Origin
Originally a Vancouver Aquarium Coastal Ocean Research Initiative foundation program in partnership with ocean stakeholders
Purpose
The Salish Sea is an internationally shared marine coastal region with highly varied oceanography, topography and biology. Habitats include open Straits, high current channels, numerous gulf islands, fjords, isolated channels, embayments, estuaries and all the related habitats therein. The mix of rural and highly urbanized and industrialized portions result in a complex mixture of stressors and inputs. Because of this, numerous monitoring and regulatory programs in the marine environment are conducted by a variety of regulatory agencies and interest groups. As transparency in these programs becomes more prevalent, the opportunity exists to utilize all of these monitoring efforts to share data, harmonize methodologies and quality control, develop long-term monitoring strategies for the region, and address some important fundamental research questions.
The opportunity
In recent years, key personnel from a variety of monitoring agencies in the USA and Canada have begun to communicate observations, issues, discuss data gaps and possible collaborations in monitoring efforts. However, because most government-based regulatory agencies have specific mandates, jurisdictional and funding limitations, such a collaboration requires the initiative of a non-governmental, independent agency capable of trans-boundary operation and collaboration between all interested parties. The Vancouver Aquarium is a non-profit organization that meets these criteria, with the scientific and logistical expertise in-house to direct and manage such a program.
The resulting program is a trans-boundary cooperative research and monitoring program focused on time-trend analyses of changes in the marine environment and biota of the region due to changing oxygen, pH, carbonate chemistry, contaminant chemistry, nutrients, temperature, freshwater discharge and sedimentation patterns. This project is intended to provide a monitoring, research and data sharing platform for the interpretation of local and global stressors in the Salish Sea region, and to inform stakeholders and regional organizations interested in management of the marine environment.
Background
The Salish Sea is an internationally shared marine coastal region with highly varied oceanography, topography and biology. Habitats include open Straits, high current channels, numerous gulf islands, fjords, isolated channels, embayments, estuaries and all the related habitats therein. The mix of rural and highly urbanized and industrialized portions result in a complex mixture of stressors and inputs. Because of this, numerous monitoring and regulatory programs in the marine environment are conducted by a variety of regulatory agencies and interest groups. As transparency in these programs becomes more prevalent, the opportunity exists to utilize all of these monitoring efforts to share data, harmonize methodologies and quality control, develop long-term monitoring strategies for the region, and address some important fundamental research questions.
In recent years, key personnel from a variety of monitoring agencies in the USA and Canada have begun to communicate observations, issues, discuss data gaps and possible collaborations in monitoring efforts. However, because most government-based regulatory agencies have specific mandates, jurisdictional and funding limitations, such a collaboration requires the initiative of a non-governmental, independent agency capable of trans-boundary operation and collaboration between all interested parties. The Vancouver Aquarium is a non-profit organization that meets these criteria, with the scientific and logistical expertise in-house to direct and manage such a program.
The resulting program is a trans-boundary cooperative research and monitoring program focused on time-trend analyses of changes in the marine environment and biota of the region due to changing oxygen, pH, carbonate chemistry, contaminant chemistry, nutrients, temperature, freshwater discharge and sedimentation patterns. This project is intended to provide a monitoring, research and data sharing platform for the interpretation of local and global stressors in the Salish Sea region, and to inform stakeholders and regional organizations interested in management of the marine environment.
The Ssamex is timely as it follows the completion of a 10-year collaborative baseline research program between DFO/NRCan and Metro Vancouver, focused on fundamental, basin-wide understanding of particulates, organics and contaminant cycling and budgets throughout the Strait of Georgia. One of the ultimate goals of the Strait of Georgia ambient program was to provide a baseline for the development of long-term ambient monitoring, in order to place environmental effects from outfalls and other anthropogenic stressors into context with oceanic shifts (climate) and provide data for predicting critical or tipping points for localized effects. The Strait of Georgia Ambient Monitoring Program provided managers with up-to-date scientific information on the state of local coastal waters, but also highlighted the need to consider the important ‘external’ forces in the wider Salish Sea. In addition, multiple agencies in Canada and the USA have expressed an interest in developing a more integrative, trans-boundary approach to research, monitoring and management related to the Salish Sea. The proposed Salish Sea Ambient Research and Monitoring Program (Ssamex) is a natural and important extension of the Strait of Georgia Ambient Monitoring Program.
In addition, there is currently considerable interest in trans-boundary monitoring and data-sharing, and thus a willingness for a variety of organizations to co-operate in this venture.
Question: How can we best use existing monitoring networks trans-boundary to ensure that scientific research and long-term monitoring deliver meaningful guidance and fill data gaps related to changing background conditions throughout the Salish Sea?
