We listened to a presentation conducted by Dr. Burton Jones.  He is a Professor of Marine Environmental Biology at the University of Southern California. His research interests include bio-optical oceanography, physical-biological interactions, coastal processes, and coastal ocean observing systems.  Dr. Jones has been involved in implementing a coastal observing system that includes both fixed sites and autonomous vehicles.  Ocean observing systems was a common theme throughout the week.  Most of you are probably aware that we know very little about our oceans.  Ocean scientists are in the process of deploying instruments that will measure several ocean properties, i.e., tempurature, chemistry, density, salinity, currents, etc…  Although, there is data gathering taking place right now and the data is available to us, it will be several years before scientists will be able to make some serious conclusions about our oceans.  I will be passing this information on to my students and encourage them to be a part of ‘writing the story’ and sharing this information with the public.