The Monmouth University Institute for Global Understanding (IGU) and Urban Coast Institute (UCI) hosted the virtual panel discussion “International and Domestic Strategies for Ocean Conservation and Biodiversity: Is 30 by 30 Enough?” on April 6. The event was part of the Global Ocean Governance Lecture Series, which assembles international experts to discuss scientific and policy issues that hold important implications for coastal and marine ecosystems. The discussion was moderated by UCI Director Tony MacDonald and included the following speakers and presentations:
- Mark Gold, executive director, California Ocean Protection Council: “California’s 30 by 30 Initiative for State Ocean Waters”
- Sebastian Nicholls, principal associate, Pew Charitable Trusts Ocean Conservation Program: “Realizing the 30 by 30 Vision: The Need for a Strong High Seas Treaty to Reach the Ambition of 30 by 30”
- Lauren Wenzel, director, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Protected Areas Center: “Diving Into and Beyond Numeric Targets: A National Perspective on Ocean Conservation and Biodiversity”
Biographies & Abstracts
Mark Gold
Bio: Mark Gold joined the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC) in July of 2019. As executive director of OPC and the deputy secretary for ocean and coastal policy for the California Natural Resources Agency, he serves as a key advisor to the governor and the secretary of natural resources and directs policy, scientific research, and critical partnerships to increase protection of coastal and ocean resources in California. Prior to his appointment, he was the associate vice chancellor for environment and sustainability at UCLA, where he led their Sustainable Los Angeles Grand Challenge effort. Prior to UCLA, Gold was the first hire at Heal the Bay, where he served as their president for 18 years. During that time, he worked on ocean and coastal legislation and policy, stormwater, watershed management, and marine conservation and coastal restoration issues, projects and programs. Over the course of his career, his research focused on beach water quality and health risks, as well as sustainable water resources management. Mark received his bachelor’s and master’s in biology as well as his doctorate in environmental science and engineering, all from UCLA.
Sebastian Nicholls
Abstract: Over 115 country governments have made public commitments or statements supporting the vision of protecting at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030, though current marine protected areas (MPA) coverage is just under 8%. Simple math shows protecting a large portion of the high seas will be required to reach 30%, but our ability to do so depends on UN biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions (BBNJ) negotiations. This presentation will focus on the treaty elements needed to enable effective, representative, and connected networks of MPAs on the high seas, as well as candidate areas identified by scientists for a first generation of High Seas MPAs. The presentation will also address the core question — whether 30 by 30 is enough — by briefly discussing how governments can ensure reporting and accounting on the quality of protected area coverage, and not just extent.
Bio: Sebastian Nicholls is the principal associate on the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Protecting Ocean Life on the High Seas team. He closely follows international policy discussions at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on the 30 by 30 target, monitoring framework and contributions from areas beyond national jurisdictions. In addition to CBD, he also engages on the United Nations negotiations on an international legally binding instrument for the governance of biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions (BBNJ). He has been with Pew for two years, and previously worked with Marine Conservation Institute, and as a consultant to philanthropic organizations investing in new technologies and approaches to protect marine habitats effectively.
Lauren Wenzel
Abstract: The U.S. has committed to conserving 30% of its lands and waters by 2030 to help conserve biodiversity and its benefits; advance climate resilience; and make nature more accessible to all. But the numbers only tell part of the story. This presentation will share the global and U.S. policy contexts for marine protected area (MPA) targets, describe progress toward tracking progress on area-based conservation, and discuss the concept of a “conservation continuum” that identifies opportunities for greater conservation outcomes in U.S. waters. MPAs are just one part of a complex mosaic of area-based management of the ocean. We’ll discuss how MPAs can function as the core of conservation networks that can help sustain ecosystem benefits in a rapidly changing ocean.
Bio: As the director of NOAA’s National Marine Protected Areas Center, Lauren Wenzel focuses on connecting and strengthening the nation’s diverse marine and coastal protected area programs through capacity building, information and tools, communication, and collaborative governance. Her focus is on building partnerships among U.S. and international marine and coastal programs and stakeholders to demonstrate the value of protecting the ocean’s most important places. Lauren has been with the MPA Center since 2004.
The American Shoreline Podcast Network’s “Capitol Beach” podcast kicked off a five-part series on the 50th anniversary of the federal Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) with an episode featuring National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator Rick Spinrad and Urban Coast Institute Director Tony MacDonald. The conversation explored Spinrad and MacDonald’s careers in ocean policy, the landmark legislation’s historic impacts, and its staying power in the face of mounting challenges such as climate change, new and competing ocean uses, and America’s growing economic reliance on coastal resources. The podcast is moderated by Coastal States Organization (CSO) Executive Director Derek Brockbank.
BIOGRAPHY: Monica Patrice Barra, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist and assistant professor of race and environment in the School of the Earth, Ocean & Environment and Department of Anthropology at the University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on the ways racial inequalities and geographies are forged in and through scientific knowledge and practices, racial histories, and transformations of coastal environments in the U.S. Gulf South. These topics animate her first book project, “Good Sediment: Race, Science, and the Possibilities of Restoration,” which is an ethnographic examination of the ways Black ecological practices and imaginaires disrupt and re-orient techno-scientific understandings of environmental restoration in the context of coastal Louisiana’s coastal wetland loss crisis. Portions of her research in Louisiana have been published in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers and The Professional Geographer. Her research has been supported by several national grants, including the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the National Academies of Sciences Gulf Research Program, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. She has collaborated with and presented her work to a variety of environmental groups and organizations, including: NOAA, The National Marine Sanctuaries Foundation, and The Water Institute of the Gulf.
