Conference Falls Victim to Virus

Beachwalkers.\Photo by Kirt Edblom.

With great regret, we are announcing that the Sharing the Coast Conference that was coming up this weekend (March 13-15) has been cancelled.

Over the last week, CoastWatch and the Northwest Aquatic and Marine Educators (NAME), our partners in sponsoring the annual conference, have been closely watching the situation around the spreading COVID-19 virus. We had already lost one key speaker, and were beginning to hear from some of those who had pre-registered that they were no longer comfortable with attending. Due to these growing concerns, and to ensure we are taking the necessary measures to protect the health and well being of prospective conference attendees and presenters, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to cancel Sharing the Coast 2020. While no government directives in Oregon have materialized yet to guide this decision, conference organizers thought cancellation was the best move to reduce exposure risk. The Oregon Shores board concurred with this decision.

Says Jesse Jones, CoastWatch volunteer coordinator, “CoastWatch is grateful to our presenters for helping to make what would have been an excellent conference. We will be working to schedule these speakers in various talks in the coming weeks and months, so please look out for these new learning opportunities.” 

Registered participants will receive a full refund. 

For more information, contact Jesse at (503) 989-7244, jesse@oregonshores.org.