Developing Ocean Best Practices in Australia. [Video]

Abstract

Ocean best practices are increasingly recognised as a way to facilitate the collection and use of quality, comparable and collatable data. International efforts have focussed on criteria of what should be elevated to a ‘best practice’, but this will vary among countries and disciplines. For example, what is considered a best practice in developing countries may be superseded by a best practice requiring more resources in developed nations. In this presentation, we use the Field Manuals for Marine Sampling to Monitor Australian Waters produced through the NESP Marine Hub as a proposed benchmark for the development of national best practices for Australia and other developed countries. More than 136 contributors from 53 agencies collaborated during the two versions of the best practices released in 2018 and 2020. We describe the iterative process and challenges associated with the development of these best practices, as well as a preliminary assessment of outcomes and impacts. Using learnings from this case study, we will propose a national framework for developing, adopting, and maintaining ocean best practices.