The GoMOSES Conference is happy to host the following workshops as part of the program. Most workshops require an RSVP; please contact the organizers as instructed in each description.
Please note: Workshop attendance is covered as part of the conference registration. If you are only attending a workshop and not remaining for the conference, there is a one-day registration fee of $75.
Oil Spill Preparedness and Response Workshop: Tradeoff Decisions in the Gulf of Mexico
Stakeholder Engagement to Identify Monitoring and Adaptive Management Data Needs for the Deepwater Horizon NRDA Open Ocean TIG’s Restoration Program
Framing Indicators for an Ecosystem Assessment of Barataria Basin, LA
Responding to Future Deep Water Oil Spills in the Gulf of Mexico
An Introduction to the Environmental Unit’s Role and Responsibilities During an Oil Spill
How to Use Social Media to Meet Your Goals
GRIIDC Training Workshops
There is still limited space available for Monday workshops. If you are interested in organizing a workshop, please contact the conference planners.
Oil Spill Preparedness and Response Workshop: Tradeoff Decisions in the Gulf of MexicoMonday, February 4, 7:30 AM - 5:30 PMCelestin HOrganized by Coastal Waters Consortium
US regional policies were developed in the 1990s following the Ixtoc I blowout in the Gulf of Mexico (3 June 1979 – 23 March 1980), the Exxon Valdez oil spill (March 24, 1989), the passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90), and the 1994 update of the US National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP). The NCP requires the development of regional policies about the use of dispersants, other chemicals and in-situ burning. In many regional policies, dispersant use was authorized as a viable response option to mitigate the impacts of oil on vulnerable/sensitive/productive coastal environments (especially marshes) and water surface wildlife (especially birds), when applied in open waters with good circulation and potential for rapid dispersed oil dilution, e.g., > 3 miles from shore and > 30 feet.
The goal of this workshop is to begin a conversation between GOMRI researchers and their user community, i.e., oil spill planners and responders, about applying past and recent scientific findings to produce shared knowledge that will help inform tradeoff decisions during oil spill planning and response in the Gulf of Mexico. The scenario will involve a blowout that threatens the coast, with choices about response options that include dispersant use.
Participants will be able to hear decision makers from the Region 6 Regional Response Team consider dispersant use for a blowout scenario. Participation is by invitation, but if interested please contact Ann Hayward Walker.
Stakeholder Engagement to Identify Monitoring and Adaptive Management Data Needs for the Deepwater Horizon NRDA Open Ocean TIG’s Restoration ProgramMonday, February 4, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PMCelestin AOrganized by the NRDA Open Ocean TIG
The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group (TIG) is seeking input from stakeholders on the identification and prioritization of information needed to facilitate restoration for injured resources within the Open Ocean TIG. This workshop will include an overview of the Open Ocean TIG’s restoration goals, current restoration priorities, and potential approaches for evaluating Open Ocean TIG restoration outcomes. Participants will be asked to provide input on the data needed to best inform planning, implementation, and evaluation of Open Ocean TIG restoration activities for fish and water column invertebrates, mesophotic and deep benthic communities, sea turtles, marine mammals, birds, and sturgeon injured by the DWH Oil Spill, as well as data needed to inform restoration at the ecosystem level.
More information and a draft agenda are available here. Seating for this workshop is limited. Please RSVP at the Eventbrite link by January 21 if you would like to attend.
Framing Indicators for an Ecosystem Assessment of Barataria Basin, LAMonday, February 4, 1:00 PM – 5:00 PMCelestin EOrganized by Shannon Martin and Suzana Blake, University of Miami, and Rebecca Allee, NOAA
Many of the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystems have undergone significant degradation (from both man-made and natural disturbances) with negative impacts on natural resources and human wellbeing. Therefore, ecosystem-level restoration is a necessary component of management and sustainable development programs to ensure that the livelihoods of Gulf communities depending on these degraded ecosystems can be sustained and improved. Given the large investments in ecosystem restoration expected over the next 20+ years through Deepwater Horizon-funded programs, there is a need to explore ways to evaluate the outcomes of restoration at the ecosystem scale. Integrated Ecosystem Assessments provide a potential framework to assess holistic ecosystem status relative to management or restoration objectives, assess the socio-ecological trade-offs associated with management scenarios, and inform evaluations for adaptive management in complex systems, such as those in the Gulf of Mexico.
NOAA's Gulf of Mexico Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) team will be holding a half day workshop that will target Natural Resource Managers in Southeast Louisiana (particularly Barataria Basin). As part of a project to inform management decisions regarding the planned Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion (MBSD) at Myrtle Grove, LA, we will be rolling out our suite of biophysical, ecological, and human dimension indicators to exhibit the status and trends in Barataria Basin. We will be asking for the managers' feedback on how best/most effectively present these indicators in a product (Barataria Basin Ecosystem Status Report) they will be more likely to use.
