Event Calendar

The Marine Minerals Program at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Gulf of Mexico Office, is planning for the 2024 Gulf of Mexico Offshore Sand Management Working Group (SMWG) Meeting to take place on Thursday, December 5, 2024, from 8:15 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. CT. BOEM intends to host the SMWG Meeting as a hybrid event to accommodate virtual participation and in-person participation at the BOEM Gulf of Mexico Regional Office (1201 Elmwood Park Blvd) in New Orleans, Louisiana. Please hold this date on your calendars. There is no registration fee for this meeting.

This year’s SMWG meeting will include panels and updates from recent sand inventory efforts and cooperative/interagency agreements in the Gulf of Mexico. It will also focus on Gulf-wide multi-use initiatives, provide updates related to environmental studies and opportunities to brainstorm new study opportunities, and feature a panel focused on planning for the next 5/10/20 years out for the Gulf of Mexico sand and sediment management.

ACES: A Community on Ecosystem Services represents a dynamic and growing international assembly of professionals, researchers, and policy-makers involved with ecosystem services. The ACES Conference provides an open forum to share experiences, methods, and tools for assessing and incorporating ecosystem services into public and private decisions.

The goal of the conference is to link state-of-the-art science, practice, and decision making by bringing together the ecosystem services community and decision makers from around the United States and the globe. ACES will engage leaders in government, NGOs, academia, Native American tribes, and the private sector to advance the use of ecosystem services science and practice in resource management and other societal decisions.

Lionfish: An Ocean Tragedy in Three Acts

January 14, 2025

7am Hawaii / 10 am Pacific / 12 pm Central / 1 pm Eastern

Join Dr. Steve Gittings, Chief Scientist of NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, for a front-row seat to a 40-year saga of beauty, death, and survival. Act I: A brilliant new star, the Indo-Pacific lionfish, makes its dramatic debut in the Atlantic Ocean. Mesmerizing at first, it soon horrifies as it leaves disappearance in its wake. Act II: An ecological crisis ensues as native fish succumb to waves of these alien invaders, with no natural defenses to stop them. Act III: Humans enter the scene, combining innovation and brute force to offer Nature a helping hand while it seeks its own footing. Will this epic struggle find resolution? Is it the end of the ocean we know, or a new beginning? Learn how this drama unfolds and what the future holds.

SOURCE: NOAA Sanctuaries

Conference Theme:
Enhancing Resilience through Relationships, Information, and Technology

Whether you are new to Coastal GeoTools or a previous attendee, don’t miss this opportunity to strengthen relationships and build new ones as we focus on the effective use of data, tools, partnerships, and training to address coastal issues and inform policy matters.

Continuing This Year – An Emphasis on Tribal and Indigenous Applications
Our goal is to become a more inclusive group and increase the knowledge being shared with conference attendees by tribal and Indigenous community members.

New This Year – The Power of Partnerships for Resilience
Hosted by the Digital Coast Partnership
To build a more resilient coast, innovative partnerships are needed. To this end, the Digital Coast Partnership will host informative sessions designed to share stories, explore new partnerships, and identify strategic opportunities. We have so much to learn from each other—you won’t want to miss this!

Potential for Magic: Innovation, knowledge sharing, the effective use of geospatial technologies, and partnerships are what it takes to make the coast more resilient, and that’s what you will find at Coastal GeoTools 2.0.

The Oceans In Action 2025 Workshop is an in-person event featuring the marine science and technology research efforts along the Gulf Coast that transform into operational missions worldwide. Following the success of the larger, OCEANS 2023 Conference, the workshop will host presentations from locally based federal agencies, state-led initiatives, and high-tech companies. This year’s event will once again highlight the results of the Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX) vignettes that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2024. In addition to the Department of the Navy, these vignettes are supported by NOAA, USM, and LSU and are the results of testing new technologies in an operational scenario.

Hosted by the Marine Technology Society’s Gulf Coast Section and the Mississippi Enterprise for Technology, the workshop takes place along the thriving Mississippi Gulf Coast and offers a number of networking opportunities for marine science and technology companies.

Save the date! The GOMA All Hands Meeting 2025 will be May 5-8, 2025, in Biloxi, MS, at the Golden Nugget.

Join us as we bring together more than 500 partners from state and federal agencies, academia, non-profits, and industry from across the region to plan projects that improve the Gulf Coast and implement Governors’ Action Plan IV.

Registration information coming soon!