Webinar:Â Plastics or Planet? Moving Beyond Plastics
Presented by:Â Judith Enck of Beyond Plastics
Date/Time:Â Thursday, June 4, 1 pm US EDT/10 am US PDT/5 pm UTC
Description: This webinar will explore the environmental, economic, and health implications of plastic production, use, and disposal. Judith Enck of Beyond Plastics will discuss: 1) the nexus of climate change and plastic production and why we can’t recycle our way out of the problem, 2) the potential impacts of the plastics industry’s plans to double production and how the marine debris community can respond to this challenge, 3) the latest plastic reduction laws that are being adopted by local and state governments, and 4) the new federal bill the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act.
Co-sponsors:Â OCTO (MarineDebris.info, OpenChannels, The Skimmer, MPA News, EBM Tools Network)
Register:Â https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-tb3QBx7TJi9rCik7w4aJg
Webinar: Virtual Ecosystem Scenario Viewer (VES-V): A new tool for visualizing marine ecosystem models
Presented by: Isaac Kaplan and Howard Townsend of NOAA
Date/Time:Â Tuesday, June 16, 2 pm US EDT/11 am US PDT/6 pm UTC
Description:Â Ecosystem models can help explore the tradeoffs inherent in natural resource management decisions. However, the complexity that makes the models robust can also limit the ability of many audiences to understand and use the information provided. A new tool Virtual Ecosystem Scenario Viewer (VES-V) helps to address this problem by illustrating the responses of virtual marine ecosystems to a range of living marine resource management scenarios. These visualizations can help diverse audiences see the potential for applying models in their own marine resource management work and can help facilitate stakeholder engagement and input when exploring future tradeoff scenarios in marine resources management decision making. VES-V is designed to handle a wide range of model outputs and data. This webinar will provide an overview of VES-V and provide a forum for discussing a variety of applications for the tool.
Co-sponsors:Â OCTO (EBM Tools Network, The Skimmer, OpenChannels, MPA News, MarineDebris.info)
Register:Â https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/706251909624964109
Webinar:Â Investigate Your Ocean Neighborhood with OceanReports
Presented by: Christine Taylor of BOEM
Date/Time:Â Tuesday, July 28, 1 pm US EDT/10 am US PDT/5 pm UTC
Description: Understanding ocean areas is critical for natural resource management, offshore energy planning, navigation planning, and aquaculture siting as well as many other applications. OceanReports is a publicly available web-based application that allows users to select an Area-of-Interest (AOI) anywhere in the US Exclusive Economic Zone and instantly obtain over 70 unique infographics with analyses of the location. Infographics include the area’s energy and minerals, natural resources, transportation, infrastructure, oceanographic and biophysical conditions, and contribution to the local ocean economy. OceanReports allow users to explore pertinent ocean data through interactive pop-ups and visualizations, toggle map displays of each layer, share results by web link, and print custom reports to inform various permitting processes. Metadata, data download, background information, and the analysis rule-sets are also available. In this webinar, the tool will be explained and demonstrated with a question and answer period to follow. Use the tool at https://marinecadastre.gov/oceanreports.
Co-sponsors:Â OCTO (EBM Tools Network, The Skimmer, OpenChannels, MPA News, MarineDebris.info)
Register:Â https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KRWegXOcREKSKlgQSy4LZA