Dear Members,
We hope you are all keeping well. Some Members Updates for October 2020 can be found below.
SEASCAPES FOCUS GROUP FOR IOLN MEMBERS
The Marine Institute invites feedback on the seascape character areas identified along the Irish coast, and is seeking your views particularly on names, boundaries and key characteristics.
This feedback will inform Ireland’s Seascape Character Assessment Report, a key technical study for Ireland’s National Marine Planning Framework.
A one hour workshop will be held with the Irish Ocean Literacy Network on Wed 14th October 2020 at 2pm, if you would like to attend, please email Ruth Minogue at ruth@minogue.ie

PLANNING FOR THE NEXT IOLN MEMBERS MEETING
We have started a plan the next IOLN meeting, which we would like to focus on youth and training and the ocean. We are proposing to have this meeting in November (between the 16th and 20th) . If would like to speak at this event, or showcase a project or task that you have been involved in, please contact irishoceanliteracynetwork@gmail.com
COMMOCEAN CONFERENCE
Are you a professional communicator working in a marine institute, governmental body or a NGO, or a marine scientist that would like to be speed-trained by experts in the skills of modern ocean science communication? Then CommOCEAN is for you. The virtual online conference will be held on the 1st and 2nd of December. Registration is now open.
LAUNCH OF EU4OCEAN
The EU4Ocean platform has now been launched. While the network is a member, you can also apply to be members on behalf of your organisation if you wish to do so. We have attached a document to this email which outlines what the platform is and how you can get involved. Once the organisers share information from the launch, including recording, presentations and poll results, we will share these with you. For more information on the EU Maritime Forum see https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/maritimeforum/

PAIRC NA MARA
Pairc na Mara held a fantastic event as part of World Maritime Day on Thursday 24th of September. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for more information on recording and content from the day.
UNESCO OCEAN DECADE VIRTUAL SERIES
“The Ocean and Human Health” virtual session convened by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO in partnership with the Seas, Oceans and Public Health in Europe Project, the Blue Health Project and the European Marine Board as part of the Ocean Decade Virtual Series took place on Monday the 28th of September. The session identified some critical priority areas for the coming years and provided the opportunity to experts from different fields and background to discuss their perspective on how the ocean is closely linked to our health and wellbeing.
If you missed it, you can access the recording and a copy of the slides here. Note that the recording is also accessible on the European Marine Board Youtube channel.
The next three sessions of the Ocean Decade Virtual Series will take place in November and focus on gender equality, Small Island Developing States and co-designed solution oriented research. More details will soon be available on the Ocean Decade website and on IOC’ social media channels.
CLEAN ENERGY FOR EU ISLAND – IRELAND WORKSHOP
Over the past two years, the Clean Energy for EU Islands Secretariat – an initiative on behalf of the European Commission – has successfully supported islands all over the EU by building the capacities of islanders and island transition teams through a number of workshops and webinars, and by providing technical support on projects.
The aim of this workshop is to bring together island stakeholders from different areas of expertise, lay the grounds for future collaboration, present possible paths for the islands’ energy transition, and present the best practices from different countries.
To view recordings of this event, which was held in September 2020 see https://euislands.eu/event/capacity-building-workshop-ireland-online