SEA 



SCIENCE 



placement of nets. State and federal regulators 

 also will review the data and conclusions, as 

 will interest groups weighing in on proposed 

 regulations. 



The data also has global impacts as it is 

 added to a digital archive of the location and 

 movement of sea turtles, marine mammals and 

 seabirds around the world. Known as "Spatial 

 Ecological Analysis of Megavertebrate Animal 

 Populations," or SEAMAP, the project is based at 



the Duke Marine Lab and is funded by the Sloan 

 Foundation and the National Oceanographic 

 Partnership Program. 



SEAMAP is one component of an 

 Internet data-sharing network called the Ocean 

 Biogeographic Information System, or OBIS. In 

 turn, OBIS is part of an even larger international 

 Census of Marine Life project to track, collect and 

 analyze information about all living sea animals. 



OBIS studies highlighted in the AAAS 



presentations included studies of porpoise 

 and albatross movements, as well as Stanford 

 University studies of giant bluefin tuna in the 

 Pacific and the Tag-A-Giant tuna study in 

 Atlantic waters off North Carolina. 



One challenge is to bring together 

 researchers from various disciplines. "You have 

 an operational oceanography community that's 

 developing a lot of satellite remote sensing 

 data and models," says Patrick Halpin, a Duke 

 researcher working on SEAMAP. 



"We have to take a gigantic body of data 

 developed from the physical scientists and 

 communicate that to the biological scientists," 

 explains Halpin, who focuses on geospatial 

 technologies, such as geographic information 

 systems (GIS) and satellite remote sensing. 



The team must encourage separate 

 communities of oceanographers and marine 

 biologists to collect information in forms that 

 are compatible for analysis and display. "By 

 developing common analysis methods and 

 seamless data sharing techniques, we hope to 

 help maximize the utility of existing ocean data 

 collection for better scientific understanding and 

 more effective ocean resource management," 

 Halpin says. 



For example, computer tools to track tagged 

 sea animals should be able to provide appropriate 

 data frequency and resolution so that physical 

 scientists can use the satellite information to 

 follow how currents flow and sea temperatures 

 change. Such correlations are important because 

 sea temperatures and currents may strongly 

 influence where animals move in the open water. 



Another challenge is convincing scientists, 

 who traditionally work alone, that this new way 

 of doing research requires more cooperative 

 interaction. Read says. 



"Some people are enthusiastic and willing 

 to share their data. Some are less enthusiastic, but 

 once we persuade them, they are willing to share 

 their data," he explains. 



"Some people are waiting to see how the 

 whole project works out before they commit to 

 anything. And there are some who don't buy the 

 entire approach and want to maintain a single 

 investigator way of working," Read says. 



"Our argument is that won't work any more 

 because the scales at which we're working are too 

 large." G 



COASTWATCH 25 



