Oceanography | September 2021
WE HAVE AN EXCITING LINEUP for you in this September issue
of Oceanography, touching many of the bases that make our
journal stand out within the ocean sciences community. In addi-
tion to traditional science articles, we have a paper on belonging,
accessibility, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (BE A JEDI);
another on capacity-building in the ocean sciences; and a DIY
Oceanography contribution. This issue’s education section fea-
tures columns on undergraduate teaching and careers post
graduate school, and we present a new Navigating Grad School
section. We also have a book review to share, and the third con-
secutive column from the TOS JEDI Committee.
The lead science article by Meyer-Gutbrod et al. discusses
the challenges facing North American right whale populations
due to climate-driven changes in the Gulf Stream. Related per-
spectives are provided by Record and Pershing and Pendleton,
and Friel gives readers a whale’s eye view of how entanglements
in fishing gear are leading to devastating losses of this species.
Meyer-Gutbrod et al. urge federal agencies in Canada and the
United States to consider adopting more dynamic management
plans to save these whales from extinction. On another topic,
Villalobos et al. describe how they combined acoustic, opti-
cal, and environmental sampling to survey fish populations in
a marine protected area in the Gulf of California, an approach
they suggest is practical for obtaining baseline information on
marine protected areas and for efficiently monitoring changes.
A feature by Urban and Seeyave provides the lessons
learned by the Partnership for Observation of the Global
Ocean (POGO) and the Scientific Committee on Oceanic
Research (SCOR) in conducting visiting scientist programs to
assist developing countries as they build self-sustaining ocean
science and observational communities. Among the things
POGO and SCOR have learned is that training in-country has
many benefits, including the ability to reach a larger number
of trainees. Inspired by a session at the 2020 Ocean Sciences
Meeting, the article by Behl et al. shares various strategies for
promoting belonging, accessibility, justice, equity, diversity,
and inclusion in the coastal, ocean, and marine sciences, with
the hope that our community will be inspired to take action
individually or collectively.
Chava et al. contribute a paper to our long-standing Breaking
Waves section that demonstrates a simple and cost-effective
method for studying biofouling in deep waters (>50 m). They
show how a variety of autonomous seafloor equipment can be
used as supporting platforms for biofouling studies. As a reminder
to our readers, the purpose of Breaking Waves is to present short
papers that describe novel approaches to multidisciplinary prob-
lems in oceanography. We welcome contributions to this section,
and author guidelines are available on the Oceanography website
(https://tos.org/oceanography/guidelines).
We are very pleased to publish our fourth DIY Oceanography
article in two years. With guest editors Melissa Omand and
Emmanuel Boss, we introduced DIY Oceanography just over a
year ago. In this issue, Pagniello et al. describe their custom-
designed optical imaging system that captures images in situ in
ambient light, show how they used this home-built system, and
provide instructions on how to build the system yourself. We
have started a new page on the TOS website to help readers find
all of the published DIY Oceanography papers. You can find it at
https://tos.org/diy-oceanography.
As a final note regarding this September issue, I urge gradu-
ate students and instructors alike to read the first contribution to
the new Oceanography section called Navigating Grad School.
In the inaugural article, Franks shares his wisdom on how to
envision and write a thesis proposal, knowledge he has gained
while mentoring and advising hundreds of graduate students at
Scripps Institution of Oceanography. I look forward to receiving
suggestions from our readers for topics we might cover in this
new section. At the same time, instructors are also encouraged
to read The Oceanography Classroom, where guest columnist
Freeman shares how she engages her introductory oceanogra-
phy class to learn new terms and concepts in marine ecology.
And in the Career Profiles section, we share two new profiles.
We welcome comments about and suggestions for
Oceanography, and as we listen to the diverse voices in our com-
munity, we will continue to respond to them by experimenting
with new sections and columns as we have in this issue.
QUARTERDECK
THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE
Some Things Old and Some Things New
Ellen S. Kappel, Editor