North West Marine Ecosystems (NWME) Conference 2025

Photo credit: Emily Baxter

Event Overview

Join us at the inaugural North West Marine Ecosystems (NWME) Conference 2025! This one-day event is designed to mobilize marine social capital and foster deeper communication, collaboration, and relationship-building among members of the marine and coastal community.

The NWME Conference will feature short, engaging talks reflecting on 2024’s local observations and scientific findings across a wide range of marine systems including:

• Oceanography and plankton
• Marine and coastal birds
• Marine mammals (seals and cetaceans)
• Fisheries
• Marine planning and policy
• Marine protected areas
• Plastics and pollution
• Water quality
• Underwater noise
• Radioactive monitoring

This event is open to citizen scientists, academics, managers, policymakers, industry professionals, volunteers, and the public, all for a registration fee of £35 (+ Eventbrite fees).

Programme Highlights

Welcome & Introduction
Linn Wiberg, North West Coastal Coordinator, North West Coastal Forum

Keynote Presentations

• Regional Marine Ecosystems Model (RME): Mike Nelson, Environment Agency
• NW England’s Regional Seas: Georgia de Jong Cleyndert, North West Wildlife Trusts

Session 1

• Oceanography: Christopher Unsworth, Bangor University
• Plankton: Barry Kaye, Lancashire MCS

Break and Refreshments

Session 2

• Marine and Coastal Birds: Speaker TBD
• Marine Mammals – Seals & Cetaceans: Beth Churn (Cumbria Wildlife Trust), Sarah Neill (British Divers Marine Life Rescue)
• Fisheries: Annabel Plumeridge, North West Inshore Fisheries Conservation Authority

Lunch

Session 3

• Marine Protected Areas: Laurence Browning, Natural England
• Marine Planning: Hannah Jones, University of Liverpool
• Water Quality: Speaker TBD

Break and Refreshments

Session 4

• Marine Plastics: Gill Notman, University of Cumbria
• Underwater Noise: Speaker TBD
• Radioactive Monitoring: Speaker TBD

Closing Remarks

Speaker TBD

All event details are subject to change. Registered attendees will be notified by email in the event of significant updates.

Additional Notes

This conference is co-organised by:

• North West Coastal Forum

• North West Wildlife Trust

• Ocean and Coastal Futures

The NWME project is part of the Natural Capital approaches at the land-sea interface (LSI), under the Environment Agency’s leadership through Defra’s Marine Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (mNCEA) programme. This initiative aims to deliver the LSI work package on ‘Mobilising marine social capital’.

Tickets & Registration

Ticket Price: £35 (+ Eventbrite fees)
Buy your ticket: [HERE]