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## About
DOGL

The Digital Oceans Governance Lab (DOGL) is situated at the intersection of two trends influencing the future of global oceans: a proliferation of ‘oceans data science initiatives’ (ODSIs) and increasing interest in expanded oceans policy and governance.

Digital Oceans
Governance Lab

### Digital

Digital information about ocean environments is proliferating — high-resolution satellite imagery, sensing platforms above and below water, electronic tags on marine animals, autonomous vehicles and drones. Advances in computing power produce powerful visualizations, data portals and products, often spatial and in real time.

### Oceans

Oceans are vast, multi-dimensional, and fluid — characteristics that historically have constrained human efforts to know and use them. Yet oceans are critical to environmental and social wellbeing, rich with biodiversity, and support livelihoods for people around the world.

### Governance

Governance implications of renewed interest in oceans and new scientific understanding are converging. State and non-state actors mobilize new data technologies and ODSIs to expand human reach into the oceans. New governance frames — such as ‘blue economy’ and ‘blue justice’ — are also emerging.

### Lab

Labs are places of research and experimentation. Our lab brings together an interdisciplinary team of human geographers, marine ecologists, geospatial data scientists and information scientists to explore the role of ODSIs in global and regional oceans governance — toward more just and sustainable ocean futures.

Ocean Data Science Initiatives

### What is an ODSI?

Ocean data science initiatives (ODSIs) are led by scientists, non-government organizations, businesses, state or inter-state agencies — often in collaboration. They mobilize new data technologies to produce new knowledge and understandings of the oceans, with the express goal of informing or improving conditions in the oceans.

An ODSI may be active at any stage of the data ‘lifecycle’ — collection or generation; building platforms and infrastructures for storing, managing and distributing data; advancing analytical tools to ‘make sense’ of data; or serving as hubs that catalyze data networks.

The building blocks

### New data technologies

The term new data technologies captures the many innovations that underlie ODSIs. Much has been written about ‘Big Data’, but that term directs attention to data alone and risks masking the steps and skills required to collect, analyse, interpret and visualize it. New data technologies include data, but also:

1. data collection platforms and devices — satellite remote sensing, sensor networks, autonomous underwater vehicles and aerial drones;
2. computing hardware, software and applications for analysis, modelling, visualization and storage;
3. cloud-based computing and data storage;
4. websites, dashboards, data portals and other digital platforms for sharing, analysis and visualization.

Our Team

## An interdisciplinary team

The Digital Oceans Governance Lab is co-led by Elizabeth Havice (UNC–Chapel Hill) and Lisa Campbell (Duke University), bringing together human geographers, marine ecologists, geospatial data scientists and information scientists.

### Lab Co-Leads

#### Dr. Elizabeth Havice

Co-Lead · Professor of Geography, UNC–Chapel Hill

Uses the lens of governance to explore distributional outcomes in marine resource sectors, food systems and global value chains, with 15+ years researching the global tuna industry and oceans governance, and advisory roles for Pacific Island governments.

#### Dr. Lisa Campbell

Co-Lead · Rachel Carson Professor, Duke University

Studies oceans governance across scales (international, national, local) and issues (protected species, fisheries, MPAs, tourism), with particular interest in how science and non-state actors inform governance outcomes. Based at the Duke Marine Lab.

### Team

#### Dr. Andre Boustany

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Marine biologist advising on Atlantic and Pacific bluefin tuna stock assessment at ICCAT and IATTC, and on the US delegation’s ICCAT Advisory Committee.

#### Dr. Pat Halpin

Professor, Duke University

Directs the Geospatial Analysis Program and Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab; advises OBIS, GOBI, GEO-BON and the UN Decade of Ocean Science.

#### Emily Melvin

PhD Student, Duke University

Researches the blue economy as a post-disaster recovery strategy in Grand Bahama after Hurricane Dorian, and its implications for ocean conservation and governance.

#### Gabrielle Carmine

PhD Student, Duke University

Studies high seas fisheries, corporate power and RFMOs using Global Fishing Watch data to calculate fishing effort for corporate actors.

#### Ana Zurita Posas

REU Fellow, UNC

Pre-Environmental Health Sciences and Geography double major contributing to the ODSI catalog, with plans to study environmental health disparities in rural North Carolina.

#### Zach Kingery

Undergraduate Researcher, UNC

Maps declared relations between ODSIs to understand world-making patterns along lines of funding and partnership.

### DOGL Alumni

#### Dr. Lauren Drakopulos

Former Postdoctoral Fellow

Worked on science, digital technologies and data infrastructure in environmental governance; now at Sandia National Laboratories.

