Dr. Havice receives NSF GSS grant for “Tracking mobile marine species: Spatial data, visualization and the science-policy interface”
Ocean governance is of increasing interest to scientific and policy communities and presents unique challenges based on the ecological and political nature of the oceans and marine resources. In this nexus, highly migratory species like tuna and sea turtles are difficult to ‘know’ and to claim; they spend their life crossing ocean basins beyond the view of scientists and policy makers. Since the 1980s, scientists have attached satellite tags to individual animals to monitor their movements. The resulting spatiotemporal data has made mobile marine resources legible and visible to policy makers in compelling ways, yet the ways spatiotemporal data and visualizations generated from these projects intersect with resource control and resource management has never been assessed. This research project will examine how scientific studies that yield spatiotemporal data and visual representations of mobile species shape policy debates about control over highly migratory ocean resources and property. The project will provide new insights regarding the connections among the production, visualization, and interpretation of tracking data and their subsequent interpretation in science-policy relations. The interdisciplinary team of investigators will integrate the research areas of mobile marine resources and the control relations governing them to address questions dealing with resource control in the oceans. The investigators will focus on four core questions: (1) How do scientific representations of tagging data inform management debate and practice? (2) How have tagging data influenced the ways resource claims are made and assigned by and among nation-states, and how do interpretations of tagging data influence policy? (3) How do scientists determine the ways they visually represent their data to stakeholders? (4) How have policy and management needs influenced the research questions, species and study areas on which tagging studies are initiated? Project findings will provide new perspectives regarding how science-policy relationships intersect with questions of resource-control decision making involving local, regional, and global stakeholders.
For more information on this award, check this link.