16 February 2016
WASHINGTON, DC — Discover the latest in ocean science research at the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting, taking place from 21-26 February at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. The meeting will bring together researchers from the American Geophysical Union, the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, and The Oceanography Society.
Included in this advisory:
- Press conferences and press releases
- Webstreaming: Access 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting press conferences live online
- Keynotes, plenaries and award lectures
- Press registration and badge pickup
- Press Room and Quiet Room information
- Virtual Press Room information
- Shipping materials to the Ocean Sciences Meeting
- Ocean Sciences Meeting App
- Who’s coming
Please visit the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting Media Center for previous media advisories that include information about visas for international reporters and searching the scientific program.
- Press conferences and press releases
The Ocean Sciences Meeting press office has planned a number of press conferences highlighting newsworthy research being presented at the meeting. A list of the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting press conferences is below and on the “Press Conferences” tab in the online Media Center.
The Ocean Sciences press office will also issue press releases about newsworthy research being presented at the meeting. Please also see our Media Tip Sheet, a list of potentially newsworthy research presentations at the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting selected by the Ocean Sciences Meeting press office.
The following schedule of press conferences is subject to change before or during the Ocean Sciences Meeting. Updates, changes and additions to the press conference schedule will be posted in the Press Conferences tab in the Media Center.
All press conferences will take place in the Press Room, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Room 214. Times are listed in Central Standard Time. All press events will be streamed live over the web. Click on the “Webstreaming” tab in the Media Center for further information and see #2 below for details.
Forecasting fisheries
Monday, February 22
1 p.m. CST
More than 80 percent of the world’s fish stocks are exploited or over-exploited due to expansion of commercial fishing over the past several decades. Many fish stocks can recover, however, when fisheries implement sustainable management practices. Here, experts will present new ways that ocean science data can be used to make commercial fisheries more efficient and sustainable as well as new data on how climate affects fisheries worldwide.
Participants:
Phoebe Woodworth-Jefcoats, research oceanographer, National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.;
Kathy Mills, associate research scientist, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Portland, Maine, U.S.A.;
Dale Kiefer, chief scientist, System Science Applications, and professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.;
Hiromichi Igarashi, Ocean Data Assimilation Research Team, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan.
Sessions: ME14A, PC11A
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Combating coastal land loss
Tuesday February 23
10 a.m. CST
About 500 million people around the world live on deltas, making coastal land loss one of the biggest social and environmental challenges globally. Perhaps nowhere is the issue more apparent than in Louisiana, which loses about a football field of wetlands every hour. Leading experts in coastal geology, ecology and engineering will present new information about coastal land loss in Louisiana and around the world, and report on new research to potentially address this global problem.
Participants:
Samuel Bentley, director, Louisiana State University Coastal Studies Institute, Baton Rouge, LA, USA;
Robert Twilley, executive director, Louisiana Sea Grant, Baton Rouge, LA, USA;
James Syvitski, executive director, Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System, University of Colorado-Boulder, USA;
Jaap Nienhuis, postdoctoral fellow, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA.
Sessions: PO14H, MG21A, MG41A, EC41A
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Marshes in coastal Louisiana: five years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Tuesday February 23
11 a.m. CST
Much of the research following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill focused on offshore, deep-water ecosystems, but a group of scientists have been looking at the effects the spill had on coastal marshes – wetlands that have a long history of oil exploration, high rates of erosion and tropical storm activity. A panel of experts will present new information about how salt marshes in coastal Louisiana have responded to the spill. They will discuss the effects on different marsh species like insects and fish, and how the oil has behaved in these areas, including new information that could help scientists track this spill and others.
Participants:
Ed Overton, professor emeritus, Louisiana State University Department of Environmental Science, College of the Coast & Environment, Baton Rouge, LA, USA;
Linda Hooper-Bui, associate professor, Louisiana State University Department of Environmental Science, College of the Coast & Environment, Baton Rouge, LA, USA;
Paola Lopez-Duarte, assistant research professor, Rutgers University Marine Field Station, Tuckerton, NJ, USA.
Sessions: CT24B, HI53B
- Webstreaming: Access 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting press conferences live online
Reporters can remotely participate in Ocean Sciences press conferences via webstreaming. For information on how to sign up and access this feature, click on the “Webstreaming” tab in the online Media Center.
If, for some reason, the webstreaming does not work for a particular press conference, we will immediately put up a message on the Ocean Sciences Meeting Media Center home page and switch to making the briefing available via teleconference. To call into the teleconference, dial 877-709-0939 within the United States and Canada, or +1 678-735-6305 internationally. The participant passcode is 192-424-7921.
Note: The teleconference will only be available if the webstreaming goes down.
- Keynotes, plenaries and award lectures
The Ocean Sciences Meeting will host a keynote address and several plenary talks and award lectures throughout the meeting including:
- Jane Lubchenco, University Distinguished Professor, Oregon State University, and U.S. Science Envoy for the Ocean, Department of State, will deliver the keynote address 6-7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 21.
