Over 600 marine scientists gathered this week in A Coruña under the theme, "Sustainability in a changing ocean". Participants enjoyed lectures throughout the week from Luis Valdes, IOC-UNESCO, Ana Parma, Centro Nacional Patagónico, Argentina, and Phil Levin, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, USA .
The latest thought-provoking marine research was exchanged among peers with a total of 17 theme sessions covering a wide range of topics, including integrated ecosystems assessments, aquaculture, and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
At the closing ceremony, scientists that had given the best presentations and posters were formally recognized and presented with ICES Merit Awards. The awards were presented by Yvonne Walther, the chair of the ICES Science Committee (SCICOM) at the Palexco Congress and Exhibition Centre, A Coruña, Spain.
Paris Vasilakopoulos from the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research was awarded the Best Presentation Award for his study on quantifying ecological resilience in shifting complex natural systems: an application on Barents Sea cod.
Rudi Voss from the University of Kiel, Germany was awarded the Best Poster Award, the second year running, for his poster "Four fish in 2048 - What will be the status of the wild ones?"
ICES also recognizes the important contribution from early career scientists and presented th ree awards in this category at the conference. These awards were each accompanied by €700 to assist the winners in attending further ICES meetings or workshops. The Best Early career scientist Presentation awards were given to Jessica Luo for her talk on Environmental drivers of the fine-scale distribution of a gelatinous zooplankton community across a meso-scale front and Raquel Marques for her presentation on Dynamics of production and mortality of Aurelia aurita's ephyrae in Thau Lagoon, Northwestern Mediterranean.
The early career scientist awarded Best Poster was Orian Tzadik, USA with his presentation of "A non-lethal approach identifies ontogenetic shifts in d15N signatures in fin rays of Goliath Grouper, Epinephelus itajara".
The conference was organized in cooperation with Instituto Español de Oceanografía who are also celebrating their centenary this year.
