
Join us for another NMFS Ecosystem Based Management/Ecosystem Based Fishery Management Seminar Series (EBM/EBFM)!
Presenters: Avalon Bristow, Program Director, MARCO; Mike Snyder, New York State Department of State, Steering Comm. Chair of Mid-Atlantic Committee on the Ocean; Karl Vilacoba, Urban Coast Institute’s Communications Director & Communications Lead/Project Manager for the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal
Abstract: The Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) is the Regional Ocean Partnership for the Mid-Atlantic. MARCO has been coordinating across geographies and agencies around shared ocean priorities since 2009 when it was established by the governors of the five coastal Mid-Atlantic states – VA, MD, DE, NJ, and NY. In 2018, MARCO established the Mid-Atlantic Committee on the Ocean (MACO) to foster collaboration among states, federal agencies, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC), and federally recognized tribes, and to engage stakeholders. We will provide an update about ocean planning activities in the Mid-Atlantic, with a special focus on the region’s five topic-specific working groups and the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal.
About the Speakers
Avalon Bristow is Program Director at MARCO, where she works closely with the Board to develop and implement actions that advance MARCO’s priorities. She is staff support to MARCO’s collaborative work groups, is Co-Coordinator of the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Acidification Network in partnership with MARACOOS, and is Coordinator for the Regional Wildlife Science Entity in partnership with the Northeast Regional Ocean Council. Prior to joining MARCO, Avalon worked as a Program Manager for National Wildlife Federation’s Mid-Atlantic office, where she coordinated their coastal resilience and conservation education programs.
Mike Snyder is the Ocean and Great Lakes Program Manager at the New York State Department of State. He is currently a MARCO Management Board member and the Steering Committee Chair for the Mid-Atlantic Committee on the Ocean (MACO). Since joining the Department in 2008, Mike has been actively involved in advancing New York’s Ocean and Great Lakes policy agenda, including contributing to regulatory reviews of energy projects in the Offshore Atlantic, helping to create the Five-State Mid Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO), and coordinating State agency participation in the BOEM-New York Offshore Renewable Energy Task Force.
Karl Vilacoba is the Urban Coast Institute’s Communications Director and the communications lead/project manager for the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal. Prior to joining the UCI, Karl worked for the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, where he oversaw a variety of public outreach efforts and served as managing editor of InTransition, a national transportation magazine published in partnership with the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Karl previously spent a decade as a news reporter and editor for newspapers in the Jersey Shore area and at USA Today’s Manhattan Bureau. A lifelong Shore resident, Karl also served for several years as a member of the Lake Como Unified Planning & Zoning Board and the borough’s Environmental Commission.
POC: Peg Brady (peg.brady@noaa.gov); Library Seminars (library.seminars@noaa.gov)
Registration: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4462794963967362828

In person at the Westin Annapolis (100 Westgate Circle Annapolis, MD 21401) and online via Webex webinar.
This meeting will be conducted as a hybrid meeting. Council members, other meeting participants, and members of the public will have the option to participate in person at the Westin Annapolis or virtually via Webex webinar. Both virtual attendees and those attending the meeting in person will use the “raise hand” function in Webex to comment, ask questions, make motions, and vote. We are recommending that all in-person attendees either be vaccinated or receive a negative COVID test prior to meeting attendance. We are also encouraging attendees to wear a mask when moving around the hotel and meeting space.
Webinar Information
The virtual portion of the meeting will be conducted via Webex webinar. No pre-registration is required. The webinar link will be the same for all four meeting days.
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Click here to join the webinar (if prompted, enter meeting number: 2330 933 4966; Meeting password: ncKMj56xX6p)
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Join by phone: For those who will not be joining the webinar but would like to listen in to the audio portion only, dial 1-415-655-0001 and enter access code: 2330 933 4966#). When asked for your attendee ID, enter #. Participants connected by phone only will need to enter *6 on their keypad to unmute/mute themselves and *3 to raise/lower their hands.
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Need Help? If you need technical assistance, please check the Webex Participant Guide. For further assistance, contact Mary Sabo at msabo@mafmc.org or 302-518-1143 (call or text).
We will also be live streaming the meeting to our YouTube channel.


