Think Tank Programme

The Marine Think Tank Schedule is now available (pdf format).

WHERE? University of Auckland's Owen G. Glenn Business Building
12 Grafton Road, Auckland
This venue is within walking distance from Queen Street or SkyCity (15min walk ~1.2km) for those who are happy to walk uphill. If you are arriving at this venue straight from the airport on the Airbus, get off at stop #2 and continue down Symonds Street, taking a right on Grafton Road to reach the OGG building (short walk).
The check-in desk will be located in the foyer outside room OGG 260-098 on Dec 2-5.

The Marine Section will be hosting 14 marine themed focus groups, designed to address marine conservation issues of special concern for the southern hemisphere. The meetings will be held on 2-5th December immediately prior to the SCB global meeting in Auckland, New Zealand

Please register for the Marine Think Tank via the ICCB registration website. Focus group attendance will be limited to the number of spots available (40) in each session, with some spots reserved for experts identified in session proposals. All other spots will be first come, first served with paid registration. While registration for ICCB is not a requirement for attending these focus groups, we encourage all participants to stick around for the ICCB. Registration includes lunches and morning and afternoon teas, and an evening event at Kelly Tarlton's on 4th December.

Focus groups
TT1  Implications of environmental change to Antarctic ecosystems (3 days: Dec 2,3,4 2011)
Facilitator: Vonda Cummings, Ed Butler (v.cummings@niwa.co.nz)
A lack of understanding of Antarctic ecosystem function limits our ability to predict its response to anthropogenic disturbances. Development of strategies to understand and monitor Ross Sea ecosystems, and thus better manage and mitigate against environmental change, is paramount. This session will discuss knowledge gaps that need to be filled in order to protect this most pristine of marine habitats, with a focus on (1) some of the key environmental disturbances to Ross Sea marine ecosystems (e.g., ocean acidification, warming) and their likely impacts, and (2) the need for establishing, prioritising topics for, and funding long term monitoring programmes. An underlying theme is how scientific results can be better translated to advice for, uptake and implementation by managers.

TT3  The role of prioritisation in Marine Protected Area designation (1 day: Dec 4, 2011)
Facilitator: Jez Bird (jez@birdlifepacific.org.fj)
With a wave of MPA designation expected over the coming decade it is timely to review the role that prioritisation of areas based upon their biodiversity value has to play in marine spatial planning. This one-day focus group that will bring together researchers and MPA managers from the Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand to:

1. review current progress in prioritisation initiatives throughout the region
2. develop a road-map for how best to incorporate the findings of site-prioritisation initiatives into marine spatial planning in the future
3. focus plans to identify IBAs, KBAs etc. within countries where the urgency is greatest and where national governments will be able to use the results most effectively

TT4  Improving the Effectiveness of Community-Managed Marine Protected Areas for Biodiversity Conservation, Fisheries Management and Climate Change Adaptation (3 days: Dec 2,3,4 2011)
Facilitator: Rebecca Weeks (rweeks@wcs.org)
Community-managed marine protected areas (MPAs) are a primary tool for marine and coastal conservation and management throughout Oceania and the Coral Triangle. In most cases, community objectives are focused primarily on fisheries benefits for fishes and commercially important invertebrates. Marine protected areas often emerge as a synthesis of local tradition and scientific knowledge and comprise a multitude of different management strategies, including permanent closures, temporary closures, size limits, seasonal or species bans, and gear restrictions. This focus group will review theoretical and empirical evidence for the effectiveness of different community-based MPA management strategies for biodiversity conservation, fisheries management, and climate change adaptation objectives, and will work towards developing practical ecological criteria (rules of thumb) for size and spacing of MPAs that are applicable to community-based management, recognising upper size limits and that permanent no-take closures are not always feasible. Anticipated outputs include a review paper for journal publication and a standardised framework for quantifying the contribution that community-managed MPAs make towards conservation targets.

TT5  Big Ocean Network: A Research Agenda for Large-Scale MPAs (3 days: Dec 2,3,4, 2011)
Facilitator: Randall Kosaki (randall.kosaki@noaa.gov)
This workshop will result in a research agenda for large-scale marine protected areas (MPA), specifically those established and proposed sites, which form Big Ocean - a network of managers of the world's large-scale MPAs. Discussion will focus identifying what research needs, gaps and questions are common to large-scale MPA management and on how to improve access to research information by all MPA managers. The final research initiatives will aim to: (1) capitalize on collaborative and comparative opportunities based on science needs common to all large-scale MPAs, and (2) identify the research questions best addressed in large-scale MPAs. Subsequent science products will focus on large-scale sites but will benefit all MPAs.

