During June and July, members of the Environmental Information: Use and Influence (EIUI) research team will present the results of research projects and initiatives at several meetings and conferences in Canada and Europe.
3 -16 June 2016. Dr. Suzuette Soomai will report on key findings from her doctoral research at the annual meeting of the Scientific Council of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), which is meeting in Halifax (www.nafo.int). Suzuette’s dissertation, “Elucidating the Role of Scientific Information in Decision-Making for Fisheries Management,” addressed the question: What role(s) does fisheries scientific information fulfill in policy- and decision-making for fisheries management? Her research was based on in-depth study of three governmental organizations: the Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans (national), the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (regional), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (international).
6 June 2016. The EIUI team will launch the new book Science, Information, and Policy Interface for Effective Coastal and Ocean Management. Eighteen months in the making, this volume features chapters by over 30 authors based in Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. The launch, co-sponsored by EIUI and Dalhousie’s MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance, will feature a panel of authors – Dr. Suzuette Soomai, post-doctoral fellow; Dr. Kevin Quigley, Director of the MacEachen Institute, and Dr. Susanna Fuller, Marine Conservation Coordinator, Ecology Action Centre – and will be chaired by Dr. Megan Bailey, Canada Research Chair in Integrated Ocean and Coastal Governance, Marine Affairs Program, at Dalhousie University. The book is now available from the publisher CRC Press (Taylor & Francis) and other booksellers.
7-9 June 2016. Dr. Ian Stewart, will present the paper, “Oil Spill Response and Social License: A Perspective from the Social Sciences,” co-authored with Dr. Peter Wells, at the 2016 AMOP Technical Seminar on Environmental Contamination and Response, which is meeting in Halifax. Now in its 39th year, the AMOP seminar (former Arctic and Marine Oilspill Program) is organized and sponsored by the Emergencies Science and Technology Section, Science and Technology Branch of Environment Canada. The seminar is “an international forum on preventing, assessing, containing, and cleaning up spills of hazardous materials in every type of environment.”
8-11 June 2016. Several EIUI team members will attend the 11th biennial Bay of Fundy Ecosystem (BoFEP) Science Workshop – “Fundy in Flux: Challenges for Science, Policy, and Society” – at St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick. Dr. Suzuette Soomai will present the poster “Enablers and Barriers at the Science-Policy Interface: Case Studies on Scientific Information Use in Environmental Decision-Making” (co-authored with Sarah Chamberlain, Bertrum MacDonald, James Ross, Peter Wells, and Lee Wilson); Lee Wilson will present the paper “Communication in Tidal Power Networks Operating in the Bay of Fundy: The Important Role of Bridger Organizations”; Lee Wilson will also present the paper “Towards a National Network for Ocean Observation: Perspectives from the Bay of Fundy” (co-authored with Andy Sherin); Dr. Peter Wells will present the paper “Diluted Bitumen Spills in the Bay of Fundy: An Update on the Scientific and Technological Challenges” (co-authored with Ian Stewart); and Sarah Chamberlain will present the poster “Determining the Overall Use and Influence of a Long-Term Marine Environmental Monitoring Program: A Case Study on Gulfwatch in Nova Scotia.”
12-15 June 2016. Dr. Suzuette Soomai and Lee Wilson will attend the 2016 Coastal Zone Canada Conference in Toronto. Over the past 20 years the biennial CZC conferences have been organized by the Coastal Zone Canada Association and this year will attract “500 individuals from around the world interested in all aspects of integrated ocean, coastal, lake and watershed management.” Suzuette Soomai will present the paper “Policy and Governance for Fisheries Management: The Vital Role of Scientific Information at the Science-Policy Interface” (co-authored with Bertrum MacDonald) and Lee Wilson will present the paper “Bridging the Gap: The Role of Bridger Organizations in Complex, Multi-Sectoral Communication Networks for Ocean and Coastal Management” (co-authored with Bertrum MacDonald).
18-21 July 2016. Dr. Bertrum MacDonald will attend the 24th annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP) meeting in Paris, France. The annual SHARP conferences are the main international meeting for scholars interested in historical aspects of both print and digital culture. The theme of the 2016 conference is “Languages of the Book / Les langues du livre” and Bertrum will present the paper “The Language of Science: Is It Readable by Policy Makers? (co-authored with Sarah Chamberlain, James Ross, Suzuette Soomai, Peter Wells, and Lee Wilson).
