History of CenSeam
In August 2003 the Census of Marine Life (CoML) hosted a workshop to consider the potential impacts of a field project on seamounts. The workshop, organized by Karen Stocks and George Boehlert, brought together 33 participants from 11 countries representing the seamount research community, managers and conservation groups. The goals of the workshop were to (1) review the state of scientific knowledge on the biology and ecology of seamounts, (2) determine the priorities for future research, and (3) examine how a CoML field project might catalyze this work. The workshop recommended that a seamount project become a part of the Census, and participants helped define a set of research priorities. The workshop shaped the science questions that would be at the heart of CenSeam. At the end of 2004 CenSeam was funded with a CoML grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and work began in earnest in 2005.
The project closed in March 2011. However, the at the final Steering Committee and Data Analysis Working Group meetings each team agreed to remain in place, and hence will continue to operate without funding. It is likely that CenSeam will assume a skeleton operation but the central office will remain “open” as a point of contact for seamount researchers and other interested parties.
Furthermore, in liaison with our sister deep-sea Census of Marine Life projects (ChEss, CeDAMar, COMARGE) we have launched INDEEP. The International Network for Scientific Investigations of Deep-Sea Ecosystems will build a global network of deep-sea scientists to maintain and develop the international collaborations developed throughout the Census of Marine Life, and further facilitate cross-habitat deep-sea studies; with particular focus on the impacts of human activities. It is hoped that INDEEP will provide an essential service bridging the gap between science and policy. The project has been funded by Fondation Total for 3 years (and aims to continue beyond). The first meeting was held in New Orleans (8-10 December 2010). The meeting was attended by deep-sea scientists, industry, NGOs, ISA and Census Steering Committee representatives.
About the Census of Marine Life
The Census of Marine Life (CoML) was an international science research program uniting more than 2700 researchers from more than 80 nations with the goal of assessing and explaining the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life – past, present and future by 2010. CenSeam officially joined the Census of Marine Life in February 2005.
The CenSeam secretariat was hosted by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in Wellington, New Zealand.