TT7  Pelagic ecosystems and the management of MPAs (2 days: Dec 2,3, 2011)
Facilitator: Lance Morgan (lance@mcbi.org)
Successful management of pelagic marine protected areas (PMPAs) requires a detailed understanding of complex ecosystem interactions. The goal of this focus group is to help outline and determine the steps to successful PMPA management. This work group proposes to assemble an interdisciplinary team of pelagic ecosystem experts and managers. We will focus on two key aspects of PMPA management in pelagic regions:
(1) Ecological interactions between seabirds and pelagic fishes and competition with commercial fisheries as one case study to identify how ecosystem-based management can be incorporated. (2) We will define key elements of pelagic marine protected area (PMPAs) management with additional focus on the indirect threat of fishing outside the protected area by drawing on expertise from conservation scientists and managers. Specifically we will consider how PMPAs are managed from an ecological perspective (i.e. how do we know our management efforts are working?), as the monitoring and managing of pelagic areas is markedly different than terrestrial and even coastal areas in a number of aspects.

TT8  Deep-sea coral research to enhance conservation (1.5 days: Dec 2 & 3am, 2011)
Facilitator: Di Tracey (d.tracey@niwa.co.nz)
There have been several drivers in recent years to improve the quality and quantity of deep-sea coral data. Taxonomists have been keen to improve the consistency of coral identification and increase taxonomic capability, ecologists have been accessing coral and other deep-sea organism's data to describe distribution , and modelling approaches have been applied in data-poor areas to predict where deep-sea corals are likely to be found. There is also an increased global interest in the vulnerability of corals to anthropogenic effects, e.g., bottom trawling, increased ocean acidity. This session aims to discuss how to progress coral taxonomy initiatives, improve species distribution modelling techniques, and best focus research and management responses.

TT9  Steps to success in research and management of bycatch and other marine conservation issues (one day: Dec 4, 2011)
Facilitators: Liz Slooten, Steve Dawson (liz.slooten@otago.ac.nz)
We will start with a brief discussion of the steps common to several case studies of achieving effective management of bycatch (e.g. Hector's dolphin, harbour porpoise, vaquita). These include discovery, denial, consultation, initial protection measures, monitoring and additional protection measures, and will provide a starting point for discussion on a wide range of marine conservation problems. We expect the list to evolve during the workshop as participants describe their own experiences. Some of the ‘steps’ may be specific to bycatch issues, while others are generic and apply to all or most conservation problems.

TT10  Managing Marine Wildlife Tourism (one day: Dec 3, 2011)
Facilitators: Greig Funnell (gfunnell@doc.govt.nz)
CANCELLED due to oil spill

TT11  Science requirements for effective High Seas governance (1.5 days: Dec 3pm and 4, 2011)
Facilitators: Malcolm Clark (m.clark@niwa.co.nz)
Recent years have seen efforts to improve management of deep-sea trawl fisheries on the High Seas, with resolutions by the United Nations General Assembly to avoid adverse impacts and protect vulnerable marine ecosystems, guidelines produced by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, and calls for marine protected areas under the Convention of Biological Diversity. Yet, in general there has been limited progress in the implementation of the recommendations in these sorts of documents and policies. In this session, we propose to stimulate discussion around what type of science is needed to inform the development of appropriate policy, and how scientists can undertake and deliver this to environmental and fisheries managers.

TT12  Fisheries management: the science, conservation and management (1 day: Dec 2, 2011)
Facilitators: Denzil Miller (dmiller@mragasiapacific.com.au)
Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) and Arrangements (RFAs) are vital to State cooperation in the conservation and management of marine living resources. The proposed focus group is aimed at evaluating if, and where, key RFMO/As in the southern hemisphere are successfully fulfilling modern fisheries management expectations (such as those outlined UNGA Resolution 61/105) and/or are addressing issues associated with biodiversity conservation. Particular emphasis is to be given to the use of scientific advice in the formulation of management measures to address biodiversity-related issues such as sustainable harvesting, by-catch mitigation, marine habitat protection, species protection, pollution control and spatial management.

TT13  Advancing databases for global biodiversity assessments (1.5 days: Dec 3 (pm only) and 4, 2011)
Facilitator: Mark Costello (m.costello@auckland.ac.nz)
This workshop will review the needs of policy makers (e.g. Convention on Biological Diversity, Millenium Assessment, Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)), and discuss opportunities for the databases to work together to provide new combinations of content, more comprehensive data for analyses, and metrics of biodiversity knowledge to support international and national policy needs. The goal of this workshop is to develop a long-term vision and strategy, with short-term goals, on how to significantly advance global biodiversity databases, especially those on alien, invasive, and marine species, so as to provide better services for researchers and policy maker's users, and make them a core part of biodiversity science, including both research and management. No doubt, some important data may not exist in databases, and such gaps will be highlighted. The future updating and sustainability will also be discussed.

TT14  Ocean governance in Aotearoa New Zealand: the need for an integrated, ecosystem-based approach (2 days: Dec 3,4, 2011)
Facilitator: Michael McGinnis (mike.mcginnis@vuw.ac.nz)

The changing character to the world's oceans and coastal ecosystems will make ecological sustainability a significant challenge. Global climate disturbance and the over-use of coastal marine resources have synergistic impacts on coastal marine ecosystems. A sector-by-sector approach to ocean governance will prove irresponsive to these cumulative impacts. This forum focuses on how to improve and strengthen New Zealand's ocean governance framework. The forum includes a review of the types of policy tools and the role of scientists in ecosystem-based planning and ocean governance, including the need to develop marine spatial plans, marine zoning, and marine protected areas or MPAs.