The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will meet Tuesday, October 4, 2022 – Thursday, October 6, 2022 at the Hyatt Place Dewey Beach (1301 Coastal Highway, Dewey Beach, DE 19971, 302-864-9100). This will be conducted as a hybrid meeting, with in-person and virtual participation options.
Webinar Information
The webinar will be conducted on the Webex meeting platform. No pre-registration is required.
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The webinar link will be posted here at least two weeks prior to the meeting.
LIVE STREAM: For listen-only access, check out the Council meeting live stream on YouTube.
Public Comments
Comments may be submitted using the online comment form linked below or by email to cmoore@mafmc.org. Comments received by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 21, 2022 will be included in the relevant briefing tab. Comments submitted after this deadline and before 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, September 29, 2022 will be posted as supplemental materials. After the supplemental comment deadline, comments may only be submitted via the online form below (no email).
Agenda and Briefing Materials
Briefing materials will be posted below as they become available.
Save the Date: Next Advisory Council Meeting to be held October 28
The next advisory council meeting, which is open to the public, will be held on October 28 from 12-2:30 pm EST. The agenda for the meeting will be posted in early October on the advisory council page of our website; a meeting summary from the June advisory council meeting can now be found on this same page. As you know, collaboration is at the heart of ROSA’s mission, and these advisory council meetings provide us with a great opportunity to discuss and work together on critical initiatives. I hope you are able to participate in this fall’s meeting.
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The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will meet December 12-15, 2022 in Annapolis, Maryland. Portions of the meeting will be conducted jointly with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board and Interstate Fishery Management Program Policy Board.
This will be conducted as a hybrid meeting. Council members, other meeting participants, and members of the public will have the option to participate in person at The Westin Annapolis or virtually via Webex webinar. Please see the December 2022 Council Meeting Page for webinar details, public comment deadlines, briefing materials (as they become available), and other updates.
A detailed agenda is available here. Below is an overview of the main topics to be covered each day.
Monday, December 12
- Executive Committee (Closed Session)
- Habitat Activities Update
- Offshore Wind Updates
- Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean Quahog Species Separation Requirements Amendment – Final Action
Tuesday, December 13
(Joint with ASMFC boards)
- Harvest Control Rule Framework / Addendum Percent Change Approach and Recreational Fishery Models
- 2023 Scup Recreational Measures
- 2023 Black Sea Bass Recreational Measures
- 2023 Summer Flounder Recreational Measures
- Previously Initiated Recreational Reform Actions
Wednesday, December 14
- Climate Change Scenario Planning
- Monkfish Framework 13: 2023-2025 Specifications and Management Measures
- Protected Resources Updates
- 2023 Implementation Plan
Thursday, December 15
- Proposed Hudson Canyon National Marine Sanctuary
- Business Session
Questions? Contact Mary Sabo, msabo@mafmc.org, (302) 526-5261.

- Examining impacts of extreme discharge events and climate change on the carbonate system of the York River Estuary using a coupled physical-biogeochemical model
- Comparing climate resilience of selectively-bred larval aquaculture broodstock to that of the wild Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica
- Building collaborative partnerships between scientists and educators to develop new education materials focused on the effects of ocean acidification on American lobsters
Abstracts and Speaker Information:
Wild-n-wacky or Bred-n-butter: Are Larvae from Selectively-bred Aquaculture Broodstock More Resilient to Climate Change than those from Wild Eastern Oysters,Crassostrea virginica?
Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) provide ecosystem (e.g. 3-D reef structures) and economic (e.g. aquaculture) services to the Chesapeake Bay and other coastal areas. Oyster aquaculture is a growing industry, and the need for traits such as fast growth and disease resistance led to the development of multiple generations of selectively-bred and refined broodstock lines. Development and preservation of selected broodstock could affect various physiological processes in offspring that could potentially result in different responses to stress compared to their wild counterparts. As environmental conditions within the Chesapeake Bay continue to shift warmer and more acidic – which are individually and simultaneously known to decrease shell and tissue growth, decrease energy stores, change metabolic pathways and affect development – responses to these conditions may differ between selectively-bred and wild oysters, potentially affecting their success in the future. Because larval oysters are considered the most vulnerable and sensitive life stage and therefore are already a bottleneck to the success of wild oyster populations and aquaculture production, my study exposed larvae from wild oysters and selectively-bred broodstock to four treatments composed of two temperature and two acidic conditions that represent average ambient and current extreme states in the mesohaline region of the Chesapeake Bay. Growth, biomass, cellular stress, and survival were measured throughout showing that larvae from wild oysters may be more resilient to warming and acidifying waters than those from selectively-bred oysters.
Annie Schatz, Ph.D candidate at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary. She works with Dr. Emily Rivest to study the potential physiological impacts of climate change on the early-life stages of marine invertebrate species. Her research focuses on effects from multiple environmental stressors, ocean acidification, how environmental history may impact performance of later life stages and shellfish aquaculture. Annie received her B.S. from Pitzer College in Claremont, CA where she studied how the respiration rates of two populations of Acorn barnacles differed across a range of temperatures.
Building collaborative relationships between scientists and educators is an important step in improving climate change education. By providing real-world data and hands-on experiences, scientists can assist students in connecting marine processes with changes in marine and human communities. A recent project focused on understanding effects of ocean acidification on American lobsters is a strong case study for extended collaboration between scientists and educators. Three main tools were used to develop educational materials: an internship to provide hands-on research experience for science teachers, multimedia content for sharing information about the project, and the Virginia Scientist Educator Alliance (VASEA) to provide training for lesson plan design. Together, these project components can serve as a roadmap for scientists and educators looking to improve ocean acidification education.
Abbey Sisti, PhD candidate at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. She has a B.S. and M.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Alabama. Her research focuses on understanding marine invertebrate responses to climate change conditions. Abbey is interested in translating climate change science to educational and policy contexts.
