I attended the 2nd International Ocean Research Conference entitled 'One Planet One Ocean' in Barcelona, Spain 16-21 Nov 2014. I was a co-organizer for a workshop 'How is your ecosystem doing? Advances in the use and understanding of ecosystem indicators' and presented an invited talk, 'Science communication strategies and environmental report cards for effective coastal ocean governance'. The conference and workshops were over a six-day period, and five plenary talks were presented.

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Jane Hawkey, Caroline Donovan, and I had a fantastic visit to Raleigh, NC, where we are working with the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SALCC) develop a State of the South Atlantic Ecosystems Assessment. Over the last two years or so, the SALCC has been developing a set of indicators that reflect on conservation priorities for 11 ecosystems in the US South Atlantic region.

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In late October 2014, I travelled to New York City to represent IAN at the media launch of a new National Science Foundation (NSF) project based in New York Harbor and led by PACE University. It’s a pretty big deal to receive major funding from the NSF and this is the first NSF project that I have been involved in. For it to be based in one of the most famous cities in the world is an added bonus.

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Three teams of coastal scientists, engineers, and planners are going head-to-head to see who can come up with the best ideas for creating a self-sustaining coast for Louisiana. That's the challenge posed by the Changing Course competition. Selection of these teams this summer completed a year-long process [pdf] that started with screening applications from over 21 groups. The eight strongest applicants were asked to prepare detailed proposals, which were reviewed last spring.

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One of the interesting things that came out of attending the 17th Annual International Riversymposium was the opportunity to learn about several new relevant books. Last year at the 16th Annual International Riversymposium , I launched the IAN Press eBook 'Dancing with Dugongs: Having fun and developing a practical philosophy for environmental teaching and research' that I co-authored with the late Peter Oliver.

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The 7th biennial Education and Science Forum sponsored by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Educational Partnerships Program (NOAA-EPP) was held on the beautiful campus of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) during some spectacular autumn weather (Oct 24-26).

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What do volcanoes, floodplains, conversations, hops, a Sound, the Bay, and sea level rise all have in common? The Association of State Floodplain Manager’s annual conference in Seattle included every one. Even the hops. Puget Sound view of the Olympics and geoduck harvesters. Snow-capped Rainier in all its glory in February.

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I was asked by Mike DeLuca from Rutgers University to present a plenary talk at the annual gathering of the National Association of Marine Laboratories (NAML), which was held jointly with the Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS) at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. The meeting was titled 'Windows to the World: Networking field stations and marine labs to address environmental change'. OBFS-NAML 2014 Joint Meeting - Windows to the World:

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On October 9th, Bill Dennison, Caroline Donovan, and I traveled to New Rochelle, New York, for a meeting on the Long Island Sound Report Card. The Long Island Sound Study includes two working groups, the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC), and the Science and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC). These committees had a joint meeting on October 10th that we participated in, to further the progress of the Long Island Sound Report Card.

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Simon Costanzo, Heath Kelsey, Dave Loewensteiner, Judy O’Neil, Jane Thomas and I attended the 17th Annual International Riversymposium in Canberra, Australia, 15-18 September 2014. The theme of this year’s symposium was ‘Large River Basins’ which was quite topical for the IAN team completing the draft Mississippi River report card.

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