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Email“The previous fiscal year has been one of the most active since we launched the Center for Ocean Solutions three years ago.” This opening line from the Letter from the Executive Director sets the tone for COS's debut first Annual Report. Over 50 pages follow that highlight progress on the Center’s three Strategic Initiatives, delve into work on a lengthy strategic planning process, and catalog outreach and communication on the part of the organization over the previous 12 months, ending in September.
The Annual Report for fiscal year 2011 is the first for the Center, and marks a new level of growth and development for this relatively young organization.
One of the important
milestones noted in the report was the rounding out of the Center’s management
with the hiring of its first Science Director, Dr. Larry Crowder. Larry was previously at Duke University
in Durham, NC. Based in COS’s
Monterey office, Larry is also a Professor of Biology at Stanford’s Hopkins
Marine Station.
During the year, COS launched a new, intensive two-week course open to graduate students interested in ocean policy and governance, and how science influences public policy decisions. The course drew a highly qualified group of applicants who had the opportunity to attend small sessions taught by experts, many of them members of COS’s Management Committee. The Annual Report features lively photographs taken during the short course.
The report also lays out in detail COS’s new effort – working groups that convene experts to assess and report on important issues facing the ocean. The working groups meet several times during a defined period and generate recommendations and actions addressing important issues identified as critical to the ocean.
Also featured in the Annual Report, and just published on the COS website, is a report nicknamed the “Big Think.” The white paper entitled Ocean Conservation Strategies and the Next Decade of Marine Conservation Philanthropy was prepared for the staff and Board of Trustees of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation as part of a process the Foundation undertook to review and evaluate broad opportunities in ocean philanthropy.
The Big Think
presents trends and future issues affecting the ocean and assesses conservation
opportunities and challenges. The
final report focuses on two key geographies – the Coral Triangle and the
California Current – with the intent to stimulate a lively discussion about
conservation and philanthropy in these regions. The full report can be viewed at Big Think.
Karen Marvin authored this story and contributed to the Annual Report and the Big Think.
