Maintenance and Enhancement of the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System Regional Association NA08NOS4730289 Progress Report May 1, 2011 - October 31, 2011 Prepared by Ann E. Jochens 1 Matthew K. Howard 1 and Chris Simoniello 2 on behalf of the GCOOS Regional Association 22 November 2011 1 Texas A&M University, based in College Station, TX 2 Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, based in St. Petersburg, FL
1.0 Project Summary The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) is being developed by the GCOOS Regional Association (GCOOS-RA) into a comprehensive, sustained, operational ocean observing system that provides data, information, and products on marine and estuarine systems of the Gulf of Mexico to meet the needs of many different stakeholders. Goal: The goal of this project is to maintain and strengthen the activities of the GCOOS- RA as it works to build the GCOOS. Objectives: The seven objectives to achieve the goal are (A) maintain and further develop the infrastructure of the GCOOS-RA; (B) identify regional and local stakeholder needs and priorities; (C) identify and maintain an inventory of observations and products from the region; (D) identify gaps in observations and products needed to meet stakeholder needs; (E) select and prepare projects to fill gaps and to provide for enhancements to observing systems, products, and data management; (F) conduct activities to strengthen regional involvement with the evolution of and compliance with data management and communication plans of the U.S. IOOS ; and (G) coordinate and collaborate with other observing system entities. Each of these objectives has associated tasks, which were detailed in Appendix A of the progress report submitted in May 2010 and will not be repeated here. 2.0 Progress and Accomplishments Activities to identify stakeholder needs and priorities, new data providers, and new funding sources are proceeding. The major efforts and their associated objectives under this project during this reporting period were: 1. Development of the GCOOS Build-Out Plan (independent from #2); Jochens, Howard, Simoniello, Nowlin, and Board of Directors prepared various sections of the document; Jochens assembled and edited the draft. Objectives B, D, E 2. Development of the IOOS RA Build-Out Plan Templates for the Independent Cost Estimate and RA Build-out Synthesis; Jochens participated on the Steering Committee and attended the RA Gap Analysis Meeting in Silver Spring, MD, on 3 June 2011; Jochens, Howard, Simoniello prepared the GCOOS-RA submittals using information from #1; Jochens finalized and submitted Parts 1 and 2. Objectives B, D, E 3. Activities related to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the work of the Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, including preparation and submittal of comments on the Preliminary Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Restoration Strategy and joint work with the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA) Environmental Education Network (EEN) steering committee to have Education/Outreach activities included in the Gulf Task Force planning (Jochens, Howard, Simoniello, Board of Directors). Objectives A, B, D, E, and F 4. Preparation of GCOOS-RA responses to the numerous requests from the NOAA IOOS Office for information and review/comment on draft documents, e.g., Completion of the Online Blueprint Assessment for the GCOOS-RA; Provision of comments on the CARD; Completion of the Assets Inventory (Jochens, Howard, Simoniello). Objectives A, C, D 1
5. Plan, prepare, and conduct the annual meeting of the GCOOS-RA Education and Outreach Council and the semi-annual meeting of the GCOOS-RA Board of Directors (Jochens, Howard, Simoniello, Board of Directors, EOC, Committee Chairs). Objectives A, B, D 6. Plan and prepare for the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA) November 2011 Monitoring Forum (Jochens participated on the Steering Committee) Objectives B, C, D, F, G 7. Participate in and make presentations at meetings of the SECOORA Board of Directors and Annual Members Meetings (including discussions on potential GCOOS-SECOORA collaborations and joint data management projects; Jochens, Howard), Gulf of Mexico Alliance (Jochens, Howard, Simoniello), Mexico-U.S. Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem Project (GOM LME; Jochens, Simoniello), NOAA Gulf of Mexico Regional Coordination Team (GoMRCT; Jochens), Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI; Howard), IOOS DMAC (Howard), and NFRA EOC (Simoniello). Objectives A, B, C, D, E, F, G 8. Participate in teleconferences and activities of five of the GOMA Priority Issue Teams (PITs) [Water Quality-Jochens/Howard, Nutrient Reduction-Jochens, Ecosystem Integration and Assessment-Howard/Jochens, Coastal Community Resiliency-Jochens, Environmental Education-Simoniello], GoMRCT (Jochens), the GoMRCT Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning Working Group (Jochens), GoMRI (Howard), NFRA (Jochens/Howard/Simoniello), IOOS (Jochens/Howard/Simoniello); the Executive Directors of GCOOS-RA and SECOORA initiated joint GCOOS-RA/SECOORA staff conference calls that occur approximately monthly. Objectives A, B, C, D, E, F, G Progress Toward Tasks and Milestones: Progress on tasks and milestones is given in Table 1. Table 2 is an update on the status of the five milestones for all GCOOS FY11 projects. Status of Observing Assets and Contributions to Products and Services: There is nothing to report because, under this project, products and services are not developed and observation systems are neither deployed nor removed. Stakeholder Engagement and Outreach: Significant effort is given to stakeholder engagement and outreach by the GCOOS-RA, with both the Office staff and Board members working with key stakeholder sectors, such as federal agencies, oil and gas industry, state agencies through GOMA, education and outreach community, academic/research institutions, modeling community, Mexico-U.S. Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem Project, and recreational boaters, divers, and fishermen. Papers published: None this reporting period. Presentations made at conferences and meetings: Kirkpatrick, B. (GCOOS-RA Board Member), Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS). Workshop on Beyond the Horizon: Creating a Network of Special Ocean Places, 12-13 May 2011, Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, FL. Howard, M.K., Update on Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) DMAC. General Session on Meeting the Needs of Data Providers: Collaborating with Other Regional Associations (RAs) and IOOS, 18 May 2011, at the SECOORA Annual Meeting, 16-18 May 2011, Jacksonville, FL. 2
Jochens, A.E., Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System. Panel/Roundtable on Value of Ocean Observing, 17 May 2011, at the SECOORA Annual Meeting, 16-18 May 2011, Jacksonville, FL. Jochens, A.E., Overview of the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System Buildout Plan. SECOORA/GCOOS Session on Coordinating Observing Plans for the West Florida Shelf, 8 September 2011, at the Joint SECOORA/South Atlantic Alliance Meeting, 7-9 September 2011, Savannah, GA. Jochens, Howard, and Simoniello participated actively in the Joint Gulf of Mexico Alliance - Hypoxia Task Force Meeting on 1-5 August 2011 in New Orleans, LA, including provision of information on GCOOS and GCOOS-GOMA collaborations at the working meetings of the GOMA Priority Issue Teams. Simoniello was a member of the planning committee and a facilitator for the GOMA Environmental Education Network (EEN) session. Board members John Dindo, Sharon Walker, Mike Spranger, Nancy Rabalais, and Stephan Howden also attended. GCOOS was awarded the EPA Gulf Guardian Award for Partnerships. Table 1. Time lines for milestones associated with major tasks to develop the GCOOS-RA ( =activity or meeting completed under this project; = activity in progress; O = expected ongoing activities; E = meeting expected under this project; X=expected completion of task under this project; DW = substantial Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill effect on task). (a) Project Years 3 and 4 Year 3 (2010-2011) Year 4 (2011-2012) ACTIVITIES (by Objective) MJJ ASO NDJ FMA MJJ ASO NDJ FMA A. Revise GCOOS Plans (e.g., Obs System, Business, Communication) DW DW A. Revise the Action Plans for GCOOS Committees/Councils DW DW X B. Hold meetings of the Board, Parties, Committees/Councils DW X B. Hold workshops focused on specific stakeholder sectors DW DW DW DW X C. Revise needs assessment for IOOS information in region C. Revise inventory of non-federal regional observations D. Conduct gap analysis tasks X E. Revise conceptual design on priority systems DW DW O O O X F. Add DMAC information page to the GCOOS web site F. Complete, then Test GCOOS Data Portal (management review only)* G. Attend NFRA Meetings? X X G. Participate in the IOOS regional coordination Meeting X X (b) Project Years 1 and 2 Year 1 (2008-2009) Year 2 (2009-2010) ACTIVITIES MJJ ASO NDJ FMA MJJ ASO NDJ FMA A. Revise GCOOS Plans (e.g., Obs System, Business, Communication) A. Revise the Action Plans for GCOOS Committees/Councils B. Hold meetings of the Board, Parties, Committees/Councils B. Hold workshops focused on specific stakeholder sectors 4 2 C. Revise needs assessment for IOOS information in region C. Revise inventory of non-federal regional observations D. Conduct gap analysis tasks E. Revise conceptual design on priority systems F. Add DMAC information page to the GCOOS web site F. Complete, then Test GCOOS Data Portal (management review only)* G. Attend NFRA Meetings G. Participate in the IOOS regional coordination Meeting *Support for the portal itself and further enhancements of the portal is from other NOAA awards 3
Table 2. Status of the Five FY11 Regional Milestones for All GCOOS-RA Projects Milestone Status as of 10/31/11 (1) Launch the web pages of consolidated oceanographic and meteorological data for and as requested by recreational boaters and fishermen (funding for web development provided through the separate GCOOS Data Portal project). (2) Complete the plan for a comprehensive Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System, built on enhancements to extant assets and including cost estimates. (3) Launch the water quality data integration pilot project for southwest Florida in cooperation with Gulf of Mexico Alliance Water Quality Priority Issue Team (funding for partners provided through the separate GCOOS Data Portal project). (4) Deliver the GCOOS content for the interactive kiosk exhibits at the Florida Aquarium and either the Texas State Aquarium or the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas (funding for kiosks provided through the separate GCOOS Data Portal project). (5) Deliver the Gulf of Mexico Harmful Algal Bloom Integrated Observing System Implementation Plan to the Gulf of Mexico Alliance and other partners. The first version is now available on the web {http://gcoos.tamu.edu/products/maps/boaters/}; feedback is being used to make improvements. An app for mobile devices is in development. The first version has been drafted and will be posted on the web in the next reporting period. An Executive Summary was submitted to the Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Restoration Task Force. IOOS RA Build-out version was provided to NOAA IOOS Office and NFRA. Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation is now providing water quality data through the portal. We are developing linkages with the FL Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. A regional workshop for other SW FL providers is planned for 2012. The June EOC Meeting included all 5 aquariums that will be receiving a kiosk exhibit. It was decided that the systems would be identical. The design was developed, and the script of the creative treatment completed. Content has been reviewed by participants, and the exhibit materials are being produced. All five exhibits will be completed and delivered at the same time in spring 2012. A small team is preparing the plan that will then be distributed for comments and revised prior to the workshop. Due to travel curtailments of key participants, the workshop to finalize the GCOOS-GOMA HABIOS Implementation Plan was moved to early spring 2012. Workshops held: No GCOOS-RA workshops were conducted during this reporting period. However, GCOOS was a co-sponsor of Stand Up with Purpose fundraiser paddleboard event, St. Petersburg to Sarasota, FL, 17 September 2011 (http://gcoos.tamu.edu/documents/standup.pdf). The group used information from the GCOOS recreational boaters web page to plan their trip. GCOOS also is a co-sponsor of the 2011 Gulf of Mexico Summit being held in December in Houston, TX. This summit brings together many different stakeholder groups to discuss issues and needs for healthy Gulf ecosystems and economies and is a significant GCOOS stakeholder engagement activity. Continued disruption of routine activities caused by the oil spill, travel restrictions, and the economic crises of the states resulted in a postponement of the third 4
GCOOS-GOMA Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) Integrated Observing System (HABIOS) Implementation Plan workshop to spring 2012. New partnerships: Membership in the six GOMA Priority Issue Teams constantly changes over time, so we effectively continuously engage new stakeholders in the five Gulf coast state governments. We are working with the GOMA Nutrient Reduction Priority Issue Team on possible development of a hypoxia-nutrient data portal module for the GCOOS Data Portal. We are working with the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative on data issues for projects under the BP Ecosystem Restoration Research funding. Education and Outreach: Our Education and Outreach Coordinator, Chris Simoniello, again engaged in activities for all ages to provide information on ocean literacy, GCOOS, IOOS, and the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Her major activities included: (1) organize and implement the GCOOS EOC meeting, 15-16 June 2011, New Orleans, LA. The meeting foci were to develop creative ideas for the GCOOS interactive exhibit and evaluate the GCOOS web pages developed for boaters and fishermen; (2) gather feedback on the Recreational Boater Website from GCOOS E/O council and committee members, E/O specialists from other RAs, GCOOS Recreational Boater workshop participants, and others from the research and recreational communities; (3) prepare a number of outreach materials, including success stories (Stand-Up with Purpose, GCOOS/GOM-LME Collaborations, Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation s River, Estuary and Coastal Observing Network (RECON), the joint University of South Florida Center for Ocean Technology/Mote Marine Laboratory Florida red tide glider mission) written for the GCOOS News and/or website, a template for special-purpose flyers (e.g., joint GCOOS/SECOORA/Florida COOS flyer), spreadsheets with RA activities of possible interest to various government branches, and a spreadsheet to compile usage statistics of IOOS data during events. Simoniello also provided comments on the GCOOS one-pager in the IOOS template and worked with the NFRA EOC to create an RA template for development of flyers for Hill visits; (4) work with the NOAA Engagement Team on a logic model development for creating the format and content of webinar/training to educate people about NOAA resources in the Gulf of Mexico and an evaluation of the igulf website (see http://igulf.noaa.gov/); and (5) form an ad hoc NFRA EOC team for collaboration with the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) on joint data visualization tools for E/O; the team compiled and provided to NSF OOI a list of RA contacts and educators using real time data in their programs. Data Management: Most data management progress is made and reported under the separate GCOOS Data Portal project (NA08NOS4730411). However, our DMAC Coordinator, Matt Howard, participated in GCOOS-RA support activities associated with data management. He is a member of the NOAA Asset Inventory TIGER team, initially lead by Dr. Sam Walker of the NOAA IOOS office, and participates in the fortnightly IOOS Regional Data Managers teleconference calls. He represents the GCOOS-RA on the Executive Steering Committee for the online NOAA Gulf of Mexico Data Atlas Project. Howard participates regularly on the SECOORA DMAC conference calls. Among his many interactions with GOMA, he orchestrated the linking of the GOMA Water Quality PIT and GCOOS data portal programmers to produce a Catalog of Water Quality Monitoring Programs. Howard is directing web site designers and programmers to refresh the business pages of the GCOOS website. We have adopted WordPress, an open source publishing platform and content management system, as the software framework 5
