NORTHBOUND: THE NORTH SEA AND THE ARCTIC OCEAN, THREATS AND SOLUTIONS

This seminar takes place in the context of the exhibition “Northbound. Connected by the Sea” by the Museum Kunst der Westküste (MKdW) at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, with the support of Prof. Dr. mult. h.c. Frederik Paulsen, founder of the MKdW. The two institutions are devoting a seminar to the North Sea and the Arctic Ocean, in the presence of HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, on 11 May 2022 from 2.30 pm to 6 pm.

The North Sea is a marginal sea (or epicontinental sea) covering almost 575,000 km2 and linking many countries, including the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Together with its close neighbour, the Arctic Ocean, to which it opens up via the northern route (hence the title of the exhibition ‘Northbound’), the North Sea is rich in extraordinary resources. It is also one of the world’s most active regions for the marine industry, and a particularly dynamic area for leisure and tourism. The North Sea, which is subject to extreme anthropogenic pressures, is also recognised by all seafarers as a rough, unpredictable, and dangerous sea, and remains a challenging sea in many respects. The specificities of the North Sea and the near Arctic call for solutions and best practices to combine economic use of their resources with sustainable protection of their marine biodiversity.