NOAA recently launched a new National Marine Ecosystem Status web portal. This portal shows the status of seven major U.S. marine ecosystems and the nation at a glance. For the first time in one location, it provides easy access to NOAA’s wide range of important coastal and marine ecosystem data.
The Ecosystem Indicator Working Group worked over the past three years to develop this portal. This working group of NOAA’s Research Council is led by Dr. Jason Link, chief ecosystem scientist for NOAA Fisheries. The group reviewed indicators of marine ecosystem conditions that are collected, estimated, monitored, and reported on by NOAA and its partners. This established a standardized suite of indicators that assess the status and trends of seven U.S. marine ecosystems.
“The main objective is to allow the U.S. population to see the performance of their marine ecosystems. It is important to track and communicate this information as U.S. ocean and coastal ecosystems provide food, jobs, security, and well-being to millions of people, and we hope what is provided here does so in an easy-to-access manner. Additionally, on behalf of all our colleagues at NOAA, we wanted to simply provide a venue to showcase all the amazing work that is being done in our organization to understand marine ecosystems, manage them, and expand the blue economy,” said Link.
Track Ecosystem Status Indicators
The portal allows users to track the status and trends of key ecosystem indicators including sea surface temperature to ocean-dependent jobs to billion-dollar weather disasters. The types of indicators range from climatological, physical, biological, to human dimensions. Indicators are presented at the national level and within seven ecosystem regions: Alaska, Hawaii-Pacific Islands, California Current, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, Southeast United States, and Northeast United States.
All of these indicators are interconnected and important to consider together. For example, coastal counties account for 39 percent of the total population, which in turn supports hundreds of thousands of ocean-dependent business establishments. These establishments employ millions of people and pay more than $100 billion in wages annually. Employment in the ocean economy includes recreation, tourism, travel, and seafood industries that are dependent on a healthy marine ecosystem.
One such industry with data accessible on this portal is commercial fishing. Our nation’s fisheries are a critical component of the American Blue Economy and support vibrant and resilient economies in coastal communities. Commercial fishing data can be accessed on this portal. It is represented as commercial landings or the weight of, or revenue from, fish that are caught, brought to shore, processed, and sold for profit. U.S. commercial fisheries are among the world’s largest and most sustainable. They produce seafood, fish meal, vitamin supplements, and a host of other products for both domestic and international consumers. Tracking key indicators via this web portal can provide managers with a more comprehensive picture of the ecosystem and make more informed management decisions.
Highlighting NOAA’s Marine Ecosystem Efforts
A major objective of this web portal is to highlight the large amount of work on marine ecosystems done across NOAA. It also offers users additional resources for deeper dives into more ecosystem information. For example, NOAA’s Integrated Ecosystem Assessment program puts together Ecosystem Status Reports for specific regional management entities and stakeholders, which complements the information on the new web portal.
As a science agency, NOAA monitors, models, and analyzes a wide range of U.S. coastal and marine ecosystem data. Until now it was difficult to find all this information online in one place. This web tool brings together all the resources to access key ecosystem indicator data across NOAA’s missions. It can serve as an entry point for scientists and stakeholders to access some of the data input into those regional Ecosystem Status Reports, Coral Reef reports, or Sanctuary Condition Reports.
Dr. Link hopes that this effort will “Highlight various aspects of the work we do, increase awareness of the status of marine ecosystems—with growing expectations that we will routinely provide these integrated reports on US marine ecosystems—heighten awareness of the full extent of all the data and information that are available, and foster future collaborations and an appreciation for the amazingness of our nation’s marine ecosystems.”
