Satellite image of mangroves in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh, and India. Darker hues represent higher levels of mangrove canopy cover per-pixel. Photo credit: Dr. Stuart Hamilton. “The web of life ….” “The evolutionary tree ….” These are phrases used so often they approach cliché, but they also capture, in living metaphor, a fundamental truth: that all life exists in relationship.

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Kristin Saunders, a University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science at the Chesapeake Bay Program (UMCES@CBP) employee, organizes regular mini-retreats for the Goal Implementation Team chairs and Chesapeake Bay Program leadership. The Goal Implementation Team chairs included Sean Corson (Sustainable Fisheries), Christine Conn (Habitat), James Davis-Martin (Water Quality), Chuck Hunt (Fostering Chesapeake Stewardship), and Dave Goshorn (Enhance Partnering, Leadership and Management).

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Susan Williams. Photo sourced from UC Davis. On 26-27 Oct 2018, friends and colleagues of Susan Williams held a celebration of Susan’s life and impact. The 26 Oct event was held in the International Center on the University of California at Davis campus. Rick Grosberg, UC Davis faculty, served as the emcee. The event was in a beautiful room that opened onto a courtyard with people attending from all facets of Susan’s life.

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On 27-28 Nov 2018, Andrew Elmore, Alex Fries and I traveled to Sandusky, Ohio for the kick-off workshop for our Western Lake Erie and watershed report card project. We experienced some wonderful Ohio hospitality and had a productive workshop. This was the culmination of a project that I introduced in a previous blog about Lake Erie.

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As part of the Environmental Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas (EMECS) conference in Pattaya, Thailand, that I attended with Dave Nemazie, Bob Summers and Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen, a study tour was organized to expose us to the ecology of the Gulf of Thailand. The Gulf of Thailand is commonly divided into two parts, the smaller inner Gulf (10,000 km2) and the larger outer Gulf (350,000 km2).

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Last November 5-8, 2018, I was fortunate to have attended and presented at the 12th International Conference on the Environmental Management of the Enclosed Coastal Seas (EMECS 12) held at the Jomtien Palm Beach Resort in Thailand. EMECS 12 was hosted by the International EMECS Center and co-hosted by the Royal Society of Thailand, several leading Thai Universities, and the UNESCO-IOC/WESTPAC.

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Oyster populations in the Northeastern United States have reached historic lows as a function of overharvesting, disease, and habitat degradation. Considered a keystone species, oysters provide critical ecosystem services. They clean the water, allowing sunlight to reach underwater plants. They support wildlife as food and shelter. Oyster reefs moderate wave action and prevent shoreline erosion.

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The Global Environment Facility (GEF) hosts a biennial International Waters Conference (IWC9 this year), which focuses on international water issues. Sarah Davidson and I were invited to the conference to talk about how ecosystem health report cards could support transboundary water assessments. This year the meeting was held in Marrakech, Morocco, from 5-8 November.

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Dice clatter on a plain table in a quiet room. The truncated, cacophonous collision of plastic and faux wood laminate foretells the destiny of a densely populated urban area. The game master considers the exposed numbers reflected in the light of a computer screen before inputting the next fated event: Power station 3, grid section 6 fails. Pump 617 offline.

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On 4 Oct. 2018, NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold returned to Earth following his 197-day stint aboard the International Space Station (ISS). After watching Ricky’s Soyuz launch on March 21, 2018, the Soyuz docking with the ISS, various space walks, and various interviews that Ricky made with various groups on earth, it was exciting to finally watch the live-stream of Soyuz capsule landing on the Kazakhstan steppe.

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