We are pleased to report that Oceans Past IX, the next semi-annual congress of the Oceans Past Initiative will be held June 22-25, 2022 at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA.

As an added bonus, we are excited to link OP IX with the annual meeting of the Ecosystem Studies of Subarctic and Arctic Seas (ESSAS) regional program (an allied, international and interdisciplinary high latitude marine ecology and fisheries biology program that hosts the Paleoecology of Subarctic and Arctic Seas working group/PESAS). We are enthusiastic about the potential for synergy and mutual inspiration in bringing the environmental humanities and maritime history perspectives together with ESSAS’ more natural science leaning focus on climate-ocean-ecology-fisheries. The ESSAS annual science meeting will run from June 19-22 (with June 22 in joint session with OP IX).

To aid in our planning, the OPI Executive Committee requests your input on a short survey regarding your interest in participating in the planned June 2022 OP IX conference, either in person or remotely.

With vaccination rates increasing, and evidence that vaccination works to prevent or minimize COVID cases, we are confident that we can hold an in-person meeting safely. Following national guidelines and State of Washington mandates, the University of Washington requires all people coming to campus to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination and to remain masked at all times while on campus indoors. Unless the pandemic resolves more quickly than seems likely, these rules will probably remain in effect for our conference and may help increase confidence in meeting safety.

Nevertheless, we recognize that current circumstances leave many people hesitant to plan travel and conferencing in the next year. We also acknowledge that the success of the online “virtual OP VIII” conference in Spring 2020, and many other online meetings since, have shown us that meeting remotely is feasible and in some ways desirable, despite limits to social networking and spontaneous collaborations that are a hallmark of in-person meetings.  For these reasons, we are exploring the potential to offer a mixed, in-person/online (“hybrid”) meeting format. Because the organization of a hybrid meeting is logistically complicated, potentially more expensive, and will affect the size of venue and number of dorm/hotel rooms we need to reserve, we seek input on your preferences.