Open OceanMap
Open OceanMap is a data collection tool used to effectively collect local expert knowledge in support of marine conservation planning processes. Data collected from resource users like commercial and recreational fisherman is invaluable for informing fisheries management and marine habitat protection, while taking into consideration the communities that depend on the fisheries. Ecotrust used open source software to develop Open OceanMap for easy dissemination — making it a truly open and community-based tool.
As marine resources decline around the world, restricting the types of activities permitted in specific geographic areas is one approach to protecting the biodiversity and abundance of marine life — an approach that impacts people as well as fish. But a general lack of data, whether use type or habitat type data, inhibits successful marine area management. By engaging community stakeholders about the value they place on specific areas of the ocean, this data can support management decisions that protect the marine environment while minimizing impacts on port communities.
Ecotrust is involved in several projects using the Open OceanMap tool. In 2005, Ecotrust was retained by California’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative staff to provide spatially explicit information and analyses about numerous coastal fisheries. This project supports the California state legislature’s directive to design and manage a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) along the 1,100 miles of state coastal waters by 2011. Using Open OceanMap to collect the data, Ecotrust staff continues to interview hundreds of fisherman in the five coastal regions of the MLPA. In the Loreto National Marine Park region of Baja California (Mexico), Ecotrust is supporting Comunidad y Biodiversidad A.C. (COBI) to utilize Open OceanMap in evaluating marine protected area networks. COBI will use Open OceanMap with stakeholders that include recreationists and scientists, as well as fishermen. Recently, interest has developed in deploying Open OceanMap to support projects in the Bering Sea and Oregon.
OceanMap, a standalone software module developed by Environmental Defense Fund, provides the basic functionality that Ecotrust has transformed into Open OceanMap. The use of open source technologies allows for easier dissemination, greater flexibility in survey design, and increased security features. Ecotrust developers used the open source software solution PyQt to write the Open OceanMap application in Python — which allows for distribution on any desktop platform — utilizing the highly scalable and very popular QT system. The Python bindings to the QGIS open source desktop GIS system were utilized to provide a mapping component to the application. An open source installer framework called INNO was utilized to create a fully functional Windows based installer for the application. Ecotrust also developed a companion QA/QC tool that provides a web-based interface, allowing interviewees to log in and verify the information they provided and supply comments to the analysts responsible for reviewing the data.
