2018 Workshop

The 7th annual workshop held in 2018 was titled Building the Cooperative Hypoxia Assessment and Monitoring Program (CHAMP) and focused on assessing the progress of Monitoring Workgroups toward building the CHAMP, and further advance strategic planning to meet remaining CHAMP programmatic and financial goals and objectives. The workshop is leading to the development of the following (still in progress):

• A workshop report identifying current monitoring components and key actions for obtaining longer-term support and demonstrating importance of new monitoring components;
• Updated monitoring matrix highlighting key components of the CHAMP program;
• Outreach plan and a suite of outreach documents to promote the importance of the CHAMP program to various stakeholder groups; and
• New successes – moving things to zone, achieving grants, positioning for additional support.

2016 Workshop

NOAA's National Ocean Service/National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, and the Northern Gulf Institute held its 6th Annual NOAA/Northern Gulf Institute Coordination Workshop, "Establishing a Cooperative Hypoxic Zone Monitoring Program," September 12-13, 2016 at the Mississippi State University Science and Technology Center at Stennis Space Center, MS.

Purpose
The purpose of this workshop was to develop a framework for a multi-partner Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone monitoring program, and planned the follow-up coordination needed to move forward with implementation. The Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Monitoring Implementation Plan (2009, revised 2012) and subsequent workshops provide a foundation for a sustainable monitoring program that is driven by specific hypoxia management objectives. These efforts have led to advancements in monitoring extent (i.e. expansion of temporal and spatial coverage) and technology (e.g. glider application) to meet the core program requirements. However, the monitoring program has been supported primarily through NOAA competitive research funding (i.e. NGOMEX program), which ended in FY 2015.

A programmatic and financial strategy to support a requirement-driven monitoring program was prepared as a pre-meeting document which was explored further at the workshop to identify the optimal monitoring requirements for management needs, and funding mechanisms and logistics of implementation based on the needs and constraints of partners.

A cooperative monitoring program would benefit many agency programs, not only those focused on hypoxia. Meeting minimum requirements for an operational monitoring program would mean that:

• Modelling tools needed to meet program objectives would no longer suffer severe data limitation
• Competitive research resources would be freed up to support improvements of models & other management tools
• Data turnaround and accessibility would be improved with the goal to make data access real- or near-real time
• The metric generated to assess progress toward the Hypoxia Task Force Coastal Goal to mitigate hypoxia would be developed in a structured, consistent, and sustainable manner.

The workshop lead to the development of the proceedings paper titled Building a Cooperative Monitoring Program for Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia and Interrelated Issues. The workshop also lead to the formation of eight Monitoring Workgroups to develop the Cooperative Hypoxia Monitoring and Assessment Program (CHAMP):

1. Fisheries
2. State of Louisiana
3. States of Mississippi/Alabama
4. State of Texas
5. Autonomous Vehicles
6. Hypoxia Task Force
7. Ocean Acidification
8. Gulf Restoration

2014 Workshop

The NOAA Ocean Service's NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, the NOAA Gulf of Mexico Regional Collaboration Team, the Northern Gulf Institute, the Environmental Protection Agency's Gulf of Mexico Program, and the National Wildlife Federation hosted the 5th Annual NOAA/Northern Gulf Institute Hypoxia Research Coordination Workshop, "Advancing Ecological Modeling for Diversions and Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico." The Workshop was held July 14-16, 2014 at the Mississippi State University Science and Technology Center, 1021 Balch Blvd, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529.

Purpose
5th Annual NOAA/NGI Hypoxia Research Coordination Workshop A suite of ecological models focused on the northern Gulf of Mexico have advanced in recent years and are being considered as important management tools for evaluating fisheries responses to a dynamic Gulf ecosystem (which includes human dimensions). Management adoption of these modeling approaches will improve assessment and prediction of the effects of two large-scale issues on Gulf fisheries - Mississippi River diversions and the northern Gulf hypoxic zone. These issues are closely linked by the overlap in ecosystem model domains, affected species and habitats, and by the intersection of mitigation efforts in influencing estuarine and shelf water quality (e.g. changing salinity and nutrient properties).