To address this question, the Ssamex will incorporate the following strategies;
1) As much as possible, the program will build upon existing monitoring programs, with common quality control, including cross-training of technical personnel as possible, addition of new measurements and sampling locations to fill spatial gaps, and a rational spatial and temporal schedule for the overall monitoring scheme.
2) A critical component of the project is an on-line data-sharing platform. The data to be included will be selected to reflect the goals and questions of focus for the program, rather than a general data archive (which is being done by other organizations).
3) The Program will house and support specific research initiatives focused on important issues and gaps in understanding expressed by the collaborators
4) A high level analysis and regular reporting of the data collected will be shared among Ssamex participants. Some of these high level data summaries will form the basis of ocean health indices being developed by the Coastal Ocean Research Institute at the Vancouver Aquarium.
5) The program will provide context, data and expertise for the Vancouver Aquarium’s Coastal Monitoring Project (CMP), and the Ocean Pollution Research Program (OPRP), both of which are foundation projects of the BC Coastal Ocean Research Initiative (CORI) of the Vancouver Aquarium.
Organizational structure
The Salish Sea Ambient Research and Monitoring Program is designed to provide a comprehensive background context and data resource for ocean regulators and managers in both the USA and Canada. Within the Vancouver Aquarium, the Ssamex will be a foundation program of the new Coastal Ocean Research Institute (CORI, Vancouver Aquarium). The program was conceived and is being led by Dr Brenda Burd, who has > 35 years of experience in coastal ecology and oceanography on the BC coast, and who initiated and managed the 10-year Strait of Georgia Ambient Monitoring Program. Dr. Burd is a Research Associate at the Vancouver Aquarium, working in collaboration with Dr. Peter Ross (Director, OPRP and CMP) and Dr. Carmen Morales (lead scientist for the CMP).
The role of partners
The Salish Sea Ambient Research and Monitoring Program represents a new initiative hosted at the Vancouver Aquarium, but one that relies upon a network of external partners in both the USA and Canada. The Ssamex will organize and synthesize results of a variety of monitoring programs, by ensuring common, agreed upon approaches to, and quality control rules for sampling and laboratory methodology, selection of target factors for sampling, the sharing of data amongst members. The program will strive for efficient mutual communication and cooperation, regular reporting to members, and efficient dissemination of data. The costs of the monitoring program will be mostly borne by the participating members through enhanced regular monitoring programs, with minor additional input for running the program, the data sharing platform and high-level data analyses. Research initiatives will be conducted on a voluntary basis by appropriate qualified scientists, and will include acknowledgements to the Ssamex and the Vancouver Aquarium in resulting reports and publications.
The program is expected to begin with key participants who are willing and able to contribute substantially to the program in the following ways, and thus will have primary influence on the research and monitoring focus;
a) collecting and analysing monitoring data applicable to the program, for sharing with other participants. Note that following agreed upon protocols and quality control for these data are essential to the collection of data usable to the overall program.
b) providing in-kind monitoring support for the overall ambient program through assistance of other member organization by contributing directed sampling, provision of ship time, field personnel, sample processing and analyses
c) direct monetary support for the program for field collection and laboratory sample processing, program management, data-sharing, technical support and directed research projects applicable to the program.
It is expected that the program will grow over time, incorporating new participants and research initiatives.
The Ssamex is timely as it follows the completion of a 10-year collaborative baseline research program between DFO/NRCan and Metro Vancouver, focused on fundamental, basin-wide understanding of particulates, organics and contaminant cycling and budgets throughout the Strait of Georgia. One of the ultimate goals of the Strait of Georgia ambient program was to provide a baseline for the development of long-term ambient monitoring, in order to place environmental effects from outfalls and other anthropogenic stressors into context with oceanic shifts (climate) and provide data for predicting critical or tipping points for localized effects. The Strait of Georgia Ambient Monitoring Program provided managers with up-to-date scientific information on the state of local coastal waters, but also highlighted the need to consider the important ‘external’ forces in the wider Salish Sea. In addition, multiple agencies in Canada and the USA have expressed an interest in developing a more integrative, trans-boundary approach to research, monitoring and management related to the Salish Sea. The proposed Salish Sea Ambient Monitoring Exchange (Ssamex) is a natural and important extension of the Strait of Georgia Ambient Monitoring Program. In addition, there is currently considerable interest in trans-boundary monitoring and data-sharing, and thus a willingness for a variety of organizations to co-operate in this venture.
The program will provide context, data and expertise for the Vancouver Aquarium’s Coastal Monitoring Project (CMP), and the Ocean Pollution Research Program (OPRP), both of which are foundation projects of the BC Coastal Ocean Research Initiative (CORI) of the Vancouver Aquarium.