ProtectedSeas

04/01/2025

02/13/2025

A month from today, ProtectedSeas Director Virgil Zetterlind and Director of the Ocean Program for The Anthropocene Institute and Co-Founder of Marine Monitor Brendan Tougher will speak at The Economist Impact World Ocean Summit & Expo on March 12-13 in Tokyo, Japan.

Brendan will be speaking at a “How to” session titled: ”How to measure effectiveness in marine protected areas.” Participants of this session will explore effective MPA management strategies, measurement methods, and the role of indigenous knowledge in driving impactful conservation.

Joining Brendan in the "How to" session:
▪️Moderator: James Griffin, NSW Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change, Australia
▪️Chris Wilcox, Senior Director, WildAid
▪️Paolo Roberto Domondon, Chief Program and Policy Officer, Global Fishing Watch
▪️Kimberly Mathisen, Chief Executive, HUB Ocean
▪️Muhammad Ilman, Director, Indonesia Oceans Program, The Nature Conservancy

Virgil will be part of a panel discussion on the 30x30 initiative, diving into what’s realistically achievable as efforts continue to identify new protected areas, accelerate progress in national waters, the high seas, and polar regions, and strengthen governance and financing mechanisms.

Joining Virgil on the panel:
▪️Emanual Gonçalves, Chief Scientist and Board Member, Ocean Azul Foundation
▪️Peter Thomson, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean
▪️Minna Epps, Director, Ocean, IUCN

Virgil's event details👇
🗓️ March 13th at 11:25am -12:15pm JST
Panel: 30x30: Scaling up the art of the possible

Brendan’s event details👇
🗓️ March 12th at 1:00pm - 2:30pm JST
“How to” Session: How to measure effectiveness in marine protected areas

For more information, check out The Economist Ocean Summit agenda: https://events.economist.com/world-ocean-summit/agenda/

Economist Impact Economist Impact events

01/30/2025

We're in the early stages of planning our first user workshop for ProtectedSeas Navigator and would appreciate your input. A quick survey will help us understand your needs and shape the workshop accordingly.

Know someone who might be interested? Share this post or send them the link! Every response helps us create a more valuable experience.

https://forms.gle/YNDSwBxkStsaQkdQ6

We are in the early stages of planning our first user workshop and would appreciate your input. This short survey will help us better understand your needs and shape the workshop to reflect them. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts.

01/27/2025

The Sea Around Us initiative at University of British Columbia and ProtectedSeas Navigator have partnered to expand access to marine protected area (MPA) information. This collaboration provides policymakers, researchers, nonprofits, students, journalists and others with new tools to evaluate and understand MPAs worldwide.

Click the 🔗 to learn more about our partnership with Sea Around Us:
https://navigatormap.org/sea-around-us-and-protectedseas-navigator-join-forces/

Explore the tools:
📍 ProtectedSeas Navigator: Data on over 22,000 marine areas, including MPA coverage, country-specific managed areas, fishing protection scores (LFP), and downloadable regional protection reports. Explore Navigator🔗 https://map.navigatormap.org/

📍 Sea Around Us Database: 70+ years of catch time series data from 282 exclusive economic zones (EEZs), filterable by gear type, end-use, and more. Visit Sea Around Us 🔗 https://www.seaaroundus.org/data/ #/mpa

12/16/2024

11/22/2024

Thank you to Juan Carlos Navarro, Ministro de Ambiente de Panamá, for highlighting M2! It’s incredible to see shared efforts toward protecting marine ecosystems like Coiba National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Together with partners like Global Conservation, we’re proud to support conservation efforts with advanced tools, like with our M2 system. This technology will be playing an important role in combatting illegal fishing and protecting Coiba National Park waters.

To learn more about this M2 deployment, check out our website here: https://m2marinemonitor.com/applications/isla-coiba-world-heritage-site-panama/

11/04/2024

Join us in celebrating the one-year anniversary of the M2 system on Anacapa Island!🎉

Part of Channel Islands National Park, the island is removed from mainland California but still sees human activity in the surrounding waters. In this remote location, M2 provides 24/7, autonomous monitoring of the Anacapa Island State Marine Reserve.

Thank you to the National Park Service, NOAA Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, California Marine Sanctuary Foundation, and the UCSB Marine Science Institute who helped make this deployment happen one year ago! We look forward to another year of monitoring and working with partners to protect this special California ecosystem.

10/31/2024

The M2 team's presentation on OCTO’s marine conservation webinar series, featuring Samantha King and Brendan Tougher, is now available to view online 🎉💻

You can watch the webinar here:
https://m2marinemonitor.com/about/media/

OCTO (Open Communications for the Ocean), the longest-running webinar series in marine conservation, will feature members of the M2 team, Brendan Tougher and Samantha King, on October 29th with a presentation titled "Marine Monitor (M2): Understanding and Tracking Human Activity in Nearshore Coastal Environments.”

The M2 team presentation will highlight M2’s unique shore-based monitoring platform and various applications, and how it’s able to support government agencies, law enforcement, researchers, and NGOs in making informed decisions to protect marine areas. Learn more about the M2 OCTO webinar here: https://octogroup.org/webinars/

🖥️ Marine Monitor (M2): Understanding and Tracking Human Activity in Nearshore Coastal Environments
🗓️ Tuesday, October 29th
🕙 10-11am Pacific Time
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VQcpRuNUTs-uyU8K_dpBlQ #/registration

10/24/2024

We are proud to see Pilar Rodriguez, Cetacean Conservation Biology Apprentice at The Marine Mammal Center, present her research on vessel traffic outside San Francisco Bay in a recent online course hosted by the American Cetacean Society - San Francisco Bay Chapter. 🐋🌉

In her presentation, Pilar explained how she works with M2 staff to investigate how vessel activity compares to gray and humpback whale sightings collected in recent years by The Marine Mammal Center.

A big congratulations to Pilar for her hard work and contributions to this important research! 👏🌊

10/23/2024

On National Marine Sanctuary Day, we’re also excited to highlight another important milestone: the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary.

We’re looking forward to the implementation of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, the latest addition to our protected waters.

10/23/2024

October 23 is National Marine Sanctuary Day in the US, a day to celebrate our protected waters in the ocean and Great Lakes that are home to a diverse array of marine life and connect us to our maritime heritage. 🌊

One of these underwater parks, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary includes 2,900-square nautical miles of waters surrounding the Florida Keys that is home to the only coral barrier reef in the continental United States.🪸

Explore the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary on Navigator: https://map.navigatormap.org/site-detail?site_id=897