The most striking thing I noticed about Australia was the booming economy due to mineral resources. This included coal mining in Queensland and offshore gas and oil in Western Australia and Northern Territories. In addition, the live cattle and sheep trade with the Middle East and Indonesia was large.

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A recently released policy statement by a group of Senior Scientists and Policymakers provides a review of nutrient trading as a management tool to be used in Chesapeake Bay. Nutrient trading, the buying and selling of nutrient reduction credits, is a relatively new approach that is being applied to achieve nutrient reductions. There is a new tool provided by Google that tracks the use of different terms over time called ‘Google Ngram Viewer’.

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Spending six months away from home and away from the normal work environment was a privilege that not many people have the opportunity to experience. It is one of the substantive 'perks' of academia for those who choose to avail themselves of this opportunity. While it does take considerable energy to move house and office and get set up in a foreign land, the opportunity to view what you do from outside your normal world provides invaluable perspective.

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The trip around Savai'i Island passed through dozens of small villages that intercept the single road that largely follows the coastline. Each village had one to several large churches with immaculately kept grounds and a painted empty propane tank hanging out front. The propane tanks serve as the church bells to call people to the services.

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A group called "Clean water, Healthy families" released the results of a poll of Maryland voters regarding Chesapeake Bay restoration. This poll provided some interesting findings. It was particularly gratifying to see that the public perception of the health of the Bay (average C-) matches EXACTLY with the EcoCheck report card (2010 score = C-). The grade voters give their local streams, creeks, and rivers is only a slightly higher C-Minus.

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Samoa is broken up into American Samoa and Samoa (formally known as Western Samoa). The islands are volcanic in origin, formed by a 'hot spot' of tectonic activity below the Pacific tectonic plate which is moving from east to west. The last volcanic outburst was on Savai'i, the largest island in the archipelago, in the early 1900s. The volcanic soils are nutrient-rich, resulting in lush plant growth.

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At the invitation of Drs. David Haynes and Tim Carruthers, I visited the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) offices in Apia, Samoa. I had previously met David Sheppard, the Director of SPREP, when he visited Washington, D.C., but David was away on travel when I visited Samoa. The SPREP offices formed a nice campus of separate buildings, joined by covered walkways. I met with various staff, gave a seminar and had a nice lunch in town with Tim and Tepa from SPREP.

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Our IAN group likes to tackle large complex projects on iconic ecosystems, while working with interesting and knowledgeable people. We love the immersive learning that comes with challenging projects and good teams. The Gulf of Mexico report card project is one of those exciting projects on an iconic ecosystem with a good team.

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As part of the Gulf of Mexico Summit, we had the opportunity to present our prototype report card. For the presentation of the prototype Gulf of Mexico report card, we assembled our six man report card team: Drs. Larry McKinney and Wes Tunnell from the Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University, Drs. Mark Harwell and Jack Gentile, Harwell, Gentile & Associates, and Drs.

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The Summit … Earlier this month I got to participate in what everyone hopes is a seminal moment for the future of the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf Summit 2011 brought together invitees from scientific, academic, government, industry, NGO, and environmental law communities in the region for 5 days in Houston, Texas in early December.

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