Joint Statement by UNESCO, NOAA, USGS and the National Park Service to map and understand the diversity of marine life

News > Joint Statement by UNESCO, NOAA, USGS and the National Park Service to map and understand the diversity of marine life

December 8, 2023 - OBISOBIS NOAA US node UNESCO

Miami, 6 December 2023, Ms Audrey Azoulay, the UNESCO Director General, announced a joint collaboration between NOAA, USGS, NPS and OBIS to support activities such as the management of Marine Protected Areas.

DG

With the United States having rejoined UNESCO, we look forward to continued support of the partnership’s commitment to cooperate in ocean science and the observation of marine life, and in particular, the United States, through the work of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS, which also hosts the US OBIS node) aim to further enhance cooperation with UNESCO on the exchange of scientific knowledge, expertise, and best practices in ocean biological observations, in particular through platforms like UNESCO/IOC’s biology and ecosystems portal of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS).

This includes strengthened coordination of advancements and integration of both traditional and emerging technologies, such as environmental DNA, underwater acoustics, imaging, and remote sensing, into the observation system. Joint work will include developing automated data flow pipelines to publish various marine life observations, including coral reef monitoring, animal telemetry, passive acoustics, and eDNA data to OBIS.

Increasing the public availability of records on marine biodiversity, including taxonomy, abundance, and ecological observations will provide more comprehensive characterizations of marine ecosystems necessary for better understanding and management of our natural capital that sustains life on Earth.

The joint statement can be found on the UNESCO website at https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-noaa-and-usgs?hub=701

”UNESCO is eager to engage with the U.S. government and partners who share our vision for a thriving and resilient marine environment. The U.S. is an important partner for UNESCO in advancing the observation of the ocean, its marine life, and its ecology, and in helping nations focus on wise ocean uses for sustainable development.”
Ms Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director General
”Trusted, interoperable marine life information is at the foundation of this partnership, our collective efforts to advance science and stewardship, and ultimately our ability to manage and protect critical living resources for future generations.”
Nicole LeBoeuf, NOAA Assistant Administrator and U.S. Representative to the IOC
"The U.S. Geological Survey conducts integrated science across coastal and marine environments, developing tools and technology, and providing maps, data, and information needed by resource managers and decision makers. The USGS provides this high-quality science in direct support of Everglades National Park, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and we are pleased to be part of this collaboration.”
Dr David Applegate, Director, U.S. Geological Survey
"The U.S. National Park Service looks forward to continuing and expanding our collaboration with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the World Heritage Marine Managers Network and the Worldwide Network of Biosphere Reserves to share best practices and exchange lessons learned in marine science and stewardship. We know we in the National Park Service have much to learn from our fellow marine managers around the world to help us all better protect our marine and coastal sites for current and future generations."
Michael Reynolds, Deputy Director External Affairs U.S. National Park Service
“The U.S. Biosphere Network (USBN) welcomes this collaboration and is committed to share also its expertise within the 28 U.S. Biosphere Reserves and with the World Network of Biosphere Reserves on key issues such as biodiversity conservation, climate change response, sustainable community development, and youth engagement, with policy recommendations for adaptation actions and communication tools for decision makers, managers, researchers and the general public via both UNESCO Portals.”
Jon W. Allan, University of Michigan and Chair of U.S. Biosphere Network Steering Committee

OBIS

UNESCO’s Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) integrates 123 million observations of 180,000 marine species and grows with approximately one million marine species observations per month. Of those, United States based institutions contributed 27 million records (fig. 1). Within U.S. marine waters, OBIS received 1,218 datasets provided by over 140 U.S. institutions, which accounts for 15.7 million records of 34,000 marine species (fig. 2).

Fig1

Figure 1. World map of U.S. data contribution to OBIS: currently 27 million marine species observations are published in OBIS that involved U.S. based institutions, source UNESCO/IOC’s Ocean Biodiversity Information System (https://obis.org)

GOOS BioEco Portal

The Biology and Ecosystems Portal of UNESCO/IOC’s Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) (https://bioeco.goosocean.org) serves as an open access, online platform that the ocean observing community can use to discover information on marine biological and ecosystem observations generated by long-term programmes. The portal holds information on 66 biological monitoring programs in U.S. marine waters (Fig. 1). Ensuring sustained, systematic observation of the biology and ecosystem Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) established by the GOOS Biology and Ecosystem Panel is of particular importance for documenting marine life status and trends, especially when integrated with measures of ocean physics and chemistry. The United States contribution to the Global Ocean Observing System, the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), is an important component of the global UNESCO-IOC effort to develop Essential Ocean Variables. U.S. IOOS regional partners and thematic networks (Animal Telemetry Network, Marine Biodiversity Observation Network) facilitate collection of marine life information as well as permanent data archival at National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and data sharing through OBIS and the GOOS BioEco portal.

Fig2

Figure 2. Map of marine species observations (15.7 million records) in the U.S. EEZ and active long-term biological monitoring programmes (66 programmes) overlapping with the U.S. EEZ, source: UNESCO/IOC’s GOOS BioEco Portal (https://bioeco.goosocean.org), UNESCO/IOC’s Ocean Biodiversity Information System (https://obis.org), Marine Regions (https://marineregions.org).