In April, graduate students Jeewantha Bandara and Zoë Kitchel attended the 5th annual Effects of Climate Change on the World’s Ocean (ECCWO) conference in Bergen, Norway. They met with former postdocs Alexa Fredston (UCSC) and Becca Selden (Wellesley College), in addition to scientists from NOAA, University of Washington, Norway, South Africa, Tasmania, among others. Highlights included exciting discussions about integrating science and policy at relevant timescales and developing stock indicators to help fishermen strategize catch, a visit from the Prince of Norway, and very uncharacteristically warm and sunny weather. Both Jeewantha and Zoë are grateful to NSF, the University of Maryland, and WHOI for travel funding!
Jeewantha presented on the use of mechanistic modeling to describe and project black sea bass distributions. Zoë illustrated how continental shelf area varies by depth and latitude, and potential implications for species richness globally.
Special congratulations to Alexa Fredston who earned a ‘Best Early Career Presentation‘ award for her talk on the lack of impact of marine heat waves on biomass of temperate demersal fish species across diverse ecosystems.