CenSeam, an International Program on Seamounts within the Census of Marine Life: Achievements and Lessons Learned

In 2005 the Census of Marine Life launched ‘‘A Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts’’ (CenSeam), an international science project to increase our knowledge of the ecology of seamounts. Specifically, the mission of CenSeam was to determine the role of seamounts in the biogeography, biodiversity, productivity, and evolution of marine organisms, and to evaluate the effects of human impacts on seamounts. Here we overview the history, goals, activities and programmatic outcomes of CenSeam, with recommendations for improving similar programs in the future. Effective components of the project included mini-grants of generally less than US$10,000 to fund proposal development or difficult-to-fund research, or to expand the scope of an expedition; travel funds for data analysis working groups to meet, several times if needed, to address a targeted research question; advanced training workshops for both young researchers and established scientists; staff support for organizing books, special issues in journals, and review papers; and advising conservation and management initiatives on seamount science. From a programmatic perspective, the lessons learned include the importance of: having the science community develop and endorse the key programmatic and scientific goals; in-person meetings and workshops to foster new collaborations; promoting open data sharing; funding salary time for critical work; and establishing and actively managing open communication mechanisms to allow scientists to develop a consensus opinion on science topics, which could then be conveyed to conservation and management organizations