- Susan Lozier, President of The Oceanography Society and the international lead for the OSNAP (Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program) observing system, and a panel that includes Nancy Knowlton, the Sant Chair in Marine Science at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC and senior scientist emeritus at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama; LaDon Swann, Director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium and Auburn University Marine Programs; and Charles A. Wilson III, Chief Science Officer of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, and Emeritus Professor in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, will participate in a plenary session 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Tuesday Feb. 23.
- Corinne Le Quéré, Professor of Climate Change Science and Policy at the University of East Anglia and Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research; and Antje Boetius, Professor of Geomicrobiology at the University Bremen, and leader of a joint research group on Deep Sea Ecology and Technology of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and the Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology, will address attendees in a plenary session 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Thursday Feb. 25.
The keynote and plenary sessions will take place in the Great Hall A/B.
- Press registration and badge pickup
Online press registration for the Ocean Sciences Meeting will remain open throughout the meeting in order to expedite the registration and badge pick-up process. We encourage all press registrants to register online.
Press registrants receive, at no charge, a badge that provides access to all scientific sessions, the press room, press conference room, and quiet room. No one will be admitted to the meeting without a valid badge. For eligibility requirements, please visit the Press Registration Eligibility Requirements page.
Note: Some events and activities, including but not limited to invitation-only events and communications workshops, are not open to press badge holders.
Pre-approved press registrants should print and bring their confirmation letter with them to the meeting. Badge pick-up will be available at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Level One, outside of Hall B. When you arrive, proceed to the registration area and scan the bar code on your confirmation letter. You will also be able to search for your registration without a copy of the letter.
Eligible members of the press may also register on-site at the meeting. To register on-site, please proceed to the main registration desk located at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Level One, outside of Hall B. For press registration eligibility requirements and required credentials, please visit the Press Registration Eligibility Requirements page.
On-site registration and badge pick-up times:
Sunday, Feb. 21: 2:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 22 through Friday, Feb. 26: 7:00 A.M.-5:30 P.M.
- Press Room and Quiet Room information
The Ocean Sciences Press Office will provide a Press Room with workspace for reporters, including a computer, printer, Wi-Fi and room for working and networking with colleagues.
The Press Room is located in Room 214 on the second floor of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. All press conferences take place in the press room.
The Press Room opens daily at 7:30 a.m. Monday, Feb. 22 through Friday, Feb. 26. The room closes daily at 6:00 p.m. except for Friday, Feb. 26, when it closes at 2:00 p.m.
Light refreshments will be provided in the Press Room for news media registrants.
Press registrants can reserve a quiet room during the meeting to conduct interviews. The quiet room (S.O. A101) is located on the first level of the convention center near the main registration desk. Please sign up to reserve this room at the front desk of the press room. Reservations are given in 30-minute increments for up to one hour at a time, and are on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Virtual Press Room
During the Ocean Sciences Meeting, journalists can find press releases and many resources online in the Virtual Press Room in the Media Center on the Ocean Sciences Meeting website. Public information officers (PIOs) can now post releases and other materials on the site.
For public information officers: Sign up now for a login for the PIO Uploader. PIOs with a login can add press releases, tip sheets and press conference materials to the Virtual Press Room at any time before or during the meeting, including uploading items in advance and scheduling them to post during the meeting. To register for a login, go to the Media Center on the Ocean Sciences Meeting website and click on the “For PIOs” tab. Only registered PIOs will be allowed to upload content.
For journalists: Press releases, press conference materials (including PowerPoint presentations, images, videos, scientific papers and more) and video recordings of press conferences are added to the Virtual Press Room during the meeting for easy online access.
- Shipping materials to the Ocean Sciences Meeting
Public information officers can disseminate paper press releases and related documentation at the Ocean Sciences Meeting. We recommend bringing around 20 copies of printed materials and three to five copies of broadcast-quality video.
The easiest way to get these materials to the Press Room is to take them yourself or to give them to one of your scientists with instructions to deliver them to the Ocean Sciences Press Room (Room 214).
If you prefer, you may send these materials (but not to arrive before Saturday, Feb. 20) by FedEx, UPS, or DHL to the following address:
c/o Nanci Bompey
(Guest arriving Feb, 20)
Omni Riverfront Hotel
701 Convention Center Boulevard
New Orleans, LA 70130
Shipments to the above address should be timed to arrive on Saturday, Feb. 20, or after. They will be displayed from Monday, Feb. 22 or as soon as received (if later than Monday).
Remaining materials may be collected from the press room by Friday, Feb. 26 at 1:00 p.m., after which they will be thrown away.
- Ocean Sciences Meeting App
The 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting Mobile App is now available for download for iOS and Android.
Download the mobile app to browse, search, and schedule sessions from the scientific program to your itinerary planner. Explore events and workshops, search the Exhibit Hall, and receive notifications on late-breaking meeting news and events.
Click here for instructions on downloading the mobile app.
- Who’s coming
Check the online Who’s Coming list of journalists and press officers who have registered for the meeting. This list is updated regularly.
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