West Coast Regional Planning Body Recommendations – March 3, 2016

Greetings West Coast Ocean Data Network, Spring is almost here (though El nino might have something left to say about that!) and with that we have some important announcements to share with you. West Coast Regional Planning Body As the West Coast Regional Planning Body (RPB)  finalizes it’s governance charter, the WCODP has been exploring opportunities to support regional and sub-regional marine planning. To better inform our work, the WCODP developed a set of draft recommendations regarding WCODP and WCODN roles, priority data gaps, and priority data Continue reading →

[Working Groups] Outreach Monthly Call – Oct. 29, 2015

The Outreach Working Group met today to discuss upcoming funded work, outreach materials for sub-regional RPB meetings, and the role of the WCODP in supporting regional and sub regional marine planning activities (see below). You can read the full call notes here.  For the role discussion, the working group members focused on setting some examples of how we could support marine planning in the region. These included highlighting roles of our Network as well as those of our Infrastructure. As we learn more about the identification of Continue reading →

[Working Groups] Monthly IT Call – Oct. 23, 2015

The IT Working Group met today and developed a game plan for addressing recently funded work to scope technical steps for connecting to relevant data catalogs on the West Coast. Additionally, we discussed some techical work being conducted to connect to Data.gov and a British Columbia data catalog. You can read the full call notes here. As part of our next round of work, we will be scoping steps for connecting to priority data collections and catalogs. If you have input on catalogs we should connect Continue reading →

[Working Groups] Monthly Data Call – Oct. 22, 2015

The Data Working Group met today to discuss our recent Moore Grant aimed at developing data sets to support the Regional Planning Body. The first steps of which are refining our West Coast data priorities list (see action item below). Additionally, we updated the group on our data publication schedule and recent additions to the WCODP data catalog. You can read the full call notes here.  If you have interest in helping us refine our data priorities list, please follow the link below to contribute knowledge Continue reading →

[Data Working Group] Monthly Call June 4, 2015

The Data Working Group had their monthly call yesterday to discuss current data development activities of the Network. We got some great feedback on the closed and restricted fishery areas, kelp, and littoral cell data being developed by SoundGIS that will greatly increase the value of these data products. You can read the full call notes here.  If you are interested in participating on this exciting work group, please contact todd.r.hallenbeck@westcoastoceans.org for more information.

[Working Groups] Data Call Jan. 22, 2015

The Data Working Group met and discussed resources for our Data Development project and provided some definitions around “Authoritative Data” for the West Coast Ocean Data Portal. You can read the full call notes here.  Data Development Project – We discussed the data priorities that will be addressed through upcoming funded work (Proposal Solicitation out now!) Data priorities include regional products related to closed and restricted areas, kelp extent and distribution, and littoral cells. If you have resources to contribute to these priority themes please add Continue reading →

[Working Groups] IT Call – Jan 9, 2015

The IT Working Group met today and discussed priority Portal enhancements as well as platforms for sharing technical resources and best practices. The User Feedback Surveys were used to develop our prioritized list. These recommendations will be used to make improvements to the Portal and make training materials available to the Network within the next couple months. You can read the full call notes here. Priority Portal Enhancements: Catalog Implementing link type filtering in UI Improving Portal display of ISO-2 records Improvements to the Categories hierarchy Continue reading →

[Working Groups] Data Monthly Call – Dec. 18, 2014

The Data Working Group met yesterday and was able to identify workplan tasks that emerged from the Network meeting, prioritize data layers for development from our BOEM funding and identified the EFH synthesis layers that we want to start ingesting in our Portal (further detail below). You can read the full call notes here. Data Development Priorities (to be investigated for further development at a regional scale) Closed area inventory (broken out by sector, restriction type, and/or seasonality) Kelp Distribution (by species) Littoral Cells Essentidal Fish Continue reading →

[Working Groups] Outreach Call Dec. 17, 2014

The Outreach Working Group met on Wednesday to identify workplan tasks that emerged at the Network meeting, finalize the Data Viewer launch announcement, discuss messaging for the Ocean Summit, and identify outreach opportunities within the marine debris community. You can read full call notes here. For those off you who were unable to join, please review the notes and let me know if you have any feedback on the ocean summit messaging or the marine debris community outreach. If you have not already, please register with Continue reading →

[News and Events] Happy holidays from the West Coast Ocean Data Network

Hello West Coast Ocean Data Network, I hope everyone is staying safe and warm as storms batter our coast! As we wrap up the year there are a lot of accomplishments that we can look back on. From the amazing oceanographic data products created by our Sea Grant Fellow Laura Lilly, to our Network meeting in November, and the launch of the data visualization tools now in the Portal – it has been a big year for the West Coast Ocean Data Network and that Continue reading →