Report from

Ocean Leadership: Delivering the Next Generation of Ocean Sciences,

A Working Group

Bob Corell, Co-ChairGraham Shimmield, Co-Chair

General Charge

• Use Gagosian’s March 2011 comments and other strategic forward-thinking community documents as a starting point catalyst

• Explore strategies and ways in which the Ocean Sciences community might evolve its current practices, approaches, and business models to achieve increased collaboration, efficiencies and leveraging capability in a “new reality” of increased constraints that are both internal and external to individual institutions

• Make recommendations to the Ocean Leadership Board of Trustees in March 2012

Working Group Self-identified Members

• Bob Corell• Graham Shimmield• Mark Abbott• Larry Atkinson• Susan  Avery• Ivar Babb• Don Boesch• Gary Cherr• Steve D'Hondt• Toby Garfield

• John Haines• Val Klump• Ian MacDonald• Kate Miller• Nancy Rabalais• John Rummel• David Scott• Larry Swanson• Nancy Targett• Bob Gagosian (on occasion)

* Admin support provided by Amy Castner and Colin Reed

Task Team Central Team Task

Team 1: Community Engagement (including education)

Develop approaches to consult and seek community engagement and consensus building within and with other communities

Team 2: Environmental Overview Frame the current societal, economic, policy and political realities within which Ocean Sciences must operate

Team 3: Strategies & Implementation Options

Frame and document a decadal research agenda and the needed infrastructure, to include a proposed process by which prioritizations will be arbitrated

Team 4: Operational Options Frame and identify ways and means for operational processes, institutional approaches, business models and shared partnership

Working Group Task Teams

Team One Key Messages

Stakeholder audiences may be:

•well-known to the community and may be current supporters and/or subsets of the community (e.g., NSF, Navy, UNOLS, etc.)•recognized as critical but how to communicate effectively with them is not as well known (e.g., OMB, elected officials and their legislative staffs, etc.)•sometimes recognized as important but often viewed suspiciously and from a safe distance by the community (e.g., for-profit interests, industry, lobby groups, etc.)•located domestically or internationally (e.g., current international partners, etc.)•currently not really viewed as a stakeholder but could contribute (e.g., philanthropic foundations)

Team Two Key Messages

• A New Epoch Where Expanded Scientific Understanding is More Directly Connected with Our Nation’s Economic and Human Well-being, Needs, and Interests (An era of this decade and beyond): It will be characterized by a balancing of fundamental scientific understanding with user-inspired, policy relevant knowledge and insights that addresses industrial, business and other economic interests, societal and human issues such as reduced pollution, increased recreational uses and the population migrations to coastal oceanic communities. There are major advantages to the future of the ocean sciences in broadening its engagement with the user-, stakeholder-, and policy-making communities through the purposeful construction and/or use of venues that facilitate continuous feedback and engagement.

Team Two Key Messages

• Changing Patterns of Water Availability: Global water cycles, profoundly influenced by oceanic processes, are changing and hence are very likely to shift (a) the availability of water for agriculture, industrial uses, and potable water for human consumption; (b) precipitation intensities, weather and climate patterns; (c) geographical scales and durations of droughts and floods; (d) runoff and river flow patterns influencing hydropower systems; and (e) disproportionate availability and access to water has and will continued foster poverty and hunger in the lesser developed world. The central importance of water to humans and the availability and access to water will very likely lead to unparalleled governance and legal challenges for nations and societies around the world.

Team Two Key Messages

• Natural Resources Distributions and Use: Access to and control over natural resources has been the singularly most important asset for nations economic and societal well-being. The oceans contain natural resources of such importance to our economic and jurisdictional zones (territorial sea, contiguous zone, and exclusive economic zone) e.g., rights of navigation and maritime shipping and aircraft passage, fisheries, marine minerals, oil and gas reserves, sport and recreational interests, security and jurisdictional interests. Further, the US has substantial interests in the high seas which are often, but not always, governed by international agreements, including United Nation organizations (UNCLOS, IMO, IWC, IOC and others), e.g., rights and security of marine shipping, access to economically important resources, and national security and defense.

Team Two Key Messages• Regional Changes in Oceanic Processes: For

example: accelerated sea ice loss in the Arctic is leading towards a seasonal ice-free Arctic Ocean, changes in the North American Monsoon, the Monsoon of Indian subcontinent, and the East Asian Monsoon, are very likely induce substantive changes for (a) maritime shipping through the Northern Sea Route and the Northwest Passage in the Arctic, (b) marine and oceanic biological diversity, fisheries, mineral, oil and gas resources in all of these regions, (c) changed tourism patterns and human interests in these regions, (d) new security and search and rescue challenges, (e) regional changes in mesoscale weather, and (f) new pollution, contaminants and environmental challenges all of these regions as well as others.

Team Three Key Messages

• The present decadal surveys focus on big infrastructure, while the global-scale initiatives (IGBP, etc.) are driven solely by science interest.

• We need an approach that links these together and is also far more adaptive on shorter time scales (things cannot remain static for10 years).

• Ocean science use should be a factor in prioritizing the many great ideas for new science understanding. Integration when appropriate with the other geosciences should be part of the new approach.

Team Three Key Messages

• The approach should also integrate science, cost, and schedule in an iterative manner so that whatever scientific portfolio emerges is not just driven by scientists or agency managers. The portfolio must balance the needs for long-range scientific understanding, the needs for shorter term management and policy, and the cost and schedule realities.

• The approach should not encompass all oceanographic research, but should allow individual-based research to thrive as well. However, it should build an intellectual framework that integrates all of the science components into a portfolio and drives the investments in infrastructure.

Team Four Key Messages

• Look to other communities for new business models that are adaptable to Ocean Sciences

• Regional associations in some regions are quite effective and well connected to the user communities

• Explore University-Industry cooperative research centers, in which industry “buys-in” to the center and their association fees are used to support research of mutual importance

• NSF’s Sustainable Research Network grants

National Ocean Policy Science Objectives

5. Resiliency and Adaptation to Climate Change and Ocean Acidification: Strengthen resiliency of coastal communities and marine and Great Lakes environments and their abilities to adapt to climate change impacts and ocean acidification.

5. Regional Ecosystem Protection and Restoration: Establish and implement an integrated ecosystem protection and restoration strategy that is science-based and aligns conservation and restoration goals at the Federal, State, tribal, local, and regional levels.

5. Water Quality and Sustainable Practices on Land: Enhance water quality in the ocean, along our coasts, and in the Great Lakes by promoting and implementing sustainable practices on land.

5. Changing Conditions in the Arctic: Address environmental stewardship needs in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent coastal areas in the face of climate-induced and other environmental changes.

National Ocean Policy Tools1. Ecosystem-based Management: Adopt ecosystem-based management

as a foundational principle for the comprehensive management of the ocean, our coasts, and the Great Lakes.

2. Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning: Implement comprehensive, integrated, ecosystem- based coastal and marine spatial planning and management in the United States.

3. Inform Decisions and Improve Understanding: Increase knowledge to continually inform and improve management and policy decisions and the capacity to respond to change and challenges. Better educate the public through formal and informal programs about the ocean, our coasts, and the Great Lakes.

4. Coordinate and Support: Better coordinate and support Federal, State, tribal, local, and regional management of the ocean, our coasts, and the Great Lakes. Improve coordination and integration across the Federal Government, and as appropriate, engage with the international community.

9. Ocean, Coastal, and Great Lakes Observations, Mapping, and Infrastructure: Strengthen and integrate Federal and non-Federal ocean observing systems, sensors, data collection platforms, data management, and mapping capabilities into a national system, and integrate that system into international observation efforts.