The Big Sur-Monterey study is part of a larger, multiagency effort called the Pacific Nearshore Project, which is comparing nine distinct sea otter populations and the health of their coastal habitats in the northern Pacific.
The nearshore project, NaGISA, one of the earliest projects introduced, was an ideal "ambassador" project for this purpose because its low-budget, low-tech approach made it easy to implement in new regions.
The Census nearshore project, NaGISA, began in the IO region with a training course organized by the co-ordinating agency, the Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute, in 2006 wherein the first set of sampling stations were established in a rocky beach and a seagrass bed near Mombasa, Kenya.
Focusing on the regional ocean carbon cycle, models project some nearshore systems to be highly vulnerable to future pH decrease.
In the nearshore, for example, the NaGISA project has focused on the benthic diversity associated with rocky shores and on seagrass communities by using a common protocol worldwide.
We used the Eocene fossil record from Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula, to project specifically how global warming will reorganize the nearshore benthos of Antarctica.
Although all of the Census projects involved in this region produced scientific advances, the contributions of the historic (HMAP), nearshore (NaGISA), and database (OBIS) projects can be especially highlighted.
Since ocean waves are mainly wind induced, carrying out coastal engineering projects and investigating environmental issues call for determination of wind-generated wave characteristics, especially in nearshore areas.
In addition, Baltic scientists have taken part in other Census projects, such as the Census of Marine Zooplankton (CMarZ), Natural Geography in Shore Areas (NaGISA), Arctic Ocean Diversity (ArcOD), HMAP, History of Nearshore Biodiversity (HNS), Census of the Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life (CeDAMar), and Continental Margin Ecosystems on a Worldwide Scale (COMARGE).
Weekly beach profiles, shoreline surveys, and nearshore wave measurements were conducted before, during, and immediately after construction of the 1100-m long Upham Beach nourishment project on the low-energy, west coast of Florida.
