Revolutionizing ocean data to mitigate climate change, overfishing, and pollution
Channel: OCTO (Open Communications for the Ocean)
Date: 2020-12-01

This webinar originally aired on 1 December 2020.

Presented by: Annie Brett, University of Florida Levin School of Law

Ocean management is often undermined by a lack of data on human activity and on the waters themselves. Pirate fishers plunder the high seas with impunity, knowing they cannot be traced. Crew members on legitimate fishing boats are tortured and even murdered, out of sight. Stocks are overfished because most quotas are set only annually, using last year’s data. New technology platforms are beginning to change this. Data from satellites, autonomous underwater vehicles, and other platforms are coming together with emerging data streams from social media, smartphones, and low-cost distributed sensors to create a ‘data tsunami’. More data were collected on the oceans in 2018 alone than in the entire twentieth century. Ocean data management has not kept pace with this precipitous growth, however, and limits our ability to use this new ocean data to address ocean threats. In this webinar, we will present ways we need to revolutionize the collection, sharing, and accessibility of ocean data to address climate change, overfishing, and pollution.

Co-sponsors: OCTO (EBM Tools Network, The Skimmer, OpenChannels, MPA News, MarineDebris.info)