State of the Gulf of Mexico - Summit II

Hosted by the Harte Research Institute (HRI)

December 4-8, 2011

Omni Galleria Hotel, Houston, Texas

Visit the conference website (click below)

http://www.sgmsummit.org/

Read the prospectus

The Harte Research Institute, an endowed research component of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi dedicated to sustainable use and conservation of the Gulf of Mexico, hosted the first State of the Gulf of Mexico Summit in 2005 in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in spring 2010 has brought new urgency to reconvening the Summit in 2011. The diversity of public and private actors working on conservation and recovery in the Gulf and the very broad range of issues involved (including loss of wetlands, hypoxia, coastal resiliency, ecosystem health, marine protected areas, international cooperation, oil spill recovery, and social and economic recovery) suggests a strong need for a platform to develop a shared vision of a healthy Gulf. The 2011 State of the Gulf of Mexico Summit will provide this platform, allowing government, NGO and academic experts to share knowledge and lessons learned and to formulate a roadmap for restoring the Gulf.

The Summit will be preceded by a number of events and processes that will inform the Summit on the most current authoritative technical and scientific on key Gulf topics, including in July 2011 at the one-year anniversary of the capping of the Deepwater Horizon well.

Harte Research Institute along with partners Harwell Gentile & Associates, LC and University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science are working together to develop a comprehensive "Report Card" to help gauge the health of the Gulf of Mexico Ecosystems.

The report card will provide the scientific information and understanding necessary to evaluate the health of the Gulf, to clearly demonstate how well it is or is not progressing towards desired long-term goals, and to inform decision makers on the policies and resources needed to achieve sustainability of a healthy Gulf of Mexico. The project will provide a scientific, graphical representation of the Gulf's current environmental condition. When fully developed, the Report Card will be made available to a wide variety of people, from the highest levels of decision makers to the most detailed scientific investigators to the general public.

Read the entire Gulf of Mexico Report Card Initiative (pdf)

National Ocean Policy

The SGM Summit will provide the platform to evaluate the state of research efforts initiated during and after the spill and provide a basis to evaluate efficacy of those ongoing activities to inform our ability to respond to future disasters (man-made and natural); to meet restoration planning and implementation needs to assure success; and, to inform existing and developing research plans to better understand the Gulf of Mexico as a large marine ecosystem. This component of the SGM Summit will also contribute to regional management efforts in the Gulf by informing implementation of the President's Ocean Policy, The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Taskforce and actions of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance to assure an economically and ecologically sustainable Gulf.

Participants

Up to 400 representatives from universities; state and federal agencies; private businesses; and nongovernmental organizations from the U.S., Mexico, Cuba and internationally, all with interests in the future of the Gulf of Mexico

Partners

Gulf of Mexico Alliance

Gulf of Mexico University Research Collaborative

Harwell Gentile & Associates

International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi

The Nature Conservancy (TNC)

Ocean Conservancy

University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

CONTACT: Harte Research Institute
Telephone: 361-825-2000