The College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences keynote seminar for the fall semester will be held Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 3:30 p.m. in 201 O'Neill, Fairbanks, and will be broadcast via Zoom to 101 Lena Point in Juneau and 219 Pioneer in Homer. Additional rooms can be connected upon request.

The featured speaker will be Johan Bergenäs, senior director for public policy at Vulcan Inc., who will present "Five Key Challenges to Ocean Health."

Abstract: The world’s oceans are not only growing increasingly unhealthy, they are also largely unknown, unconnected to other global issues, under-prioritized, and underfunded. These five challenges to oceans pose significant obstacles to achieving thriving seas. The discussion will center on these five challenges to ocean health and what ocean data, policy and storytelling is required to turn the tide for our oceans.

Bergenäs covers environmental health and national security issues. He also manages global external engagements for Vulcan’s maritime technology initiative. Previously, Bergenäs was a program director at the Stimson Center, a U.S. national security think tank, where he focused on environmental and transnational organized crime issues. Bergenäs is co-founder of Eprotection, a tech startup, and previously served as its CEO. He has also held positions with the Monterey Institute, Oxfam and Linköping University. He holds an honors M.A. degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and an honors B.A. degree from the University of Iowa. Bergenäs has published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy on a wide range of security, development, and conservation issues.

For more information email Andy Seitz at acseitz@alaska.edu.