Coastal Services Center

With their focus on the nearshore and estuarine environments, some coastal resource managers remain unsure of how the multitude of data collected far offshore by national and regional ocean observing systems will help them do their jobs. A national pilot program in the Gulf of Maine is working to bring usable data to all those who need it, including the region's coastal resource managers.

The Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System, or GoMOOS, is a "user-driven organization," says Josie Quintrell, director of policy and planning at GoMOOS.

Coastal management needs will be addressed, she says, because numerous representatives from the region's coastal zone programs and National Estuarine Research Reserves are engaged in the organization's membership and serve on its board of directors. As a result, "they have a say in what we do and how we do it."

GoMOOS efforts to address coastal management needs include recently placing information-gathering buoys in nearshore waters and working to integrate related data from numerous sources, putting that data into a relevant context for coastal managers.

Those interviewed for this article agree that coastal manager involvement in GoMOOS and other regional observing systems is critical to get resource management needs on the table. There also is consensus that patience on the part of coastal managers is required because of the sheer number of potential users with differing needs, and the difficulty in harnessing rapidly developing technology.

"I think a leap of faith is needed that it will be useful to us," says Susan Snow-Cotter, director of Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management. "I am hopeful and have already seen some indirect benefits."

Measure by Measure

In 2001, GoMOOS deployed 10 buoys in the Gulf of Maine, which includes the shorelines of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, as well as several Canadian provinces, to track information above and below the ocean surface.

Measurements at the surface include wind, waves, temperature, and fog. Below the surface, GoMOOS provides hourly measurements of currents, temperature, salinity, color, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, and more. Satellites produce images showing ocean temperature, color, and surface winds, and these images help fill the gaps between buoys.

Much of the collected data are available real-time on the GoMOOS Web site, www.gomoos.org. Users who tapped into this initial stage of data distribution include mariners, commercial fishermen, and recreational boaters. Harbor pilots, Quintrell points out, are using GoMOOS data to help oil tankers navigate through productive lobstering areas.

Uses of GoMOOS data, which Snow-Cotter notes have assisted coastal managers, include a buoy that allows the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority to monitor water quality upstream of the Boston sewage outfall that pumps effluent into Massachusetts Bay. This monitoring is important to protect communities along neighboring Cape Cod Bay and endangered marine mammals in the adjacent Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.

The aquaculture industry also uses GoMOOS data for choosing aquaculture sites, monitoring ocean conditions, and evaluating the environmental impact of its activities.

Meeting Broader Needs

While these early uses of the data are important, the goal of GoMOOS, notes Quintrell, "has always been to provide a wide variety of users with data to aid in decision making, problem solving, and research efforts." To meet this goal, GoMOOS conducted a series of user needs assessments, and staff members have worked to ensure that all potential users of the data are involved in the nonprofit's membership and board of directors.

In addition to coastal managers, GoMOOS users include commercial mariners, scientists, educators, search and rescue teams, emergency response teams, and public health officials.

"What we learned from the dialogue with coastal managers is that there is a real need for dynamic, rapid data exchange," Quintrell says. "Not just getting out data on a real-time basis, but also integrating that data with other data sets into information products people can use."

For example, Snow-Cotter says, her agency would find ocean observing data coupled with seafloor mapping useful. "Anything that helps put the biological and physical data into context."

GoMOOS is working to become a clearinghouse for related data collected by other organizations that could be merged with GoMOOS data and converted into useful information, such as through modeling or predictive warning systems.

An illustration of this would be the ability to "alert managers that conditions are ripe for a harmful algal bloom," Quintrell says. "The future of ocean observing really lies in getting out the data in a predictive capacity."

This initiative to develop the Gulf of Maine Ocean Data Partnership will "hugely benefit us," says Snow-Cotter. "They are breaking down the walls on how different organizations in the region store and distribute data."

Closer to Shore

While benefits have been seen, one of the common concerns expressed about ocean observing is that the data buoys are too far offshore to meet coastal management needs.

"Many coastal resource managers are just that—coastal," says Brian Smith, research coordinator for Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) in New Hampshire. "More of their issues are nearshore and estuarine oriented."

GoMOOS is taking the first steps toward pushing the "observation community into shallower water," Smith says. Inshore buoys are being placed in Casco Bay, Maine, and near an existing NERR monitoring station in Great Bay.

"This will be the real test of how ocean observing can be of help to coastal managers," says Quintrell.

Giving Voice

The focus on creating useful data and putting it into a context to meet coastal manager and other user needs has been key to GoMOOS' success thus far, says Quintrell.

"Since it's a growing and evolving system, it's important for managers to work with us to make sure it is addressing their needs," Quintrell says. "The best way for managers to get involved is to talk one-on-one with the regional observing systems in their areas and keep that dialogue going."

Snow-Cotter agrees. "I think it's critical for coastal managers to be involved and have a voice in directing these efforts. This is a NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] priority. These systems provide a great deal of data, and if coastal managers are not involved, there will be a tendency for data collection to go other ways."

She adds, "It's our job to remind folks of the nearshore applications. This stretches them [ocean observing systems], and I understand they can't serve everybody's needs, but the coast and nearshore environment are where the people are, and it's the people who are paying for these buoy systems. That's an obvious connection that needs to be made."

To download data from the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System, point your browser to www.gomoos.org. You may contact Josie Quintrell at (207) 773-0423, or josie@gomoos.org. For the coastal resource management perspective, contact Susan Snow-Cotter at (617) 626-1202, or susan.snow-cotter@state.ma.us, and Brian Smith at (603) 868-1095, or bsmith@nhfgd.org. For more information on efforts to develop plans for a nationwide coastal ocean observing system, go to www.nopp.org and www.ocean.us.