The 5th Annual NOAA/Northern Gulf Institute Hypoxia Research Coordination Workshop continued its tradition to advance the science informing fisheries management of the effects of Gulf hypoxia, but also encompassed the observed and predicted effects of River diversions on Gulf fisheries and their habitats in an ecosystem context.

Goals

• Provide a forum for strengthening communication and coordination between physical and biological modelers of Gulf of Mexico hypoxia and Mississippi River diversions, and the users and stakeholders (e.g. Hypoxia Task Force, fisheries managers) of advanced understanding and technology
• Validate and refine key fisheries management and habitat conservation needs associated with ecosystem effects of hypoxia and large-scale river diversions in the Gulf of Mexico
• Assess adaptive management needs for advancing ecosystem modeling of hypoxia and diversion effects on habitats and living resources in the northern Gulf of Mexico

2013 Workshop

Continuing its springtime tradition to provide a platform for advancing the science underpinning management of the large annual hypoxic zone ("dead zone") in the northern Gulf of Mexico, the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Northern Gulf Institute, and the NOAA National Data Buoy Center hosted the 4th annual workshop and convened a Forum for Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Research Coordination and Advancement on 17-18 April 2013 at the Mississippi State University Science and Technology Center at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The workshop included the Gulf Hypoxia Glider Application Meeting.

This workshop's focus was to develop an implementation plan for use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for monitoring the hypoxic zone. The workshop lead to the development of the Glider Implementation Plan for Hypoxia Monitoring in the Gulf of Mexico.

2012 Workshop

The NOAA Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research, the NOAA Gulf of Mexico Regional Collaboration Team, the NOAA Northern Gulf Institute, the NOAA National Coastal Data Development Center, and the NOAA Coastal Services Center hosted the 3rd annual workshop to coordinate research related to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, the largest hypoxia area in the U.S. with nutrient management implications for 40% of the continental U.S.

The workshop was held March 27-March 28 in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and consisted of presentations from major groups conducting hypoxic zone on living resource impacts and biogeochemical cycling plus implementation planning for coordinated research, data collection, and resource management. A key workshop outcome was a series of synthesis reports on Gulf hypoxia science that will serve as the scientific basis for an on-going science reassessment of the 2008 Action Plan of the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force.

2011 Workshop

The NOAA Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research, the NOAA Gulf of Mexico Regional Collaboration Team, the NOAA Northern Gulf Institute, the NOAA National Coastal Data Development Center, and the NOAA Coastal Services Center hosted the 2nd annual workshop to coordinate research related to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, the largest hypoxia area in the U.S. with nutrient management implications for 40% of the continental U.S.

The workshop, held March 31-April 1 in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, consisted of presentations from major groups conducting hypoxic zone research plus implementation planning for coordinated monitoring, data collection, outreach and forecasting. Workshop outcomes are improved management of the hypoxic zone through coordinated Federal research and incorporation of workshop findings and plans into the Mississippi River Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force's Annual progress Report and Annual Operating Plan.

2010 Workshop

The 1st annual workshop held in 2010 was titled Workshop to Coordinate Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone Research and focused on coordinating the hypoxia monitoring activities to reduce redundancies and increase awareness of the Hypoxia Monitoring Implementation Plan. The workshop lead to the development of the FY10 Hypoxic Zone Monitoring Coordination Plan and Report.

2007 Summit

A 2007 summit, titled Summit on Long-Term Monitoring of the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone: Developing the Implementation Plan for an Operational Observation System, was held to develop a long-term comprehensive monitoring plan for the hypoxic zone. The summit lead to the development of the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Monitoring Implementation Plan (2009, revised 2012). This effort began an ongoing series of hypoxia monitoring and modeling coordination workshops that began in 2010.

2007 Workshop

The 2007 workshop, titled Ecological Impacts of Hypoxia on Living Resources Workshop, convened leading scientists and managers with knowledge of, and experience with, hypoxia and living resources in three coastal centers noted for seasonally recurring hypoxic zones: Chesapeake Bay, Gulf of Mexico, and Lake Erie. Additional systems were also be examined for comparative purposes.