establishing a national animal telemetry network. The Coral Status Review Report and Draft Management Report lists 82 candidate coral species that are at risk of extinction. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service is collecting public comments until July 31. The full document can be found here. Additionally last April, an agreement was reached to make the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) operational. The IPBES Secretariat will be hosted in Bonn, Germany and will be an independent science body with a small Administrative Bureau and an Independent Multi-disciplinary Expert Panel. The next plenary meeting of the IPBES will be in the spring of 2013.
The Interagency Working Group on Facilities and Infrastructure (IWG-FI) met on April 30 and heard updates from their subgroup, the Subcommittee on Unmanned Systems (SUS), and task force, the Federal Oceanographic Fleet Working Group (FOFWG), on their progress in completing milestones for the NOP. The FOFWG met twice during the month of April, on April 5 and April 23. The group continues to make progress in updating the Fleet Status Report and is on schedule to complete the milestone this summer.
The NOPP Program Office is always looking for opportunities to showcase the research that has been funded through NOPP. If any NOPP researchers have images or photos, recently published articles, or any other information they would feel comfortable allowing us to share on the NOPP website, on Facebook, and/or on Twitter, the NOPP office would love to highlight it. Please send any information to Katie Horst at khorst@oceanleadership.org.
