Latest Skimmer Articles

A bit of big news from us: MEAM is going to be changing its name to The Skimmer on Marine Ecosystems and Management – or The Skimmer, for short – next month. This new name (which in long form still references our old name MEAM) comes with an amazing new logo designed by Larrea Young of Little Knids. What’s not changing? Our focus on bringing you critical insights for the sustainable management and conservation of marine ecosystems.

Why the change you ask? About a year ago, we started experimenting with a new type of feature – “Skimmers” – with the aim of providing a quick synopsis (a “bird’s eye view” if you will) of the latest news and research on a topic. We have covered ocean plastics, climate-related changes in the Arctic, how weather and climate extremes are impacting the ocean, managing ocean ecosystems in a changing climate, what managers should know about ocean bacteria and viruses, and (this month) gender as Skimmer articles, and are now taking this as the name of the publication. Not all of our articles will be in this specific format, although many will be. And in general the new name represents the type of integrative and easily and rapidly digestible information that marine conservation and management practitioners need – and which we’ll continue to provide.

“If we only think of fishing as men in boats pulling nets out of the water, we’re missing half the story. When we only tell half the story we’re in danger of underestimating how many animals are being caught, what types of animals are being caught, and why types of habitats are important for fishing. Not only that, we’re missing how families feed themselves, how they pay for school or health care, or how they share with their neighbors. When we miss half the story we are more likely to make fishing and conservation management decisions that don’t work.”

---- Dr. Danika Kleiber

• New book (available for free) assesses experience with implementing ecosystem approaches in the EU and beyond
• New publication and videos highlight practical ways to communicate EBM
• Responses requested for survey on Ecosystem-based Approach as sustainability tool
• Leading ocean conservationist sees only three major ocean conservation victories for 2018
• Seychelles launches first sovereign blue bond to support sustainable ocean projects
• Proposal to create world’s largest marine sanctuary in Antarctic fails
• Webinar recording provides an overview of significance of recent US elections for US ocean management (another analysis here)
• US federal government shutdown harmful for marine conservation and management
• Modern Fish Act to amend Magnuson Stevens Act approved by US Congress
• US mid-Atlantic regional council moves ahead on partnership activities, including ocean forum in spring
• Errors found in recent ocean warming study, reducing certainty of conclusions
• 75-80 percent chance of a moderate El Niño event forming in coming months
• New study finds Eastern Pacific El Niño events will intensify and become more frequent with global warming
• European Atlas of Marine Life launched
• European Commission and IOC-UNESCO launch MSPGlobal initiative to promote cross-border MSP
• $10bn pledged to protect oceans at Our Ocean Conference
• Sustainable Blue Economy Conference concludes with 62 pledges
• New framework provides guidance for sustainable investments in ocean industries

               Not for us the leviathans, biofouled vessels
entering and departing ports and harbours in hours or days—
               we take our trip on the slow boats: skiffs and buoys, carboys
and a whole fishing dock that arrives one day without sound
               and like a massive skirted table on the surprised Oregon coast.

MEAM has pulled together recent journal articles, reports, MEAM articles, and other resources that provide information about a range of tools for common marine management and conservation tasks. We hope this page will be useful for practitioners getting started with tools research.

Check out the new Tools page.

Climate-related drivers of change – such as ocean warming, acidification, and deoxygenation – will alter ocean conditions and lead to changes in marine ecosystem structure and functioning, as well as the redistribution of the services that the oceans provide (see Figure 1). As a consequence, human uses that rely on these services – fisheries, aquaculture, and tourism for example – will also undergo spatial and temporal changes at multiple scales. These changes will include local increases and decreases in intensity of uses and relocation of uses. Marine spatial planning (MSP) informs the distribution of ocean uses in space and time, and it will undoubtedly be affected by climate change at all scales ranging from global to local.

• World on track to reach 1.5°C warming by 2030-2052
• Morocco and Gambia only countries meeting Paris climate goals
• Oceans may be retaining more heat than previously estimated
• Study assesses potential for ocean-based measures to counter climate change (policy brief also available)
• European Parliament approves ban on single-use plastics
• Plastic creating new habitats and promoting invasibility of the deep sea
• Guidance for addressing land-sea interactions in MSP available
• New policy brief on implementing ecosystem-based approach in MSP available
• New tool provides free access to management-relevant ocean data
• Report compares costs and capabilities of marine monitoring techniques
• New database documents effectiveness of green infrastructure
• Materials for integrated coastal management training course available
• User guide created for EU MSP Platform

Creating a new marine management or conservation plan? You can learn what others have done in the past – build on their research and experiences and avoid making the same mistakes – using the new Conservation Planning Database. The database has just been launched with 163 peer-reviewed papers on 155 marine systematic conservation planning exercises worldwide. The database can help planners find relevant conservation plans from all over the world including their local area, help scientists study trends in conservation planning, and help donors and NGOs identify regions where little conservation planning has been done.

Following the October 2018 article on marine ecosystem restoration, MEAM also had the opportunity to interview Rohani Ambo-Rappe, a lecturer at Hasanuddin University in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. She shared her experiences and advice from her work on seagrass restoration in the region. She can be contacted at rohani.amborappe [at] gmail.com for further information.

Marine ecosystem restoration – such as reconstructing saltmarshes that have been lost to human development, replanting coastal mangrove forests that have been degraded, and enhancing the structural complexity of damaged reefs – is an emerging field that seeks to move ecosystems to healthier states, often with the goal of increasing their ability to provide ecosystem services.