to house the new website. We are in the process of migrating the pages from the old site to the new site and will go live with the new site in early 2012. 3.0 Scope of Work Issues that impacted progress: The urgent need of the NOAA IOOS Office for information on build-out plans for all eleven RAs resulted in expenditure of significant effort. Jochens participated on the Steering Committee for the Build-out Plan guidance and planning for the IOOS Regional Coordination Workshop. She also expended substantial time and effort in preparing the GCOOS-RA Build-out Plan in the requested template format. The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill event continued to impact GCOOS-RA activities, resulting in postponement of activities to revitalize the stakeholder council and to handle changes in the committee members and chairs; this activity will be a focus of the March 2012 Board meeting. The major activities for this period were the development of a comprehensive observing system implementation plan and gap analysis, together with increased engagement with the public sector related to the oil spill and Gulf restoration activities. The 3 rd HABIOS workshop was postponed to accommodate the travel restrictions being imposed on our Gulf State agency and federal partners; it is now set for early spring 2012. Progress toward meeting objectives: Timelines for task milestones with completion dates are given in Table 1. We will complete all activities under this project by 30 April 2012. Priorities for the next funding period: Priorities for the next funding period are to (a) provide support and assistance appropriate for an observing system toward the recovery effort related to the oil spill, (b) continue development of the comprehensive GCOOS implementation plan that identifies gaps in observing sub-systems and estimates costs to fill gaps and operate and maintain the full GCOOS, (c) conduct the third GCOOS-GOMA HAB workshop, (d) continue stakeholder engagement activities, (e) continue pursuit of joint activities with GOMA, the NOAA GoMRCT, Mexican entities, CaRA, SECOORA, NFRA, and others, and (f) continue GCOOS business activities. Current or anticipated changes to the statement of work or in meeting objectives: There were no changes to the SOW. Other than the delays in some activities due to the oil spill and fiscal crises in federal and state governments, the project objectives are being met. 4.0 Leadership Personnel and Organizational Structure Leadership Personnel, RA Staff, and Points of Contact: The GCOOS-RA Board of Directors named Ann Jochens as the Executive Director of the GCOOS-RA. No other changes in key scientific or management personnel occurred during the reporting period and none are anticipated. Ms. Laura Caldwell was hired to work part-time on the GCOOS News. Worth Nowlin retired from the GCOOS Office staff at the end of August 2011, but will continue active participation through his Board membership. No other changes have been made to the GCOOS staff or points of contact. GCOOS-RA Organizational Structure: Status of the organization: The Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) continues to be the instrument that governs the GCOOS-RA. However, with the assistance of Jochens, Nowlin and the Board of Directors are preparing for a possible change to a non-profit corporation structure. 6
RA membership: The membership of the GCOOS-RA consists of 28 individual, 1 associate, and 79 voting parties (web page at http://gcoos.tamu.edu/parties.html). Members of the GCOOS-RA board of directors: Board members elected in February 2011 (Nancy Rabalais for academia, Pat Roscigno for government, Dave Driver for private, and John Dindo and Joe Swaykos for E/O) began their 3-year terms at the September 2011 Board meeting. Preparations (e.g., confirming voter contacts, preparing nomination call) are underway for the next election, which will be held in February 2012. Members of the GCOOS-RA councils, committees, and task teams: At its September 2011 meeting, the GCOOS-RA Board of Directors elected Board member John Dindo and Ann Jochens to serve on the NFRA Board of Directors. The Board of Directors has undertaken a comprehensive evaluation of the internal GCOOS-RA organizational structures, their charges, and their membership as related to the new challenges posed by the nation's fiscal crisis and BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The next Board meeting will focus on making necessary changes. Organization Meetings: Meetings held were: (1) the annual meeting of the Education and Outreach Council, 15-16 June 2011, New Orleans, LA; and (2) the 13 th Board of Directors Meeting on 15-16 September 2011 in Sarasota, FL. Meeting reports are posted on the GCOOS website (http://gcoos.tamu.edu/meetingreports.html). 5.0 Budget Analysis Expenditures are in line with expenditures expected for the 6-month reporting period. Actual expenditures to the end of this period are approximately 95% of total funds allocated. The remaining 5% will go to salary support for GCOOS Office staff, holding the HABIOS workshop, and attending stakeholder meetings. Financial reports (SF-425) are up to date, with the most recent being submitted on 10 October 2011 and accepted by NOAA on 18 October 2011 by Michele Pollard. It covered the period 1 April 2011 through 30 September 2011. 7