Best Practices To Promote Field Science Safety

Interventions are necessary to address the ongoing epidemic of sexual harassment and assault in field settings. An evidence-based approach to identifying specific interventions will be most effective at promoting the safety of scientists. We present the results of a workshop conducted by experts in field biology and the study of sexual harassment and assault that identified a comprehensive set of best practices for individuals and organizations. These recommendations are grounded in peer-reviewed scholarship and are separated into four topics: culture change, accountability, policy development, and reporting. The resulting report of the workshop recommends 44 practices, categorized by the resources required for implementation, the time frame of implementation, and the level of organization responsible for implementation. The best practices that we present are designed to support individuals and organizations in the development of field safety plans

Know Before You Go: A Community-Derived Approach to Planning for and Preventing Sexual Harassment at Oceanographic Field Sites

Sexual harassment is a pervasive problem on oceanographic research vessels and while conducting fieldwork in general. A variety of factors contribute to inadequate protection against sexual harassment, such as poor training in prevention, support, and response; remoteness of field sites; academic hierarchies that reinforce uneven power dynamics that extend to fieldwork; and multi-institutional teams with distinct policies or reporting structures that can lead to confusion in reporting and responding to incidents in the field. In compromising individuals’ physical and mental health, sexual harassment can negatively affect research expeditions. For example, harassed individuals may decide to refrain from working on complicated team-based tasks, which can be a safety issue. A broader concern is that sexual harassment deters talented people from pursing or maintaining employment in ocean science. Harassment must be treated with the same gravity as research misconduct and safety policy infringements. When planning a research expedition, science team leaders are responsible for the safety of their team and other colleagues aboard and would benefit from resources aimed at helping team leadership create a plan to ensure safety and inclusivity. To address this resource gap, 18 participants in the Workshop to Promote Field Safety in Ocean Sciences, convened by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership and held May 17–18, 2022, in Washington, DC, developed a checklist for use by scientific leaders and others to assist in planning for participant safety and to prevent harassment the field. The checklist specifies the timing of, and who is responsible for, specific actions that should be taken to improve safety while conducting fieldwork, whether on a research vessel or on land. It also provides additional resources and suggestions for leaders on how to amend the checklist to address their specific fieldwork situations

Making Marine Life Count: A New Baseline for Policy

The Census of Marine Life aids practical work of the Convention on Biological Diversity, discovers and tracks ocean biodiversity, and supports marine environmental planning

Lessons Learned From the United States Ocean Observatories Initiative

The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) is a United States National Science Foundation-funded major research facility that provides continuous observations of the ocean and seafloor from coastal and open ocean locations in the Atlantic and Pacific. Multiple cycles of OOI infrastructure deployment, recovery, and refurbishment have occurred since operations began in 2014. This heterogeneous ocean observing infrastructure with multidisciplinary sampling in important but challenging locations has provided new scientific and engineering insights into the operation of a sustained ocean observing system. This paper summarizes the challenges, successes, and failures experienced to date and shares recommendations on best practices that will be of benefit to the global ocean observing community

El censo de la vida marina: objetivos, ámbito y estrategia

The Census of Marine Life aims to assess and explain the changing diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine species from the past to the present, and to project future ocean life. It assembles known historical data back to 1500 in an online Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) and has over 1000 scientists from 70 countries using advanced technologies to quantify and discover unknown life in under-explored ocean realms. Over 99% of the 6 million records now in OBIS are from the top 1000m of the water column, so the mid-waters and floor of the open ocean and the polar ice oceans are special targets. Even where the species are known, their distributions and abundance are largely speculative. This report outlines the strategies of COML projects to efficiently reveal the 95% of the biosphere beneath the waves, from microbes to whales. Open access to the OBIS data set will improve capacity to predict future impacts of climate and human activity. The baseline created by 2010 and the calibrated techniques developed will become important tools for monitoring and managing future ocean ecosystems to maintain their capacity to provide crucial services to our blue planet.El programa denominado Censo de la Vida Marina (Census of Marine Life - COML), tiene por objeto evaluar y explicar la diversidad, distribución y abundancia actual de las especies marinas, considerando también lo acontecido con la biodiversidad en el pasado y proyectándose hacia el futuro. Recopila datos históricos desde 1500 años atrás en un Sistema de Información Biogeográfico Oceánico (Ocean Biogeographic Information System - OBIS) y coordina a más de 1000 investigadores de 70 países, quienes utilizando tecnologías avanzadas cuantifican y descubren la vida desconocida de los dominios oceánicos menos explorados. Actualmente, más del 99% de los 6 millones de registros en el OBIS provienen del 25% de las áreas más someras de los océanos de manera que las aguas intermedias y el fondo del océano abierto, y los océanos congelados, constituyen blancos especiales de estudio para COML. Aun cuando las especies sean conocidas, el conocimiento que se tiene de sus distribuciones y abundancias puede todavía ser muy especulativo. Este informe presenta las estrategias de los proyectos del Programa COML para explorar eficientemente el 95% de la biosfera que yace bajo las olas, desde microorganismos hasta ballenas. El acceso abierto a los datos recogidos en OBIS, perfeccionarán la capacidad de predecir los futuros impactos del clima y de la actividad humana sobre la biodiversidad marina, su distribución y abundancia. La línea de base que se creará hacia el año 2010 y las técnicas calibradas que se desarrollen hacia esa fecha, constituirán importantes herramientas para la vigilancia y la gestión de los ecosistemas marinos para mantener su capacidad de proporcionar servicios cruciales a nuestro planeta azu

Summary of regional activities contributing to the globalization of the Census of Marine Life.

<p>Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Project (POST), Future of Marine Animal Populations (FMAP), Natural Geography in Shore Areas (NaGISA), History of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP), Patterns and Processes of Ecosystems in the Northern Mid-Atlantic (MAR-ECO), Census of Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life (CeDAMar), Biogeography of Deep-Water Chemosynthetic Ecosystems (ChEss), Continental Margin Ecosystems on a Worldwide Scale (COMARGE), Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), Gulf of Maine Area (GoMA), Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP), Census of Marine Zooplankton (CMarZ), Arctic Ocean Diversity (ArcOD), International Census of Marine Microbes (ICoMM), Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts (CenSeam), Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML), Census of Coral Reefs (CReefs), Ocean Tracking Network (OTN), Canadian Healthy Oceans Network (CHONe), European Tracking of Predators in the Atlantic (EUTOPIA), Environmental Modulation of Biodiversity Ecosystem Dynamics (EMBED), Gulf of Mexico Biodiversity (GoMx), Great Barrier Reef Seabed Biodiversity (GBRSB).</p