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The West Coast Governors Alliance on Ocean Health is pleased to announce the launch of the West Coast Ocean Data Portal (http://portal.westcoastoceans.org/). The Portal will help coastal managers, researchers, and the general public to access and discover data relevant to West Coast ocean resource management, policy development, and marine planning. The Portal represents a catalog of curated ocean and coastal data resources from Washington, Oregon, and California with a focus on providing information at a West Coast scale. The system leverages the work of existing efforts, including State Coastal Atlases and Federal data catalogs, by connecting the community of data providers in a single Portal.

“The launch of this website is an important step forward for the West Coast Governors Alliance on Ocean Health. Having tools to access ocean and coastal data will help us address high priority regional ocean issues like marine debris, sea-level rise, ocean acidification, and marine planning. It is truly a collaboration among our State, Federal, Tribal, University and NGO partners to more effectively share data critical to ocean health decision making,” said Gabriela Goldfarb, Natural Resources Policy Advisor in the Oregon Governor’s Office.

Launching the Ocean Data Portal is an essential first step to better connect people with the necessary data to inform issues unique to the West Coast region. Development of the Portal was funded through a NOAA Regional Ocean Partnership grant which has greatly enhanced the ability of the three States, Federal government, Tribes, and the three West Coast Regional Associations of Ocean Observing Systems (IOOS) to collaborate on regional ocean health issues.

The development of the Portal is guided by a Network of ocean data managers and users. This West Coast Ocean Data Network is made up of representatives from state and federal agencies, tribal governments, universities, and NGOs and serves as a forum to connect people around data, outreach, and information technology issues. Participation in the Network is open to anyone interested in sharing ocean data, to learn more visit http://portal.westcoastoceans.org/Connect/.

You can visit the West Coast Ocean Data Portal at http://portal.westcoastoceans.org.