#EMSEA14 was held at Gothenburg University, a centre of marine science, in the medieval heart of the old city of Gothenburg. Gothenburg is a lovely city on the west coast of Sweden. The Swedes there are friendly, with a relaxed graciousness and their attitude, along with the city’s many parks, canals, walking, biking and well-organized public transport system, make it an easy and enjoyable place to navigate.
Gothenburg boasts Sweden’s biggest science centre as well as a wonderful aquarium and maritime museum. Lobster season was open as the conference began and so were the hearts and minds of attendees from around the world, ready to be inspired about ocean literacy and best practices in marine science education.
This blog is just a sketch of the conference, it only includes a few of the presentations and the view is my own. I also tweeted at the conference, (@AnneinBamfield) and you can find everyone’s tweets by looking at #emsea14 on Twitter. I also invite you to comment, tweet, retweet and mention. If you are interested in more detail and want to learn more, go to the EMSEA web-site and link to the conference site where all the presentations will be posted. A big shout out goes to the organizers of this conference including the EMSEA team, the University of Gothenburg and their friends at the Maritime Museum & Aquarium, Universeum, Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Science at Kristineberg and the upper secondary sailing school, Öckerö Gymnasieskola. I thank the organizers for allowing me to do a five-minute, dance-along presentation on ‘Canadian progress in Ocean Literacy with the Voices of Youth’ in the closing ceremonies. I am personally grateful to the American organization, National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) for a scholarship that helped me to attend. I hope that my tweeting and blogging goes a little ways towards showing my deep gratitude for that assistance to participate in the great conference that was EMSEA14. Thanks to Peter Tuddenham for the Creative Commons attribution on his photos.
Gaelle Le Bouler opened the conference, addressing the audience from the perspective of the European Commission, where she is the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. Gaelle put the importance of the conference into the context of current affairs in the European Union (EU) and emphasized the high-level, political will to advance ocean literacy in Europe. She spoke about the Galway Statement signed by EU, Canada and US and explained the structure and progress of working research groups. She shared her surprise with us at receiving thirteen proposals from consortiums responding to the EU Horizon 2020 call “BG-13-Ocean Literacy”. The results of that competition will be announced November 21st.
Lisa Emelia Svensson, was the keynote speaker and as Sweden’s Ambassador for Oceans, Seas and Fresh Water, provides advice and expert guidance to the Swedish Minister for the Environment on the action needed to move forward on Sweden’s international ocean and water agenda. She is part of the Foreign Service and spoke knowledgeably about ocean issues, the different sectors, sustainability, politics and ocean literacy. She inspired all of us to view potential challenges as opportunities, by thinking outside of the box for a blue economy that is integrated with the green.