2014 Ocean Sciences Meeting
Annette Wilson
Earth and Ocean Sciences & The Ryan Institute
2014 Ocean Sciences Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
The 2014 Ocean Sciences Meeting took place in Honolulu, Hawaii and was a truly inspirational experience that I am extremely grateful to The Challenger Society for assisting in making my attendance possible. The meeting included over 5,000 oral and poster presentations. The 2014 OSM was exceptionally well organized with its own conference app and 12 concurrent sessions, covering all aspects and disciplines of ocean sciences running all day over the six day conference. The keynote speakers were more than inspiring, with emotional, moving and refreshing talks, particularly from Elizabeth Kapu’uwailami Lindsey, the first Polynesian explorer and female fellow in the history of the National Geographic Society, Robert Richmond, the very humours “Dr.Doolittle” inspired coral reef and climate change Research Professor and Director of the University of Hawaii and Roger Hanlon, a diving biologist and cephalopod expert whom I had previously seen on TED talks!
This was my first international conference to speak at and I gave an oral presentation on my PhD research on ‘Nepheloid Layers in the Whittard Canyon, North East Atlantic” at the Submarine Canyons: Oceanographic Conditions, Geological Features, and Ecological Settings session. I was extremely nervous all week in anticipation of my talk as it was on the last day but it felt fantastic giving my talk. I really enjoyed it, which I had not expect and my work was well received with questions and very useful feedback from other scientists after the session. It was amazing to be in a room of people that were interested in my work. The whole experience has motivated me and illuminated possible future avenues for my work.
A sincere thank you to The Challenger Society for Marine Science.
Annette Wilson,
Earth and Ocean Sciences & The Ryan Institute,
School of Natural Sciences,
NUI Galway,
Ireland.
Latest News
Potential Availability of NERC Ship Time During the 25/26 Programme Year
The NERC Marine Facilities Programme for 2025/2026 for the RRS Discovery and the RRS James Cook has been published on the Marine Facilities Planning website.
The RRS Discovery programme currently contains a 79 day alongside slot between the 2nd of November 2025 and the 19th of January 2026, which is available for science delivery if funded science projects can make use of this time. Due to the location of the vessel, the ship is most likely to be able to deliver fieldwork in the North and East Atlantic regions. Some support for science capability within the National Marine Equipment Pool is potentially available, although there is no capacity for use of autonomous vehicles or remotely operated vehicles. Any fieldwork within Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) will need the appropriate diplomatic clearance submitted to coastal states at least 6 months in advance, and to NMF with sufficient lead time for processing via the FCDO.
If interested in making use of this ship time, please contact NERC Marine Planning (marineplanning@nerc.ukri.org) ASAP to start discussions.
THE MARINE FACILITIES ADVISORY BOARD – CAN YOU HELP?
The Marine Facilities Advisory Board advises the National Oceanography Centre on marine facilities and services, including the Natural Environment Research Council’s National Marine Equipment Pool (NMEP), the British Oceanographic Data Centre and the British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility.
NOC Association AGM 2025
NOC Association (NOCA) AGM 2025
The 14th AGM of the NOC Association will be held on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th May 2025. This free, on-line event will take place on Zoom, across two consecutive mornings, each starting at 10:00 and ending at 12:30. Although discussion topics are being finalised, we will focus on national capability (NC) science, ships, and autonomous vehicles, and how the community can engage. There will be an update on AtlantiS and on the new marine science scoping group. All are warmly welcome to join. To participate, please complete your registration here. For enquiries: Jackie Pearson, Secretary to NOCA: jfpea@noc.ac.uk