The Excellence in Partnering Award is presented annually to a NOPP project that demonstrates strong partnerships with objectives to advance our understanding of the ocean sciences. The MARES project integrates several organizations that include academic, private, tribal and state government with a focus on understanding the dynamics of the Arctic marine ecosystem in the eastern Beaufort Sea. This coordination of effort produced new insights from a broad range of sensors yielding a more complete understanding of the structure and function of this remote marine ecosystem.
MARES was initiated by senior scientist Dr. Guillermo Auad of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). It was led by Dr. Francis Wiese of Stantec Consulting Services.
ASL’s role in this collaboration was to provide a lead role in the physical oceanographic data collection, along with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. ASL provided most of the instruments for four highly instrumented moorings, including ADCP and ice profiling sonars (IPS), which were operated over two full years from September 2016 to October 2018. ASL was also instrumental in the collaboration with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to provide ship time on the CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier in support of the mooring operations.