- Online Seminar:  Marine Spatial Planning

Marine Ecosystems and Management (MEAM) and the Ecosystem Based Management Tools group will co-host a live global webinar on Tuesday, 17 November 2009 (1:30 pm US EST), to explore marine spatial planning.  Speakers are Charles (Bud) Ehler and Fanny Douvere of UNESCO, co-authors of the new guidebook "Marine Spatial Planning: A Step-by-Step Approach toward Ecosystem-Based Management".  For more information (including how to register and submit questions for the speakers), please visit http://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/837707984.

- Funding Opportunity: The National Map: Imagery and Elevation Maps Under ARRA (USGS)

The USGS seeks to award American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for the collection and processing of high resolution elevation data and orthoimagery. The data collected under this announcement will become available to the public through The National Map. Priorities for the program include collecting elevation data over those coastal areas of United States most susceptible to storm and hurricane flooding, earthquake damage, and coastal erosion and also increasing coverage and availability of leaf-off high resolution orthoimagery. Code: USGS 10HQPA0014; ATN: ARRA-NM0004.   Deadline: December 1, 2009 http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId= 50002

- Funding Opportunity: Bring Back the Natives - Aquatic Species (NFWF)

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, USDA Forest Service, and Trout Unlimited, requests pre-proposals from nonprofit organizations, universities, native American tribes, and local, state, and federal agencies interested in restoring, protecting, and enhancing native populations of sensitive or listed aquatic species, especially on lands on or adjacent to federal agency lands. This funding suggests a $2 non-federal match for each federal dollar requested by applicants. Preproposal Deadline (required): December 1, 2009. Full Proposal Deadline (by invitation): February 1, 2010. http://www.nfwf.org/

- Call for Conference Abstracts: Southeast Estuarine Research Society -and- Benthic Ecology Meeting

The SEERS meeting in the Spring of 2010 will be a joint meeting with the Benthic Ecology Meeting folks and will take place at Wilmington, NC to be held 10-13 March 2010 on the beautiful campus of UNC Wilmington! The BEM website provides some more details: http://www.benthicecologymeeting2010.org/  Registration and call for abstracts begins 6 November ('09) and ends 15 January ('10) .

- New document from the Joint Ocean Commission, April 2009

Visitors to this website may be interested in some documents just posted by the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative. Quoting from their website, "The Joint Ocean Commission Initiative has released an urgent set of recommendations, Changing Oceans, Changing World: Ocean Priorities for the Obama Administration and Congress. Building on a previous Joint Initiative report released in fall 2008, Changing Oceans, Changing World outlines twenty priority actions needed for improving ocean and coastal policy and management, bolstering international leadership, strengthening ocean science, and funding ocean and coastal policies and programs. The actions respond to critical challenges, including climate change and its impacts, development of a comprehensive energy policy that includes ocean-based energy resources, and stimulation of the national economy, a significant portion of which is dependent on ocean and coastal activities and resources." To see the recommendations and other documents, please visit http://www.jointoceancommission.org/

- Project of Interest: Southeast Coastal Water Quality Monitoring Metadata Project

The National Park Service identified a need to compile information on long-term monitoring of water quality in southeast coastal waters. The GCRC is working with many agency partners to create a meta-database of water quality program information. This project is nearing completion. Read the project overview, or visit the database website.

You may also be interested in some of the announcements on the homepage of our partner organization, the Georgia Coastal Research Council.

If you have an item of interest to the group, please submit it to us at gcrc@uga.edu