The NOAA RESTORE Science Program is excited to attend the Gulf of Mexico Conference in Tampa, Florida! 

The Science Program will co-host two sessions with partners from the Gulf region. Please join us to hear about ongoing research, learn more about our synthesis initiative, and access resources for creating collaborative partnerships. 

Here is the session information:

• Deepwater Horizon Science Coordination: Restoration, Co-Production, and Synthesis
  • Tuesday, February 20, 2024
  • 10:30 am – 5:00 pm ET
  • Tampa Convention Center, Room 121

• Creating and Maintaining Strong Partnerships: Best Practices, Tools, Methods, and Project Funding
  • Wednesday, February 21, 2024
  • 10:30 am – 3:00 pm ET
  • Tampa Convention Center, Room 114

Many project teams supported by the Science Program will be presenting at the conference. We have included a list below of some of those projects, and we encourage you to attend those presentations as you have time. 

The Science Program is also helping to organize the OneNOAA in the Gulf of Mexico exhibitor booth, and we welcome you to stop by and learn more about our program as well as other NOAA programs. 

To learn more about the plenary speakers, session themes and other conference activities, visit the conference website. Please feel free to connect with us at noaarestorescience@noaa.gov if you are also attending and would like to set up a time to meet with our team.  

We look forward to seeing you in Tampa!

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Monday, Feb. 19 – Pre-Conference Workshops

• 1:30-5:00 pm – Exploring Connectivity in the Deep Gulf from Key Insights to Key Gaps, Tracey Sutton, Nova Southeastern University, and Elizabeth Fetherston, NOAA Southeast Regional Office (Room 123)

• The Occurrence, Neuroanatomy, and Morphometrics of Slickhead Leptochilichthys in the Gulf of Mexico, Liberty Juno, Florida Atlantic University

Tuesday, Feb. 20 – Breakout Sessions

• 11:30 am – Impacts of Changing Coastal Watershed Land-use and Land-cover on Estuarine Salinity and Water Clarity in the Florida Panhandle, John Lehrter, University of South Alabama (Room 125)
• 1:30 pm – Incentivizing Gulf of Mexico natural resource managers and researchers to co-produce actionable science, Miranda Madrid, NOAA RESTORE Science Program (Room 121)
• 1:45 pm – Creating Secure Warm-water Habitat Networks for Manatees along Florida’s Gulf Coast: Co-producing Plans for Actionable Science, Chip Deutsch, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (Room 121)
• 2:00 pm – The potential for conservation grazing in coastal uplands of the northern Gulf of Mexico coast, Eric Sparks, Mississippi State University (Room 121) 
• 2:15 pm – A Collaborative Approach to Fish Habitat Conservation Through Co-Produced Science, Courtney Saari, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (Room 121)
• 2:30 pm – Lessons Learned in the Co-Production of Improved Fisheries Management Advice in the Gulf of Mexico, Nathan Vaughan, Vaughan Analytics (Room 121)
• 2:45 pm – Seagrass Conservation through Actionable Research: Management Areas for the Prevention of Scarring (SCAR MAPS), Savanna Barry, University of Florida (Room 121)
• 3:45 pm – Developing a spatial-temporal ecosystem model for examining climate and fisheries interactions in the Gulf of Mexico, Holden Harris, NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (Room 121)
• 4:00 pm – Gulf Ecosystem Initiative: Supporting synthesis research in the Gulf of Mexico, Hannah Brown, NOAA RESTORE Science Program (Room 121)
• 4:15 pm – Gulf Ecosystem Initiative Panel with Hannah Brown, NOAA RESTORE Science Program (moderator); Holden Harris, NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center; Mai Fung, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis; and Paul Montagna, Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies (Room 121)

Wednesday, Feb. 21 – Breakout Sessions

• 10:30 am – Designing Effective Stewardship and Post-Restoration Management Plans Through Co-Production to Protect Vulnerable Gulf of Mexico Coastal Birds, Nicole Michel, National Audubon Society (Room 115)
• 10:30 am – An interannual perspective on the dissolved oxygen conditions on the Alabama shelf and potential drivers contributing to hypoxic events, Brian Dzwonkowski, University of South Alabama (Room 120)
• 10:45 am – NOAA Firebird: Fire Effects in Gulf of Mexico Marshes on Mottled Ducks, Black and Yellow Rails, Auriel Fournier, Illinois Natural History Survey (Room 115)
• 11:00 am – Mapping High Marsh Systems across the Northern Gulf of Mexico, Kristine Evans, Mississippi State University (Room 115)
• 11:00 am – Developing Strong Proposals for Collaborative Science, Hannah Brown, NOAA RESTORE Science Program (Room 114)
• 4:00 pm – Integrating Hardbottom Metrics into Reef Fish Video Surveys to Assess Fish Assemblages, Mandy Tyler-Jedlund, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (Room 123)

