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2014 Marine Aggregation: Resources & Summaries

   
 
 The Marine Aggregation is a meeting of The Nature Conservancy’s marine staff and partners that takes place about every three years.  This year, almost 200 staff and partners, representing over 15 countries and all U.S. coastal states, gathered at the Asilomar Conference Grounds for a robust exchange of ideas and solutions among our growing marine community.

Participants celebrated, shared and learned ways to advance our work; participated in plenaries, sessions and networking discussions to better understand and contribute to the Conservancy’s marine global strategies; and exchanged ideas and experiences around the necessary science, practice, policies, communications and partnerships for conservation success.

The meeting was a mixture of engaging plenaries, group workshops and concurrent sessions organized around three Global Marine Strategies: Ocean Solutions – Integrated Ocean Management, Sustainable Fisheries, Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction, with the fourth session - Expanding Our Practice  - designed to cut across the three strategies.

What Happened at the Marine Aggregation?
Explore by day: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Day 1 - Plenaries

 
Welcome and Setting the Stage for Ocean Conservation:  Lynne Hale, Managing Director for Oceans, The Nature Conservancy |
Julie Packard, Executive Director, Monterey Bay Aquarium and Trustee, TNC California | Video 
 
Creating a community of business, government, and the public for conservation success - Peter Kareiva, Chief Scientist, The Nature Conservancy |  Video | Presentation 
 
Advancing Ocean Conservation Together – TNC’s Global Marine Strategies: In this plenary, participants were provided with an opportunity to get up to speed on our global marine strategies, setting the stage for discussion, learning, and sharing within three of our meeting streams. Presentations:
   
•    Ocean Solutions/Integrated Ocean Management – Rob Brumbaugh
•    Sustainable Fisheries – Carmen Revenga
•    Climate & Disaster Risk Reduction – Mike Beck
 
Regional Perspectives on Global Marine Strategies: In this moderated panel, staff from around our marine regions, shared their insight about implementing our global marine strategies in the places we work, including challenges,  and successes on how programs working together can advance ambitious marine conservation goals. Video |  Graphic Facilitation Drawing
 
Celebrating an Ocean Bright Spot: The Aggregation was our opportunity to celebrate and recognize Lyda Hill’s extraordinary contributions to marine conservation through The Nature Conservancy. Video Tribute and Comments from Lyda Hill | Video Tribute Only.
 
Advancing Ocean Conservation Together – Implementing Global Challenges/Global Solutions: Achieving the goals and outcomes of our marine global priorities calls for us to be more collaborative and effective than ever before. In this plenary we heard about and discussed the vision from our new Chief Operating Officer, Brian McPeek, how we can work together to get more done for our mission.

Day 2 - Concurrent Sessions

 
Concurrent sessions were developed and organized around three Global Marine Strategies with the fourth session - Expanding Our Practice - designed to cut across all three strategies:

1. Ocean Solutions – Integrated Ocean Management
Future of Marine Spatial Planning | Ecosystem Services as a Key to Habitat Conservation | Critical Components of Habitat Restoration to Generate Impact and Get to Scale | The Conservancy’s Global Coral Reef Strategy: A Discussion of Current Strategies and New Tactics | Partnership in Action: What are the Bright Spots? | Outcomes and Lessons Learned from 4 Years of the NOAA/CRCP Cooperative Partnership

2. Sustainable Fisheries
Can Fishery Stock Assessments Help Improve the Management of Data Poor Fisheries? | Identifying and Filling Science Needs for Sustainable Fishery Interventions Through Engagement and Collaboration | Murky Waters: When Will Private Capital Invest in Fisheries Reform? | Strategies for Fishermen-led Reform | How Should TNC Engage with the Marine Stewardship Council, Fisheries Improvement Projects and Seafood Watch?

3. Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction
New Partnerships, New Approaches to Achieving Climate, Risk and Resilience Success | Engi-cology or Eco-neering: The Marrying of Engineering and Ecological Principals in Coastal Areas to Reduce Risk and Increase Resiliency | Scaling Up the Results: Leveraging Local Work to Achieve Greater Results | Tools Sessions A & B

4. Expanding Our Practice
Conservation by Design For The Global Challenges/Global Solutions Era | Show Me the Money:  Financing Marine Conservation |
Stepping Off the Deep End: Strategies to Build a Successful Project | Silo Busting: Addressing Marine, Coastal, Freshwater and Terrestrial Objectives When Scaling-up to Whole Systems | Testing the Waters: Large Scale Marine Conservation Challenges and Creating a Proactive Culture at TNC | Communications IS Part of Your Conservation Strategy

Day 3

 
The View Ahead: Panel discussion on the Aggregation and The Nature Conservancy’s growing role in marine conservation. In this moderated panel, TNC’s closest partners shared their insight into TNC’s growing role in the world of marine conservation.
Video
Panel guests included:
Margaret Davidson, Acting Director, Office of Coastal Resources Management, NOAA 
Dr. Ana Parma, TNC Board of Directors and Research Scientist, Centro Nacional Patagonico (CONICET), Argentina
Pawan Patil, PhD. Senior Economist, Agriculture and Environmental Services Department, The World Bank
Lynn Scarlett, Managing Director for Public Policy, The Nature Conservancy
 
Closing Remarks:  Lynne Hale, Managing Director for Oceans, The Nature Conservancy | Video |  Graphic Facilitation Drawing