Mega-volunteering Yields Ocean Legacy
January 10, 2012

On January 1, coastal advocates had far more than the new year to celebrate. The turn of the year marked the opening of a network of Southern California underwater parks designated as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), a success due in no small part thanks to the tireless volunteer effort of COS Executive Director Meg Caldwell.   Over the last seven years, Caldwell has spent upwards of sixty hours each month working toward this achievement as part of a Blue Ribbon Task Force, one of three volunteer bodies that participated in the MPA planning process under California's Marine Life Protection Act Initiative. 

Dive into the Pacific Ocean Library!
November 17, 2011

With over 6,000 records focused solely on the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Ocean Library is a powerful resource for managers and researchers.  Accessible from the Center for Ocean Solutions website, the library focuses exclusively on the challenges facing the Pacific Ocean, the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of those threats, and their solutions.

Preparing for the Future: Climate Change and the Monterey Bay Shoreline
October 20, 2011

This one-day climate change adaptation planning workshop for local decision-makers in the Monterey Bay coastal region will be held at the Monterey Conference Center in Monterey, California on December 6th, 2011.

Polynesian Canoes Land in Monterey During 15,000 Mile Voyage: COS Greets Voyagers with Welcoming Reception
August 25, 2011

COS Science Communication intern Brynn Hooton-Kaufman reports on the inspiring visit from the Pacific Voyagers, and the welcoming reception hosted by COS.

New 'Decision Guide' Details a Rigorous Analysis of Decision Support Tools for Marine Spatial Planning
June 4, 2011

Center for Ocean Solution's marine spatial planning (MSP) team and the Pacific Marine Analysis and Research Association (PacMARA) recently collaborated to write an easy-to-use decision support tools (DSTs) guidebook designed to help coastal planners and managers select the right tools for their decision making needs. The resulting Decision Guide: Selecting Decision Support Tools for Marine Spatial Planning lays out the functionality of nine DSTs and how their capabilities mesh with the steps in a typical MSP process.  

"Super Corals" Lend Hope for Reef Survival in Warmer Oceans
June 1, 2011

Researchers from Stanford University led by Dr. Steve Palumbi have recently discovered a group of corals in the South Pacific island of Ofu that thrive in water temperatures that would cause most other corals to bleach. These "super corals" may be one of the keys to understanding the future of coral reefs.

COS Reels in New Science Director
May 17, 2011

Larry B. Crowder joined the Center for Ocean Solutions in the newly created position of science director. Crowder is also a fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and a professor of biology at Hopkins Marine Station, both part of Stanford University. Larry joins COS from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Duke University Marine Lab where his research focused on predation and food web interactions, population and food web modeling, and interdisciplinary approaches to marine conservation.

COS Project Selected as Buckminster Fuller Challenge Semifinalist
March 23, 2011

With a grant from Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford student Shah Selbe came up with FishNET, an ingenious use of the internet's ability to create a database of official and crowd-sourced information about fishing activities that could help the authorities combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

Chris Scholin pioneers a robot to rapidly monitor ocean microbes
February 9, 2011

Chris Scholin of MBARI has created an underwater robotic laboratory that can automatically perform complex genetic analyses to gather biological data in the ocean, and transmit the information to scientists in real time. Fine-tuning the instrument to improve beach water quality monitoring is at the heart of the Center for Ocean Solutions Land-Sea Initiative.

Graduate students take urban runoff by storm: an inside look at interdisciplinary problem solving
February 9, 2011

Graduate students from the Monterey Bay region created recommendations to help the City of Pacific Grove, Calif. improve the water quality of storm runoff during a short course in interdisciplinary problem solving hosted by the Monterey Area Research Institutions’ Network for Education (MARINE).