On 16th May 2023, the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) Steering Committee convened for a productive online meeting that saw discussions ranging from the establishment of a new Data Taskforce, the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems and updates from regional nodes.
The Steering Committee meeting was opened by Tom Dallison (International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) Secretariat), with an overview of the agenda and Britta Schaffelke (Australian institute of Marine Science (AIMS)) and Jennifer Koss (USA / ICRI Host Secretariat representatives (chair)) provided opening and welcoming remarks.
Members were reminded that the 2020 global GCRMN report is now finalised, with appropriate metadata on the webpage, with the DOI, the ISBN; https://gcrmn.net/2020-report-v1-2023/
Subsequently, the meeting saw presentations from: Erica K. Towle, Ph.D., on a new data task force; David Obura, on the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems; Jérémy Wicquart, PhD, on the upcoming GCRMN Pacific Report – Status and Trends of Coral Reefs: Pacific.
Updates from the regional coordinators were welcomed:
- John Burt, regional coordinator for the ROPME region, provided the steering committee with an overview of the recently hosted “Northeastern Arabia Reef Monitoring Workshop”, held 9-11 May 2023 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. There is a key drive to increase the capacity within the region regarding coral reef monitoring and this workshop marks critical progress for the node.
- Christophe Blazy, regional coordinator for the Caribbean region, detailed the preparation of the Region’s workplace for 2023 – 2024 which will the development of a working group for data management as well as the integration socio-economic data through SocMon.
- An update was provided David Obura, Western Indian Ocean regional coordinator, highlighting the recent workshop in Comoros in March 2023. The workshop aimed in supporting countries on reporting on their status of coral reef. An output will be a technical working group within the region, which will identify a work plan, regional database, improving fish method, SocMon.
The meeting was closed with a congratulations to SocMon following the release of two reports (which are available online):
The 
