2023

Summary & Highlights

Members of the NOAA CoastWatch program were joined by scientists and collaborators with particular interests in applications of remote sensing techniques in the Pacific Islands region for the 2023 Annual Science Meeting. Guest participants included representatives for the NOAA Geo-XO program, NMFS and NESDIS colleagues both based in the region and from the mainland US, Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS), academic partners from the University of Hawai’i, and Arizona State University. More than 50 people attended the meeting in person, and about 20 people attended remotely. Two topics that received particular attention at this year’s meeting were the use of satellite data in monitoring coral reef communities, and in dynamic ocean management of commercial fisheries, particularly in the Pacific. Participants also engaged in discussions concerning the use of hyperspectral ocean color products offered by NOAA’s future geostationary satellites (OCX sensor aboard GeoXO). The OWCP hosts organized two excursions for meeting participants, and these were universally viewed as highlights of the meeting.

The Pacific Islands region ecompasses an expansive area with resource management issues that range from fine spatial scales (e.g., resolving water quality in nearshore coral reef habitats) to variability on basin scales (e.g., providing information about the location of major frontal features that can help commercial longliners avoid interactions with protected species), and the Annual Meeting allowed discussion of the challenges facing the region on both of these scales. The influence of urban development on coral reefs, strategies for retrieving satellite data from nearshore regions, and the ecological and socioeconomic implications of using satellite data to provide information to the fishing industry are issues of particular importance which received attention. The regional emphasis that was allowed by hosting the meeting in Honolulu will help to advance Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management in the Pacific Islands region.

Thanks to NOAA/NMFS/PIFSC for support and to CIMAR at the University of Hawai’i for the meeting venue and logistics.

Key Takeaways

• The Pacific Region is expansive and diverse. Satellite observations
  are a necessary tool for understanding, monitoring and managing
  these marine resources.
• Product needs include: eddies, currents, mixed layer depth,
  marine heatwave, ocean heat content, satellite assimilative
  products (model results), shallow-water masked products,
  consistently-processed, sensor-agnostic time series for trends and
  anomalies.
• The CoastWatch Applications Team was introduced.
  Collaborations across Nodes and Applications Team
  members are already occurring.
• Bridging the gap between users and satellite data remains
  challenging. CoastWatch people remain essential for this
  mission.

Monday, May 22

• Opening remarks
  Ryan Rykaczewski | OWCP Node Manager;
  Tia Brown | Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) Director
• Using satellites for supporting hurricane, Sargassum, and marine biodiversity research
  Joaquin Trinanes, Gustavo Goni | Atlantic OceanWatch Node Managers
• Establishing time-series products, tools, and stakeholder engagement to support fisheries and estuarine management
  Shelly Tomlinson, Ron Vogel | East Coast Node Managers
• Transition of a historical surface temperature product to the Great Lakes
  Andrea VanderWoude, Songzhi Liu | Great Lakes Node Managers
• Water Node introduction
  Dylan Lee | Water Node Operations Manager
• Primary productivity: an epic story in the tradition of CoastWatch heroic legends
  Cara Wilson, Dale Robinson | West Coast Node Managers
• When stars aligned on the Poles
  Sunny Bak-Hospital | PolarWatch Node Operations Manager
• Carrying the torch and new horizons
  Ryan Rykaczewski, Daisy Shi | OWCP Node Managers

• Water quality/quantity & climate
  Seunghyun Son | CoastWatch Applications Research Scientist

   

Tuesday, May 23

• Visit to Honolulu Fish Auction
• Skimming the surface
  Michael Soracco, Peter Hollemans | CoastWatch Central
• An essential list of ingredients for making the perfect Fisheries management cupcakes
  Ryan Vandermeulen | NMFS Satellite Coordinator
• Satellite data applications for ecologists end-users: A case study of what drives coral reef calcifier abundance in US tropical Pacific reefs
  Brittany Huntington | PIFSC
• Dynamic oceans and dynamic ecosystems
  Elliott Hazen | Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC)
• A brief history of the NMFS TurtleWatch product
  Evan Howell | NMFS Office of Science and Technology Director
• Using earth observations to understand protected species interaction in the Pacific Islands region
  Robert Ahrens | PIFSC
• Environmental Data Summary (EDS): A tool to enhance in situ data with temporally summarized environmental variables
  Juliette Verstaen | PIFSC
• Long-term trends in marine heat across the Pacific Islands region revealed by reconstructed SST; Satellite data highlights the importance of mesoscale oceanography to pelagic communities
  Jessica Perelman | PIFSC

Wednesday, May 24

• Data use in the Pacific Islands region and efforts to support harmonization of product development
  John Marra | NESDIS; Jim Potemra | PacIOOS
• Opportunities for collaboration: Sanctuary condition reports
  Danielle Schwarzmann | Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS)
• NOAA’s Next-Gen GEO Satellite System and its Ocean Color Instrument
  Pam Sullivan | NESDIS

Thursday, May 25

• Global coral reef monitoring using the Allen Coral Atlas
  Greg Asner | Arizona State University (ASU)
• A new approach to monitor global shallow coastal water turbidity through satellite imagery
  Jiwei Li | ASU
• International user feedback and requests
  Emily Smail | GEO Blue Planet
• Three decades of providing decision support tools for coral reef management in a warming world
  Derek Manzello | Coral Reef Watch
• PacIOOS data services and potential synergies with CoastWatch and NMFS
  Jordan Watson | PacIOOS
• Environmental Drivers of Shark-Human Interactions in Hawai’i
  Juliana Zolopa | University of Hawai’i
• Closing remarks
  Veronica Lance | CoastWatch Program Manager