ACCESS members jointly conduct integrated, collaborative, and multi-disciplinary research to monitor the distribution and abundance of marine wildlife in the context of underlying physical and biological oceanographic processes.
Our research inform managers, policy-makers and conservation partners about wildlife responses to changes in ocean conditions and human threats in order to mobilize public support for marine conservation.
The main research topics and management issues we aim to address include:
1) Saving whales from ship strikes – recommend management approaches that will save whales off San Francisco,
2) Reducing whale entanglements – identify high entanglement-risk areas to decrease bycatch in crab fisheries,
3) Protecting wildlife hotspots – protect wildlife and decrease conflicts with existing and proposed new human uses,
4) Developing ecosystem indicators – track ecosystem responses to climate change and inform climate-smart conservation, and
5) Tracking ocean acidification – document changes in water chemistry and assess biological responses.
We produce an annual ‘Ocean Climate Indicators Status Report’ that provides information about the status and trends of physical and biological climate change indicators in the region. These indicators were selected by a working group of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council with input from over 50 regional scientists and resource managers after a 2-year collaborative process.
We partner and share data with marine ecology researchers and agencies in the region, and we are working towards making our data available in the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS) Data Portal. The portal contains scientific information on physical, chemical and biological characteristics of north-central California and its surrounding waters.
We engage with schools, colleges and universities by providing at-sea experiences to science-teachers (Teacher-At-Sea Program), lab experiences to college students interested in marine science, and research opportunities to graduate students interested in collaborating on physical/biological oceanography and ecology projects. In addition, we provide outreach opportunities by collaborating with photographers and videographers to share the stories with the public, and sharing our science with museum visitors at The Exploratorium, California Academy of Sciences, and the Lawrence Hall of Science.
Left: Carina Fish (graduate student, UC Davis, Bodega Marine Lab) and Ryan Anderson (graduate student, SFSU, Estuary and Ocean Science Center) collecting water for chemistry analyses. Center: Meredith Elliott (Point Blue) and Grace Kumaishi (Point Blue) collecting zooplankton. Right: Kirsten Lindquist (GFA), Jan Roletto (GFNMS) and Taylor Nairn (GFA) counting marine birds and mammals from the flying bridge of the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada. (Photos: Jaime Jahncke)