Please RSVP with the organizers to attend.
Responding to Future Deep Water Oil Spills in the Gulf of Mexico Monday, February 4, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PMCelestin BOrganized by C-IMAGE
Research stemming from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill has resulted in a considerable body of work specific to ambient conditions at that 1,500 m deep site in the northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Should another mega-blowout occur in the GoM, it surely will occur at sites deeper and more remote to the coast, as the industry has moved to well locations in depths approaching 3,000 m. Data mined from the BOEM website is used to forecast how exploration and production has and will evolve over time. Using simulations of deep blowout scenarios combined with accumulated information on realistic processes extant at various sites as well as resources potentially at risk, this session considers how future scenarios may differ from DWH. The DWH scenario resulted in a considerable quantity of oil reaching the bottom as a result of marine oil snow aggregation processes. Will the conditions required for such a scenario be achieved farther offshore and away from riverine sources of clay particles and in areas of lower primary productivity? How will future spills impact the exclusive economic zones of the three Gulf countries? In particular, the use of mitigation measures such as traditional clean up technologies (booming, straining, controlled burns, surface-applied dispersants, and mitigation measures novel to DWH (SSDI, berming, freshwater releases) will be considered. This workshop will also highlight the relative environmental sensitivity of offshore Gulf regions, critical information gaps, and policy implications of offshore spill scenarios.
View the agenda here.
An Introduction to the Environmental Unit’s Role and Responsibilities During an Oil SpillMonday, February 4, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PMImperial 7Organized by OBG
The Environmental Unit (EU) is established within hours of a spill and is responsible for all environmental issues during the response. This course aims to educate participants on what the EU does and does not do. One of the primary roles of the EU is to minimize inadvertent damage from response activities to natural and cultural resources. During the MC252 response, this minimization was accomplished via the Natural Resource Advisor (NRA) program. The NRA program was managed by the organizers of this course and will be discussed thoroughly during this workshop. Additional EU responsibilities include identifying resources at risk; managing the Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) program; managing waste streams; and coordinating internal and external environmental stakeholder issues as they pertain to response activities. The main function that the EU does not perform is to assess injury or damage from the release. This is addressed via the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process. The workshop will provide an overview of the NRDA process, as well as, discuss areas of overlap between response activities and NRDA. This is a discussion-based, 4-hour workshop taught by experienced spill response consultants who have worked on the MC 252 Deepwater Horizon; Texas City Y; LaPorte, TX MTBE release; and Bay Long responses in the Gulf recently and many other spills.
To attend, please RSVP with the workshop organizers.
How to Use Social Media to Meet Your GoalsWednesday, February 6, 12:15 PM - 1:15 PMCelestin GOrganized by Virginia Schutte, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium
Many scientists feel that they ‘should’ be on social media to tell ‘the public’ about their work. But social media is simply one of many communications tools available for scientists to fulfill their goals. This is not a standard introductory social media workshop. There are many blog posts and how-to advice articles already online that instruct beginners on the technical aspects of using social media. This workshop will talk attendees through goal-setting exercises and demonstrate, with real examples, how any social media network is a Swiss Army knife that can be used to fulfill a variety of needs. Participants will leave with a written profile of themselves and an action plan for how they will use social media to meet their goals, including how to successfully use social media if they want to spend no time on the network at all.
Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) Data Management Training Workshops
Workshops will be held during breaks to allow attendees to participate in scientific sessions. Workshops will be approximately 25 minutes long and held in Imperial 9 on the 4th floor.
Organizing Data – Best Practices and GRIIDC SubmissionTuesday, February 5, 10:00 AMWednesday, February 6, 3:30 PM
The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) is a leading resource for researchers to manage and share data about the Gulf of Mexico. Proper data management during the course of a project can facilitate data sharing through GRIIDC or a national data archive. If data are not properly managed, they may be lost or improperly documented, preventing the researcher from sharing and getting credit for work completed. This workshop will provide information about data management best practices.
Submitting Cruise Data to GRIIDCTuesday, February 5, 3:30 PMWednesday, February 6, 10:00 AM
The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information & Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) submits data generated from research cruises to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) for long-term archival. NCEI requires data be submitted with specific documentation and file structure. This workshop will provide information about the types of cruise data to submit to GRIIDC, supporting documentation that is required, and the file structure required for data submission to GRIIDC.
Submitting a Dataset to GRIIDCWednesday, February 6, 8:00 AMThursday, February 7, 10:00 AM
The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) operates a data management system that stores datasets and related information collected and generated by Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) funded researchers. Datasets are submitted to the GRIIDC data management system directly or by providing a link to the dataset if housed at a National Data Archive. Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are automatically assigned when a dataset is submitted to GRIIDC. This workshop will demonstrate how to submit data to GRIIDC and obtain a DOI for the dataset.