The Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities (MDBC) team with NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science attended a team meeting at the Wicker Center in Gulfport, Mississippi. CSS employee owners supporting this team (as part of our joint venture with RPI) participated in the meeting January 26-29. The objective of this workshop was for project managers, advisors, and partners to discuss 2025 accomplishments and plan next steps for 2026 and beyond. The MDBC team represented four projects at this meeting: Active Management and Protection, Coral Propagation Technique Development, Habitat Assessment and Evaluation, and Mapping, Ground-truthing, and Predictive Habitat Modeling. Each project within the portfolio had one day dedicated to updates and discussion for that team. 

Prior to the meeting, each project team held a virtual seminar where multiple CSS staff were able to present scientific results to their teams. A select group of individuals in leadership roles—including CSS employee owners—attended the in-person meeting in Gulfport.

Tank in a dimly lit room with several colonies of octocoral.

On the day dedicated to Coral Propagation Technique Development, CSS staff played a key role in putting together the agenda, facilitating the day, and giving two presentations on fieldwork and lab accomplishments. On the second day, which focused on Habitat Assessment and Evaluation, CSS staff gave a talk on publications, presented on data management, and led a synthesis product discussion for the Habitat Assessment and Evaluation team. On the day focused on Mapping, Ground-truthing, and Predictive Habitat Modeling, CSS staff gave talks on publications and data management, and a presentation on coral and substrate models. 

Additionally, CSS staff participated in planning the entire event contributing to the success of workshop. 

Learn more about this cross-agency effort. 

See More CSS Insights

New Data and Reports on the U.S. Marine Economy

Each year CSS economists on contract with NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management work with other federal agencies to process the most recent economic and labor data, and extract the portions related to marine-dependent sectors.

Satellite image of hurricane approaching Florida

Supporting the Launch of NOAA Data to Inform More Resilient Infrastructure Designs and Structures

Congratulations to NOAA for launching their new Typical Meteorological Year product, developed by the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) as part of the industry initiative. This effort helps make environmental data actionable for architects and engineers designing the next generation of resilient infrastructure. CSS is proud to support this effort and our employee owners who contributed to this product.  The Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) product provides location-specific…

New Contract. Same Great Work.

We’re pleased to announce a new small business joint venture with Paul Bechtel & Associates (PB&A), which was awarded a 5-year contract to continue supporting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs.  For 40 years our staff have supported EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs in the review and evaluation of pesticide data.…