South West Marine Ecosystems Conference 2024

The aim of the South West Marine Ecosystem conference is to bring together marine conservationists, citizen scientists, researchers and managers to share information and network to improve our understanding, inform future monitoring and management of the marine environment. Observations, research outputs and findings from 2023 are collated to input to a State of the Seas annual report.

The conference provides:

1. Networking: an opportunity for a wide cross section of people to meet, exchange views and build social capital networks for the South West’s marine ecosystems in order to:

- provide active support for existing networks enabling and building citizen science projects;

- to encourage collaboration between users, researchers/scientists and managers/policy makers;

- encourage links between researchers on science projects throughout the region’s seas .

2. Recording of observations: the annual conference allows us to record observations on ecological and oceanographic events of the previous year that have affected the South West marine ecosystems and to make the linkages between environmental and biological phenomena. We use these to publish an annual 'State of the SW Seas report'.

3. Ecology of marine species: the conference promotes studies that focus on the ecology of marine species, planktonic, benthic and ‘mobile’ species (fish, birds, mammals, turtles) and the ecosystem that supports them. Annual updates inform our understanding of the status of populations of marine species in the region’s seas and how they are responding to environmental and anthropogenic pressures.

4. Management of South West marine ecosystems: the conference encourages strong relationships between policy makers and scientists; to promote science and the evidence base that underpins management of human activities in the coastal and marine environment with a view to supporting and promoting the health of south west’s marine ecosystems.

5. Marine education and outreach: We highlight marine education and outreach programmes in the South West, support the development of new programmes that promote marine management and promote good practice in environmental education, interpretation, signage and outreach.

…and to come together to celebrate being part of the SWME!

For more details of the programme, directions and accommodation please go to https://swmecosystems.co.uk/

For booking enquiries or issues, please contact [email protected]

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, Plymouth, United Kingdom