Next month two of the world’s major marine and maritime conferences are to join forces and come together for the very first time. OCEANS ’07 Aberdeen and EurOCEAN 2007 will be held in Aberdeen from June 18-22, 2007 at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre and will be the first occasion these meetings have ever been hosted in the UK.
These events will bring together the worldwide marine community of scientists, engineers, and technologists together with policy makers, managers and educators, in a framework of easy and informed discussion. The joining together of these two major conferences will ensure that Aberdeen will be the focus for the largest ever gathering in Europe of the marine community.
The programmes for the two meetings complement and contrast each other - the OCEANS programme is traditionally the main focus for the marine science, engineering and technology community to discuss the latest marine challenges, trends and developments. It is run under the auspices of The Oceanic Engineering Society of IEEE (a global professional society). In contrast, EurOCEAN, hosted by the European Commission, will provide the science community with a forum on how marine and maritime science can contribute to maritime policy.
The theme of Oceans '07 Aberdeen, "Marine Challenges: Coastline to Deep Sea", highlights the significant challenges - from the shallowest waters around our coasts to the deepest subsea trenches - which face marine and oceanic engineers in our drive to understand the complexities of the world's oceans and our ability to utilise, explore and preserve this unique environment.
The theme of EurOCEAN 2007 will be a consultation, discussion, and analysis of the European Commission's recently published Green Paper on a Maritime Policy for the European Union, which was published on 7 June 2006. This launched a consultation process that will last until the end of June 2007.
Aberdeen has a long and distinguished pedigree in maritime affairs stretching back a thousand years through exploration, shipbuilding, fishing, and science and engineering to its position now as the "oil and gas capital of Europe". It is, therefore, fitting that Aberdeen is the first UK city to be chosen to host both OCEANS and EurOCEAN and the first to host the joint event.
Professor John Watson, of the University of Aberdeen and Chair of Oceans '07 said: "The fact that these two meetings should come together is testament to the global interest and importance of marine and maritime affairs, and their impact on all our lives."
Mr John Richardson, Head of the Maritime Policy Task Force of the European Commission, said: "The importance of having activists and policy makers from all over the world coming together to discuss the direction of a future maritime policy for our oceans cannot be overstated."
Both OCEANS '07 Aberdeen and EurOCEAN 2007 invite the world's marine policy makers, ocean scientists, subsea engineers, and technologists to come to Aberdeen, Scotland from June 18-22, 2007 to discuss the challenges and policy for the future of the marine environment.