Oceans after 500 years: Research and conservation

Discover how oceans are changing and which research is done from Spain and Australia in order to maintain oceans and marine eco-systems by joining this Online Talk presented by Instituto Cervantes and Iberdrola organised by Instituto Cervantes Sydney with researchers from the European Sea University, University of Technology of Sydney and with collaboration of SRAP-IEAP (Spanish Researchers in Australia-Pacific). Oceans and seas became 500 years ago, just when Magallanes and Elcano reached to undertake the first circumvallation sailing around the world, discovering a communicated traffic and transport network, inaugurating a network of intercontinental exchanges, which were human, biological, agricultural, cultural and economic, which included the creation of commercial networks between the various continents and integration of the same in a world economic system. This process, which involved all worlds, generated, paradoxically, the appearance of a single world and the possibility of conceiving a universal history for the first time. This unique world of ours, shown as a sphere almost entirely enveloped by its waters, has been developing as a single planet, that blue planet that, after 500 years, experiences in its oceanography the climatic emergency that is the protagonist of our present and whose solutions are priority for our common future. The Oceans 500 Years Program is proposed as a series of conferences for reflection on the state of the oceans, in which local entities, experts, activists from the different countries where the selected centers are located can collaborate. It is about contextualizing the global emergency and awareness, to seek solutions, and bet on the commitment of entities that develop projects or carry out examples of improvement for the situation of our waters. With the participation from Spain of the expert Fidel Echevarría, professor at the University of Cádiz and Delegate of the Rector for the European University of the Seas. This European University is one of the European Alliances that is part of the pioneering project of the European Commission, is specialized in the sustainability of the seas and achieved the highest scores in the European public call. Fidel will explain some of the projects and collaborations that exist on the subject of oceans between different universities and will delve into the subject of the Malaspina scientific expedition that took place ten years ago as an interdisciplinary research project of the global impact on the oceans where was able to explore marine biodiversity. From Sydney, Australia, we will connect with Isabel Nuñez Lendo, a current researcher at the Sydney University of Technology and member of SRAP-IEAP (Spanish Researchers in Australia-Pacific, Investigadores españoles en Australia-Pacífico) who is developing a research project in the study program of the coral reef within the university's climate change cluster. Isabel is recognized as one of the novice researchers of the National Geographic (2018), having developed her career successfully from her studies in marine biology at the University of Valencia, through her specialization in the Netherlands in coral restoration techniques to her work in research on corals in different parts of the world (Bahamas, Hawaii, French Polynesia and now Australia).