• Long-term monitoring of beaked whales in the southern Gulf of Mexico: A pioneer study on three different species in Mexican waters, I. C. Barrera Diaz, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología 
• Long-term monitoring of sperm whales in the Southern Gulf of Mexico: A first look at occurrence in Mexican waters, I. G. Perez Carballo, Scripps Institution of Oceanography 
• Examining the Diets of Deep-sea Cephalopods from the Northern Gulf of Mexico Using a Metabarcoding Approach, Tracey Sutton, Nova Southeastern University 
• Length-Weight Relationships of Mesopelagic Fishes from the Northern Gulf of Mexico, S.R. Trimble, Nova Southeastern University 
• Cetacean-mediated vertical nitrogen transport in the oceanic Gulf of Mexico, Tracey Sutton, Nova Southeastern University 
• Quantifying the vertical distributions of deep-living fishes (and their variability) in the Gulf of Mexico: 2011-2021, R.J. Milligan, Nova Southeastern University 

Thursday, Feb. 22 – Breakout Sessions

• 10:30 am – Pelagics in a New Light: Impacts of Lighted Offshore Platforms on Trophic Dynamics of Tunas in the Gulf of Mexico, S.A. Murawski, University of South Florida (Room 117)
• 10:45 am – A 10-year Time Series Genomic Diversity Analysis of Three Pelagic Deep-Sea Fish After the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, P.A. Peres, Florida International University (Room 117)
• 11:00 am – Changes in assemblage structure of Lanternfishes in the decade following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, R.J., Milligan, Nova Southeastern University (Room 117)
• 11:15 am – The Acoustic Ecology and Conservation of Rice’s Whales in the Pelagic Gulf of Mexico, Melissa Soldevilla, NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (Room 117)
• 11:30 am – Synthesis Sisyphus: Impacts and Recovery of Marine Life from Deepwater Horizon – 14 Years On – The Good, The Bad and Some Ugly, S.A. Murawski, University of South Florida (Room 118)
• 11:45 am – Where did they go? After a decade of declines in toothed whale densities, a Gulf-wide international acoustic monitoring effort looks for answers, Kaitlin Frasier, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Room 117)
• 11:45 am – Assessment of ocean surface dynamics in and around Galveston Bay using Unmanned Aerial Systems for marine oil spill management, Vivek Bheeroo, Texas A&M University (Room 118)
• 1:30 pm – Evident of High Densities of Mesopelagic Organisms over Deepwater Topographic Features in the Gulf of Mexico, Trace Sutton, Nova Southeastern University (Room 117)
• 1:45 pm – Keeping an Ear out for Diving Whales: Diving Behavior of Beaked Whales in the Gulf of Mexico Identified via Acoustic Tracking, Heloise Frouin-Mouy, University of Miami Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (Room 117)
• 2:00 pm – The Trophic Ecology and Vertical Distribution of the Deep-Pelagic Fish Scombrolabrax Heterolepis (Scombriformes: Scombrolabradcidae), an ‘Advanced’ Fish in a World of ‘Primitive’ Fishes, K.Lim, Nova Southeastern University (Room 117)
• 2:45 pm – Characterization of Acoustic Source Levels of the Gulf of Mexico’s Commercial Fleet Using Shipping Lane Monitoring Stations, K.H. Johnson, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Room 117)
• 3:30 pm – Do Mesopelagic Fish Biomass Patterns Change in Response to Major Oceanographic Features in the Northern Gulf of Mexico?, I.M. Areford, Nova Southeastern University (Room 117)
• 3:45 pm – Shipping Noise in the Northern Gulf of Mexico Between 2010-2023, L.E.W. Hodge, NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (Room 117)
• 4:00 pm – Trophic Ecology of Black Swallowers (Scombriformes: Chiasmodontidae: Chiasmodon) in the Deep-Pelagic Gulf of Mexico, T.J. Kirk, Nova Southeastern University (Room 117)