The 2nd World Congress of Marine Stations

27-29 November 2024, Shizuoka, Japan 


▶ The congress has been endorsed as Ocean Decade Activity, UNESCO-IOC

▶ Programme updated

▶ The World Marine Station Atlas updated

▶︎ Vidar Helgesen, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC/UNESCO) and Assistant   Director-General of UNESCO, will give welcome address on 27 Nov.

The World Association of Marine Stations (WAMS)

The purpose of World Association of Marine Stations (WAMS) is to provide a forum for marine stations from all regions of the world to establish inclusive partnerships and strengthen collaboration among marine scientists to foster marine scientific research internationally.

WAMS also enables better identification of global capacity and facilitate coordination on a range of issues from education and training to interdisciplinary research and long-term observations. This global network also provides the marine scientific community with a common voice on marine research matters and marine policy, and vitally, helps support global goals for the ocean and provide a stronger voice to champion the role of marine stations.

CONGRESS OVERVIEW

The 1st World Congress of Marine Stations (WCMS) in November 2021 resulted in the establishment of a new WAMS Steering Committee and the ‘WAMS Communique’, stating the importance of the world’s marine stations coming together to mobilise scientific capacity to meet key scientific and environmental challenges.

The 2nd World Congress of Marine Stations being held in November 2024 in Shizuoka, Japan is bringing together speakers from a wide range of countries representing marine stations and networks. The aim of the 2nd congress is to build on the momentum established at the WCMS 2021 with key aims congress being:

- To highlight latest developments across the globe in science and outreach being undertaken at a global level and to identify opportunities for international collaboration

- To demonstrate and showcase the unique capacity of marine stations for meeting global challenges and identify opportunities for capacity building

- To further consolidate WAMS as a network through bringing together regional and other pan-national networks, agreeing and establishing new mechanisms for global networking and engagement 

- To facilitate engagement with Japanese Marine Stations through site visits

Congress Outputs will include:

- The ‘WAMS Declaration’ reiterating the need for global cooperation to address Ocean Challenges at a time of global instability and political division

- A conference report highlighting next steps identified at the workshop to inform an implementation plan to further establish WAMS in its role in facilitating international collaboration. 

- Updated Steering Committee membership 

Registrations

Please visit here for Registration information.

Registration Deadline:  

    Early bird            Closed  Wednesday, August 15, 2024   Sunday,September 15, 2024 

    Standard              Monday, September 30, 2024   Wednesday,October 30, 2024

Local Organising Committee


Kazuo Inaba (Chair, JAMBIO / University of Tsukuba)

Gaku Kumano (Tohoku University) Takako Saito (Shizuoka University)

Hiroaki Nakano (University of Tsukuba) Sylvain Agostini (University of Tsukuba)

Kogiku Shiba (University of Tsukuba) Fujiko Tsuchiya (JAMBIO)


WAMS Management Group


Matt Frost (Chair, Plymouth Marine Laboratory)

Anna Gebruk (Secretary, University of Edinburgh) 

Alexander Tzetlin (Pertsov White Sea Biological Station of Lomonosov Moscow State University)

Axel Miller (Scottish Association of Marine Science)

Yi Wang (The National Ocean Technology Center (NOTC) / Ministry of Natural Resources, China)

Amy Watson (WAMS Secretariat assistant)

Kazuo Inaba (University of Tsukuba)

Contact

wcms2024japan@gmail.com (Local organising committee,WCMS2024)

WAMS@pml.ac.uk (WAMS Secretariat)