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Department of History

Oceans Past VII Conference

Tracing human interactions with marine ecosystems through deep time: implications for policy and management

Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) & the German Maritime Museum, Bremerhaven, Germany: 22th to 26th October 2018

Official Conference Website: https://www.awi.de/OPP7

Click here for PDF Version

Rationale: Knowing the past is vital for developing a vision of the future. The oceans and inshore seascapes of the world are rapidly changing, and understanding the human and marine ecosystem forces, trajectories and responses – sometimes over centuries or millennia – is vital for their informed management. Understanding, quantifying, and predicting humanities interactions with the world’s coastal seas and oceans requires examination of our practices of consumption, transportation, extraction and pollution, as well as our values and governance systems. The conference aims to bring together the vast knowledge pool of two decades of marine historical ecology and environmental history to inform the policies of the Anthropocene.

Invitation: The conference welcomes researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and students of all disciplines under the unifying view of our oceans as networks of social-ecological or coupled human-nature systems. If you have an interest in the history of human interactions with life in the ocean and implications for policy and management, this is the 2018 conference you must attend.



Oceans Past VII will be a celebration of Oceans Past like never before. You will meet colleagues from around the world, have direct access to politicians and managers, and enjoy special sessions, mini-symposiums, and exhibitions. Come join us for a defining conference!

Call for papers: The submission of oral and poster papers encompassing, but not limited to, the following topics is encouraged:

  • Oceans prior to contemporary exploitation
  • Drivers of environmental use and change across historical time frames
  • The significance of marine resources for human societies over time
  • Factors that have encouraged societies to exploit or leave the oceans
  • Development of indictors
  • Implications of past and present human ocean activities for coastal and marine policy development

    • Call for special sessions, mini-symposia or exhibitions: As organisers of the conference, the Oceans Past Initiative offers you the opportunity to suggest or organise a special session, mini-symposium, or exhibition of relevant artefacts, artwork, or documentary film screenings during the conference within the broad theme of the history of human impacts with life in the ocean. Send your suggestions to the convenors below.

    Contacts:

    Please email your interest or ideas to info@oceanspast.org