MarBlog

First post upon installation of WordPress is Hello World, and I thought it was a reasonable title to retain for this first post on MarBlog.

In the time to come, I will post on a variety of topics in the world of marine science. The two closest to my job is likely to get the most attention, namely ecology and data accessibility.

Ecology is increasingly becoming central in Marine science – going from being a rather loose term with vague and poorly quantified mechanisms to a central role in policy and legislation for the management of the marine environment. Obviously, ecology encompasses a wide array of information, all of which may not have been necessary to join together previously for single species or stock issues in fisheries for example. Now we’re faced with a situation where a broad raft of data from very different science disciplines are having to be merged and contribute to more common goals. It is a challenge being addresssed on many levels currently from individual univiersities, and other organisations fighting to bring together years or decades worth of scientific effort to national and international bodies creating large systems and databases to gather it all under one umbrella.

These are some of the issues I will be blogging about on this site in the time to come, although there will hopefully also be room for a few stories that are just about the fascinating marine life that still serves to amaze and capture me!