SEACHANGE Annual Meeting 2024
This year, it was the turn of the University of Exeter to host the SEACHANGE annual meeting which took place during at the end of June. The dramatic north Cornish coast at Mawgan Porth was a perfect location for the project partners to meet and discuss the research completed within the last year.
The meeting was well attended with a total of 39 delegates making the journey to the Bedruthan Hotel. A large contingent spent the entire week in Cornwall, representing the SEACHANGE project at the Oceans Past Initiative conference held the previous week at the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus. It was great to see some new faces at the meeting with new project collaborators from Aarhus University and Maynooth University attending for the first time. James Scourse (the University of Exeter’s PI) accurately describe the meeting as ‘the peak of the SEACHANGE project’, meaning it is the time in the project with the most number of people involved conducting the greatest volume of research and data collection.
This was clearly demonstrated in the first day of the 3 day meeting which was spent reviewing the incredible amount of progress made on the various work packages during the past year. A series of presentations brought everyone up to speed, but also help identify topics of discussion for the break-out group sessions scheduled for the next 2 days of the meeting. The day was fairly intense, so many people welcomed the 5:00pm work cut off to watch another dismal performance by the English football team in the European Championships. After a delightful evening meal, the SEACHANGE team spent the evening having further (more relaxed) discussions about work as well as enjoying a cliff-top walk to the spectacular Bedruthan Steps.
Despite the weather being rather gloomy, some of the meeting attendees chose to go for early morning swims in the rather chilly Cornish sea. However, far more chose to make good use of the hotel’s spa facilities whenever the opportunity arose. The remain days of the annual meeting were spent in discussion groups, identifying areas of study where more work is needed, figuring out solutions to technical problems as well as making plans for the next few years of the project. The final evening was meant to be spent having a large BBQ on the hotel terrace. However, the unpredictable Cornish weather did not play ball and the BBQ was moved to the dining room.
The final session of the meeting was spent updating the list of publications which are due to come out of the project as well as highlighting areas of dissemination activities. The outputs which the SEACHANGE project has already achieved is incredible, and with over 2 years left on the project, the consortium remains galvanised at achieving so much more.
