Structure & Organization

This symposium will begin with concurrent sessions featuring research contributions from both natural and social scientists, and will seek to connect their relevance to marine resource managers and policy and decision-makers. Plenary sessions will follow where invited keynote speakers will provide perspective, insight, and challenges to the participants. Four themes will be presented in plenary through invited and contributed talks. To ensure that the goals of the symposium are achieved, there will be discussion in each theme of current knowledge, gaps in that knowledge, and recommendations for future science needs in the Gulf of Maine.

The symposium will address a number of underlying topics that cut across specific theme areas from the list below. A major goal is to ensure that a socio-economic/policy aspect is included within each of the themes.

Symposium Themes

Theme 1: Tools for integrated policy and management

Co-Conveners:
Andy Rosenberg/Leslie-Ann McGee (US) and Arran McPherson/Tim Hall (Canada)

This theme will produce a synthesis of the management and policy tools and approaches that are required to implement integrated management in the Gulf of Maine. Papers will be sought on:

• Development of new scientific approaches, tools, and analysis methods for EAM, including integrated ecosystem models, management strategy evaluation approaches including marine protected areas as a spatial conservation tool, etc.

• Integration of the above approaches, tools, and methods into policy and management

• Coordination of science and management scales (the scale for observation and the scale for feedback) for multiple ecosystem services and sectors-- identifying temporal and spatial mismatches between biological systems and human institutions

• Assessment and measurement of management success from a coupled social-ecological perspective

Theme 2: Structure and function of the Gulf of Maine system

Co-Conveners:
Michael Fogarty (US) and David Townsend (US)

This theme will produce a synthesis of the current ecological and oceanographic understanding of the Gulf of Maine, and the social, economic, and cultural interactions and goals within the Gulf through papers delivered on:

• Habitats, biodiversity, and function

• Population structure and trophic ecology

• Biological, chemical, and physical oceanography

• Social, economic, and cultural attributes

Theme 3: Anthropogenic and external influences on the Gulf of Maine ecosystem

Co-Conveners:
Madeleine Hall-Arber/Judy Pederson (US) and Jim Abraham/Peter Wells (Canada)

This theme will produce a synthesis of the major pressures being exerted on the Gulf of Maine that impact the achievement of objectives or the desired state of valued attributes (ecological, social/cultural, and economic). Papers will be sought on:

• Measurement and assessment of effects of climate change on Gulf of Maine ecosystems

• Impacts of commercial fishing

• Impacts of marine invasives

• Land-based impacts, including pollution

• Impacts of alternative developments of the marine zone, including aquaculture and energy facilities, e.g. wind, tidal, LNG

• Watershed/land use/river inputs (e.g. nutrient and sediment loads)

Theme 4: Monitoring/observation, data collection, analyses, and tools required for an Ecosystem Approach to Management (EAM) of the Gulf of Maine

Co-Conveners:
Jeffrey Runge (US) and Michael Sinclair (Canada)

This theme will produce a synthesis of the science that is required to observe and predict changes in the Gulf of Maine ecosystem, and to evaluate the strategies used to implement an ecosystem approach to management. Papers will be sought on:

• Evolution of monitoring approaches for EAM

• Ocean mapping

• Ocean observing systems

• Indicators and reference points for monitoring programs

• Socio-economic indicators

Symposium format

The symposium will be open to both oral and poster papers, and will begin with one-day concurrent science sessions and workshops that will provide the opportunity for two-way exchange amongst natural and social scientists on progress made since 1996. The symposium will then be opened by the Organizing Committee and a presentation highlighting the outcomes of the previous RARGOM symposium in 1996. The symposium opening will be followed by a number of "perspective" talks given in plenary, followed by plenary theme sessions. For each theme session there will be:

• Keynote talks by both Policy/Management and Science

• Invited and contributed papers (addressing symposium goals)

• A summary of the relevant concurrent science sessions

• Rapporteur led discussion (leading to recommendations)