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During the past year, Maine Sea Grant has partnered
with the Quebec Labrador Foundation to convene
the 24-member Marine Area Characterization Working
Group. The group, consisting of university and
college research scientists, state agency personnel,
and non-profit organization staff, will meet
over the course of one year to develop a body
of recommendations on the components and methods
for conducting marine inventories. These recommendations
will be used to develop a citizens' guide, which
will assist Maine residents in compiling existing
information, and coordinating the collection
of new data, regarding the ecological, physical,
historical, and socioeconomic attributes of
their local coastal area. In engaging citizens,
the guide aims to meet growing interest from
Maine residents in furthering understanding
and management of their local marine areas,
as well as take pressure off of limited state
resources to conduct such inventories.
Currently, characterization tools are not widely
applied within Maine's coastal and marine management
practices. Information that exists about the
state's bays, sounds, and estuaries seldomly
is synthesized to develop a comprehensive description
of the human and natural attributes of nearshore
areas. A marine area characterization can serve
as a data integration tool, providing baseline
information to describe what an area is (its
species, history, uses, threats, circulation
patterns, and habitats) and how it functions.
These inventories can also highlight serious
gaps in data, providing an insightful tool for
prioritizing research and monitoring efforts.
If repeated over time, characterizations provide
a marker from which to measure change in a bay
or estuary's health. The information has the
potential to aid local managers by providing
them with a more complete understanding of the
issues and factors influencing their coastal
area. Broadly applied, characterizations have
the potential to assist state managers in identifying
and comparing the needs of various regions.
For more information, please contact Tracy
Hart
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