“Making our data more readily available could help coastal managers access and use the data in new and innovative ways.” |
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Shannon Lyday, Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association |
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For 16 years, volunteers have collected shoreline data along the central California coast that have proven invaluable not only to resource managers and researchers, but to emergency managers responding to oil spills. Now the data they have collected on wildlife can be quickly and easily queried online.
“Making our data more readily available could help coastal managers access and use the data in new and innovative ways,” says Shannon Lyday, ecosystem monitoring manager for the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association, the nonprofit partner of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. “It will also help focus emergency efforts during oil spills so the most vulnerable wildlife can be protected.”
“Beach Watch Online” is an Internet portal to information on wildlife collected at 41 outer coast beaches in the Gulf of the Farallones and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuaries off San Francisco. Trained Beach Watch volunteers have been collecting data every month since September 1993.
“The program started in response to the threat of oil spills in the sanctuary,” Lyday says. After the Exxon Valdez spilled an estimated 10.8 million gallons of oil in 1989, sanctuary managers realized the importance of collecting baseline data to determine what was normal before a spill.”
Beach Watch volunteers count live birds and marine mammals, document dead vertebrates, record human and dog activities, and collect data on oil and tarball abundance and distribution, vegetation and algae wrack, invertebrates, and stream and lagoon status.
In November 2007, Beach Watch data were provided to emergency managers when the container ship Cosco Busan struck a tower of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and spilled 53,500 gallons of bunker fuel into San Francisco Bay.
“There was a lag time for staff to collect the data and distribute it,” notes Lyday. “That was when we had the idea of an online system that resource managers could use to access data during an emergency event.”
After receiving foundation funding, database programmers were hired to create an online system that allows users to query all 16 years of the Beach Watch data set on live birds and marine mammals, as well as dead vertebrates, which can be filtered and viewed in summaries and graphs.
To view the data, users have to provide their names and e-mail addresses. Since going online in December 2009, more than 200 people have logged on to use the system.
Because the data are quality checked and controlled by the staff, the online data have a lag time of 30 to 60 days, Lyday says. If real-time data are needed—such as in the event of an oil spill—an administrative password can be provided, which grants access to current data.
“We have completed what we’re calling phase one,” Lyday says. “In the future, we will have the entire data set online so people can access all the different types of data that Beach Watch volunteers collect.”
To view Beach Watch Online, go to www.farallones.org and click the Beach Watch Online link in the left-hand column. For more information, you may contact Shannon Lyday at (415) 561-6625, ext. 302, or slyday@farallones.org.
