PhD candidate Vivian Nguyen had the chance to to attend the Coastal Zone Canada (CZC) conference, held in Halifax from 15-19 June, 2014. This marked their 11th meeting, and the theme was “Our Coasts: Legacies and Future”. This year’s conference celebrates 20 years of CZC conferences, and the event returned to Halifax where the first CZC conference originated in 1994. The conference reflected on what we have been doing in the last 20 years, how our coasts have changed, how have we dealt and adapted to these changes, and what we need to do for the future of our coasts. One major theme was BIG DATA. Timothy Kearns, was the keynote speaker who opened the conference with today’s challenge – “databesity” (i.e. too much data)!
In his presentation, he says: “Big data is like teenage sex. Everyone talks about it, no one really knows how to do it, but we all claim we are doing it.” There is worldwide shortage of data scientists, and we need this data to inform decision makers. My focus was on the symposium titled “Does Information Matter” A Critical Question for the Future of Coastal Zone Management” hosted by the Environmental Information: Use and Influence Research Program and the Bay Of Fundy Ecosystem Partnership, which sparked discussions on how we can effectively use information in environmental management.
Vivian thanks the Ocean Tracking Network, for inviting her to speak at the conference at the symposium titled “From Science to Governance: Ocean Tracking Research for the Betterment of Canadian Marine Ecosystems and Resource Management”. The symposium was unique given that the speakers were “tag teams” – a natural scientist paired with a social scientist presenting about the same issue. The tag teams spoke about the Grey Seal and Atlantic Cod debate, the concern of American Eel and Atlantic Sturgeon from both natural and social sciences angles. Definitely, a unique approach and something we will likely see more of in the future!
For more information please visit CZC’s twitter site twitter #czc2014, and their Facebook page.
