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Research Priorities
Central to effective management of natural and cultural resources is the ability to accurately
assess their current condition. This knowledge will provide the foundation to
understand the complex relationships between living and non-living resources and the
cumulative impacts of human activities, and help determine the likely impacts of various
management alternatives. Research into issues of resource development, use, and extraction,
such as exploration for mineral resources and pelagic and benthic communities,
and regional variability and influence on resources, will help society prevent major impacts
to ecosystems, promote sound development and use of resources, preserve cultural
sites, and support management efforts to restore depleted populations to healthy and
sustainable levels.
Research Priority 1: Understand the status and trends of resource
abundance and distribution through more accurate, timely, and
synoptic assessments.
Assessing the impacts of resource use and extraction (e.g., fisheries, ocean mining, tourism
[cultural sites]) requires measuring the abundance and distribution of living and non-living
resources in the open ocean, coasts, coastal watersheds, and Great Lakes. Capabilities
necessary for these measurements include the ability to: assess fish-stock and protectedresource
status and health; monitor living resources (spanning multiple trophic levels)
nearly continuously over wide swaths of ocean at appropriate levels of species resolution;
assess the spatial and temporal variability (both natural and use-induced) of resources
(e.g., biota, energy, minerals, and pharmaceuticals), including in deep-water settings; and
provide long-term and sustained monitoring and mapping of natural and cultural resources.
Development and implementation of these capabilities will enable adaptive approaches
to the management of natural and cultural resources, using empirical evidence to design
and modify management efforts (e.g., individual harvest quotas, special use areas, marine
protected areas [MPAs]) to be most effective.
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