#### Katie Crisp

Former REU Fellow

Worked on the ODSI catalog; now a paralegal at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.

#### Carden Barkley

Former MEM Student, Duke

Now a John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow at the NOAA Fisheries Office of the Assistant Administrator.

Our Work

## Research projects & products

### Tracking tuna and turtles

We have explored the role of new data technologies in managing two iconic marine species — Atlantic bluefin tuna and marine turtles — examining the policy implications of relying on these products to ‘resolve’ scalar mismatches in oceans management.

Atlantic bluefin tuna catch (metric tons) by location — a product of new data technologies used in stock management.

- Havice, E., L.M. Campbell & A.M. Boustany. 2022. ‘New data technologies and the politics of scale in environmental management’, Annals of the American Association of Geographers.
- Havice, E., L.M. Campbell & A. Braun. 2018. Science, scale and the frontier of governing mobile marine species. International Social Science Journal 68 (229-230):273-89.

### Catalog of ODSIs

To understand the world of ODSIs, we assembled an open-access catalog of oceans data science initiatives related to fisheries extraction, biodiversity conservation, and enhancing basic scientific knowledge. We identified more than 150 ODSIs and coded key features: (1) data infrastructure, (2) organizational structure, (3) the ocean worlds they create, and (4) the policy and governance ‘solutions’ they promote.

- Drakopulos, L., E. Havice & L.M. Campbell. 2022. ‘Architecture, agency and ocean data science initiatives’, Earth System Governance.
- Drakopulos, L., Havice, E., Crisp, K., Zurita Posas, A. 2022. Catalog of Ocean Data Science Initiatives. Qualitative Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5064/F6ZQWQJS
- Analysis and cleaning code: github.com/ehavice/DOGL

### ODSI case studies

Based on the catalog, we are exploring case studies to better understand the role of ODSIs as governance actors.

- Havice, E. & L.M. Campbell. 2023. ‘(How) will new data technologies support oceans governance?’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space Magazine. In Contesting the Ocean Decade.
- Watch Emily Melvin present ‘Analyzing Ocean Maps’, an overview of our visual analysis of ODSI spatial data representations.

### ODSI learning modules

In the future, DOGL will provide learning modules to facilitate interdisciplinary experimentation with the potentials ODSIs present for more sustainable ocean futures — articulating the visions and theories of change that inform the use of new data technologies, and experimenting with data synthesis toward sustainability, well-being, justice and equity.

Funding

## Our work is supported by

Our work has been supported by the National Science Foundation Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences Program and the National Geographic Conservation Trust.

## Other relevant work products

- Acton, L., L.M. Campbell, J. Cleary, N.J. Gray & P. Halpin. 2019. What is the Sargasso Sea? The problem of fixing space in a fluid ocean. Political Geography 68:86-100.
- Boucquey, N., K. St. Martin, L. Fairbanks, L.M. Campbell & S. Wise. 2019. Ocean data portals: Performing a new infrastructure for ocean governance. Environment and Planning D 37(3):484-503.
- Campbell, L.M. 2007. Local conservation practice and global discourse: A political ecology of sea turtle conservation. Annals of the AAG 97(2):313-34.
- Campbell, L.M. & M.H. Godfrey. 2010. Geopolitical genetics: Claiming the commons through species mapping. Geoforum 41(6):897-907.
- Campbell, L.M., K. St. Martin, L. Fairbanks, N. Boucquey & S. Wise. 2020. The portal is the plan: Governing US oceans in regional assemblages. Maritime Studies 19(3):285-97.
- Campbell, L.M., N.J. Gray, S.B.J. Zigler, L. Acton & R. Gruby. 2021. World-making through mapping: Large scale marine protected areas and the transformation of the global ocean. In The Routledge Handbook of Critical Resource Geography.
- Campbell, L.M. et al. 2016. Global oceans governance: New and emerging issues. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 41(1):517-43.
- Fairbanks, L., L.M. Campbell, N. Boucquey & K. St. Martin. 2018. Assembling enclosure: Reading marine spatial planning for alternatives. Annals of the AAG 108(1):144-61.
- Fairbanks, L., N. Boucquey, L.M. Campbell & S. Wise. 2019. Remaking oceans governance: Critical perspectives on marine spatial planning. Environment and Society 10(1):122-40.
- Fawcett, L., E. Havice & A. Zalik. Forthcoming. Privatize, democratize, decolonize: Frontiers of ocean knowledges in the 21st century. In The Handbook to Ocean Space.
- Havice, E., L.M. Campbell, L. Campling & M.D. Smith. 2021. Commentary: Making sense of firms for ocean governance. One Earth 4(5):602-4.

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