ICSI Director Dr. Lea Shanley in "Expanding Ocean Understanding" Panel at CHOW

Dr. Lea Shanley, Director and President of ICSI, spoke in a panel discussion titled "Expanding Ocean Understanding" on June 8, 2022 at the Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW). "Most of the community-based citizen science projects are focused on the terrestrial, and the marine domain is lagging behind,” said Dr. Shanley during the discussion. The panel focused on how "Indigenous knowledge and wisdom, community science and technology can expand our understanding of the ocean in the face of climate change." According to the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary, "roughly 80 percent of the ocean is unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored. Only an estimated 10–25 percent of marine species have been described globally."

The panel featured eight speakers from government, academia, and industry.

CHOW Panelists for "Expanding Ocean Understanding"

Image source: NOAA National Marine Sanctuary

"CHOW provides an important convening platform to gather people together to discuss pressing issues facing our ocean, coasts, and Great Lakes and the communities that rely on them. Over 1,460 people joined the conference both in-person and online. Together, we identified actions we can all take to set a course for the new policies, partnerships, and initiatives necessary to help our ocean, coasts, and Great Lakes thrive for the next 50 years. The CHOW 2022 plenary session videos and other highlights for the conference are now available through capitolhilloceanweek.org" (Source: NOAA National Marine Sanctuary)