BIOGRAPHY: Juliano Calil, Ph.D., is a senior fellow at the Center for the Blue Economy and adjunct professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Calil is the co-founder of Virtual Planet Technologies and a pioneer in science communication. His work and academic research are motivated by the urgent need to reduce climate change impacts by adopting equitable solutions through inclusive community engagement. Calil and his team are developing interactive virtual reality experiences to communicate climate change impacts and solutions to diverse audiences. Virtual Planet is working with communities across the country, from Turner Station, MD to Santa Cruz, Long Beach, and Paradise in California, to address complex issues related to coastal flooding, wildfires, and conservation. Calil has published studies related to the use of immersive solutions to address climate impacts and coastal adaptation studies in California, Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mid-Atlantic region, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Recently, he published two studies: “Using Virtual Reality in Sea Level Rise Planning and Community Engagement” and “
BIOGRAPHY: Sharmini Pitter, Ph.D., is the assistant director of the NOAA Center for Coastal and Marine Ecosystems. Pitter is a graduate of Stanford University’s Department of Environmental Earth System Science in collaboration with the Stanford Archaeology Center. Her transdisciplinary research background includes geochemical studies of the link between changes in the paleoenvironment, cultural technology, and decision-making during the Neolithic period. Pitter utilizes her research background to assist students in preparing for the future, transdisciplinary workforce.
The Urban Coast Institute has awarded two spring Faculty Enrichment Grants for projects that will expand green teams in New Jersey schools and create art inspired by utopian societies that once existed in Jersey Shore communities.
The Urban Coast Institute (UCI) is seeking proposals from Monmouth University students and faculty members of all disciplines for grants to support summer research through its Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe Scholars program. Endowed scholarships for the 2022-23 school year are also available for Monmouth students with a demonstrated financial need and interest in coastal, marine, and environmental studies.
Summer research projects may be proposed by students with the support of a faculty mentor or proposed by a faculty member with the support of students who will work under their supervision. Students will have the opportunity present their work at the 
UCI Faculty Enrichment Grants support full-time faculty of any rank for individual or collaborative projects for the enhancement of existing curriculum, new curriculum development, research and scholarship, and team-teaching opportunities. Although all proposals relevant to the goals and objectives of the UCI will be accepted, the UCI is particularly interested in funding collaborative, multidisciplinary projects that address aspects of the climate crisis and advance diversity, equity, inclusion and justice.
This presentation compares Inuit and commercial hunting activities, highlighting the differences between the purpose, practices, and scale of these hunts. With the distinctions between the two practices made clear, it explores the historic and ongoing ways in which the commercial sealing industry and federal government have perpetuated the conflation of the two. By failing to acknowledge the differences between Inuit and commercial sealing practices, special interest groups have been complicit in perpetuating this conflation as well, although several of these groups have recently worked to clarify the distinction between the two. As a result of the muddied dialogue on commercial and Inuit sealing, both food security and the survival of culture and livelihoods has been compromised in Inuit communities. Despite these ramifications, some Inuit support the commercial hunt because of how anti-sealing campaigns have adversely affected Inuit hunters. At the same time, other Inuit believe that the industry constitutes a wrongful appropriation of their sacred cultural practice, and are seeking to reclaim the practice as their uniquely protected right.
Sarah Levy is a Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, where she is conducting research on the laws surrounding Canadian sealing activities. In her doctoral project, she is exploring the conflation of Inuit sealing practices and the commercial sealing industry, with a focus on the intersections of animal, environmental, and Indigenous rights in this context. Sarah has been called to the Bar of Ontario and held positions at the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks at the Government of Ontario and Animal Justice Canada. She holds a B.A. (Hons) from Trinity College, University of Toronto in Ethics, Society, and Law and Environmental Studies, and a J.D. and Master of Environmental Studies from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. She completed her master’s research on the topic of direct-action and international marine wildlife conservation laws, in which she explored the ways in which nongovernmental organizations fill the gap between law and enforcement where nation states fail to institutionalize conservation.
Student Researcher: Michelle Etienne
Beach badges were first introduced by the town of Bradley Beach in 1929 for the sole purpose of limiting beach access to only town residents and visitors in town hotels. But it quickly was recognized as a revenue-generating method and many beach towns followed suit. In 1972, in the landmark case of Borough of Neptune v. Avon-by-the-Sea, Avon-by-the-Sea attempted to charge less for badges for town residents and more for out-of-town residents to access its beaches. The court held that municipalities may not discriminate against nonresidents with badge fees. Although this case established that there may not be any discrimination in pricing, badge fees still restrict some people from being able to go to the beach. These fees also have no limit to how much they can be increased each year. In Avon-by-the-Sea alone, daily badge fees went up by $3 in just two years and a regular adult season badge increased by $10. Although these badge fees are the same for everyone, these fees are becoming more expensive, ultimately making it less affordable for some New Jersians to access the beach. This reality undermines the goals of the public trust doctrine and the duty that state and local governments have to ensure adequate access to public trust lands.
Student Researcher: Samantha Pawlik
Mitigating these risks through technology and policy reforms is key to implementing such a large-scale project in a safe manner. Cutting-edge technology has been a crucial component in the construction of offshore wind farms. My project discussed suction bucket and gravity-based foundations, which are new technologies that can be used in place of monopile foundations as a quieter and less disruptive alternative during construction. Collaboration between agencies to provide efficient documentation of progress and findings, transparency of information with shore towns and public education on the projects, and continued research efforts are all key to attenuate the threats posed by offshore wind farms. Duke University recently received a $7.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to assess the risks that offshore wind energy development along the East Coast may pose to birds, bats, and marine mammals. This type of research will help inform decisions and identify steps that can be taken to reduce harmful impacts on marine wildlife as offshore wind deployment increases.