CAST

ICES Annual Science Conference 2024

In September, Christina, Obinna and Georgie from the CAST team attended the International Council for the Exploration of The Seas Annual Science Conference 2024 (ICESASC24) in Gateshead, hosted locally by CEFAS and DEFRA. The 5-day conference took place in the spectacular venue of The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, bringing together nearly 800 participants from all over the globe to network, develop ideas and share exciting new science.

The programme featured 18 theme sessions covering a huge range of topics from biodiversity conservation, climate change, fisheries management and the application of AI in marine science – so it was great for the CAST team to be part of such an interesting and highly relevant event.

Christina and Georgie designed CAST project posters; Georgie gave an overview of the full project while Christina focussed on the habitat mapping element. Both were displayed in the foyer for the duration of the conference – a prime location by the Glasshouse entrance which allowed maximum exposure!

And the two of them had the (nice?!) surprise of being invited to present their work on the final day of presentations during Theme Session E: “Developing applied evidence for biodiversity conservation and management“.

Obinna gave an excellent presentation on the work he has been doing on the AI element of the project during Theme Session J: “Moving the latest developments from machine learning and AI closer to exploiting mountains and lakes of data“.

Not just formal presentation sessions…

During the conference, not only were there numerous formal presentation sessions to attend (particular highlights were the Keynote presentation from Louisa Evans, Professor of Environment and Development, University of Exeter
Advancing the frontiers of transdisciplinary marine science​ and other theme sessions such as Session K: “Incorporating human dimensions to improve fishing opportunities advice​” and Session L: “Evaluating ecosystem-based management performance“) but some great break-out sessions too:

Georgie attended a number of the “Early Career Scientist” networking events, starting with a networking breakfast early on day one, as well as taking a tour around the Northumberland IFCA research vessel.

Georgie and Christina both joined in the “Novel engagement and communication tools for science and decision making for ecosystem-based management” break-out session, which gave them the opportunity to test out and get involved in some innovative and engaging communication strategies to reach a wide range of audiences including:

• videos
• theatre productions
• art
• games
• interactive dashboards
• comic strip (guess who this was designed for: No not the kids…but government policy makers)

Not just all work and no play…

On Monday evening, all participants were invited to St James Park, where attendees got a tour of the world renowned football pitch and viewed the Pride in the Seas exhibition by Scottish Fishermen’s Federation. An amazing venue for some informal networking and socialising.

And who could forget the conference dinner on Wednesday evening at the wonderful Biscuit Factory? Once a Victorian biscuit manufacturing warehouse, it is now an impressive art gallery and events venue. Following a champagne reception surrounded by beautiful examples of local art work in the upper gallery, we were treated to a delicious three course dinner down in the banqueting hall, where we got the opportunity to speak to other participants, enjoy some live music and reflect on the week’s events.

In summary

Over the course of the week the team were approached by a number of scientists excited about the work we are doing and keen to discuss the opportunity to extend the methodologies to other angling events. Fingers crossed for some fruitful future collaborations!

With thanks to…

Overall, the ICES Annual Science Conference 2024 was a great success. Many thanks to all the incredible people working behind the scenes to ensure a smooth running of the whole conference – greatly enhanced by using the Whova app which allowed all participants to organise their personal diaries (which would have been a challenge given the number of events), have live interactions and ask questions during presentations in real time, and watch back any missed sessions. All in all a great success!

Who are ICES?

Notes from the ICES website:

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Our V​ision: ​To be a world-leading marine science organization, meeting societal needs for impartial evidence on the state and sustainable use of our seas and oceans.

Our Mission: To advance and share scientific understanding of marine ecosystems and the services they provide and to use this knowledge to generate state-of-the-art advice for meeting conservation, management, and sustainability
goals.

Photo Credits: ICESASC24 and Georgie Banfield