Sea Change Australia

AI for Climate: Physical climate risk, from regulation to resilience
2026-05-19 13:00 - 14:00 (Australia/Melbourne)
As climate impacts intensify, understanding physical climate risk – the direct effects of physical hazards on assets, infrastructure and operations – has become increasingly important for organisations to understand and respond to.
You are invited to a live webinar exploring current approaches to assessing physical climate risk, which has become essential for meeting regulatory expectations and building long-term business resilience.
This webinar continues the conversation from earlier CSIRO AI for Climate  events and brings together an industry × research panel to share perspectives on current practices, emerging challenges, and future directions in physical climate risk assessment.
Geared towards individuals and organisations engaged in physical climate risk assessment, particularly asset owners and asset managers, we conclude with an interactive audience Q&A.

Register now

Panelists
Dr Judith Landsberg – Australian Climate Service, Chief Scientist
Judith works with the Australian Climate Service, contributing to national efforts to improve access to authoritative climate risk information. Her role focuses on supporting consistent, decision-relevant climate risk assessment across government, industry and communities.
Mark Jones – NBN, Executive Manager Sustainability
Mark Jones works at NBN, where he is involved in integrating physical climate risk considerations into infrastructure planning and resilience. He brings an asset-owner perspective on assessing and managing climate risks to support long-term service delivery.
Dr Nick Wood – Director, Climate Policy Research PL, Industry Fellow, Institute for Climate Risk & Response, UNSW
Nick Wood is an independent climate policy consultant with 25 years of experience supporting government and industry on climate risk, regulation and transition planning. His work focuses on translating evolving climate policy and regulatory requirements into practical approaches for organisations.
Dr Geoff Lee – CSIRO, Senior Research Consultant
Geoff works within CSIRO at the intersection of climate data, analytics and decision support. His work focuses on improving how physical climate risk information is developed, interpreted and applied to support policy, regulatory and business decision-making.
Maria Wikstrom – CSIRO, Product Manager
Maria’s work focuses on aligning research and technical solutions to market needs in order to maximise impact for government, industry and communities. She serves as bridge between cutting-edge climate science and actionable decision-support tools for physical climate risk.
Moderator
Dr Cara Stitzlein – CSIRO, Senior Research Scientist
Cara works within CSIRO as a human factors researcher who applies responsible innovation and design thinking methodologies to complex socio-technical systems. Her work supports stakeholders to navigate emerging technologies through rapid prototyping and futures thinking, with a current focus on climate-related financial disclosure and enabling sustainable transitions across diverse industries.

Aquaculture for the future webinar: Insurance in a changing environment
2026-05-13 14:30 - 15:30 (Australia/Melbourne)
Hear from Matt Weaver, Head of Climate Risk & Resilience at Howden Australia, on how aquaculture businesses can manage exposure to natural hazards and unlock investment in adaptation through insurance solutions that align with resilience strategies.
Microsoft Teams
Join the meeting
Meeting ID: 457 474 492 910 62
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Cathy McGowan AO WISA Webinar
2026-05-13 12:00 - 13:00 (Australia/Melbourne)
Cathy is an experienced company director with an extensive career in business, agricultural research, development, extension and politics.
As a graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership Program, Cathy committed to the vision of a “prosperous caring rural Australia alive with opportunities for everyone”. As chair of Agrifutures Australia, the premier national research and development organisation, and as a director of the Community Independents project, she is delivering on her commitment, particularly helping build a nation with effective rural policies based on prosperous and caring industries.
Prior to her current role at AgriFutures Australia, her career highlights include representing the rural electorate of Indi in Parliament from 2013- 2019, expert consultant on women in agriculture, president of the peak national organisation Australian Women in Agriculture, Chair of national Regional Women’s Advisory Council and community representative at the 4th Ministerial meeting of the WTO in Dohar.
Cathy lives in the Indigo Valley, Dhudhora and Dhargal country where the community groups play a vital role enhancing sustainability within the Murray Darling system.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/92343386438?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 923 4338 6438
Passcode: [REDACTED]

FRDC Marine Climate Briefing #5
2026-05-01 14:00 - 15:00 (Australia/Melbourne)
Join us for the final briefing for this 2025/26 series, which will recap the summer, consider preparation for next summer given an increasing likelihood of an El Nino developing in the coming months, and describe new Western Australian resources for MHW preparation and responses.
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/45909746466677?p=F9mN1oeLIkRMlWGJhs
Meeting ID: 459 097 464 666 77
Passcode: [REDACTED]

As discussed at the last Briefing, there is an opportunity for you to have more specific climate related webinars throughout the year – brought to you by the Sea Change project (Sea Change Australia – Connect. Share. Adapt.) They are keen to design the webinars based on your feedback and queries. Please can you fill in this short survey to provide your input: Help shape future climate webinars for the Australian fisheries and aquaculture sectors – Fill out survey

Here are the previous Briefings:
Climate change | FRDC

FishSCORE Webinar - Integrating Climate Change into Fisheries Management: A Risk-Based Approach
2026-04-30 09:00 - 10:00 (America/New_York)
Presentation: Integrating Climate Change into Fisheries Management: A Risk-Based Approach
Climate change is reshaping Australia’s marine ecosystems, posing significant challenges for fisheries management. To ensure the long term sustainability of Commonwealth fisheries, AFMA has developed a Climate Risk Framework using a risk based approach to assess climate-related risks and guide decision-making. This presentation will examine the impacts of climate change on Commonwealth fisheries, highlighting the urgent need for adaptive management approaches. It will explore the development and implementation of the Climate Risk Framework, including its design to integrate with existing management processes, as well as key case studies and lessons learned. Finally, the presentation will highlight the importance of scientists, managers, and industry working together to support climate-resilient fisheries into the future.
Webinar Presenter: Natalie Couchman, Australian Fisheries Management Authority, is a fisheries manager with more than 15 years of experience in fisheries regulation, policy development, and program implementation. She has worked across a wide range of Commonwealth fisheries, applying her regulatory expertise to complex management challenges. Most recently, she has focused on delivering strategies that enable adaptive fisheries management in a changing climate.
Date and time: April 30, 2026 at 9:00 am US Eastern Time (UTC-5)
Register here

The future of Tasmania’s crowded ocean
2026-04-29 18:00 - 20:00 (Australia/Melbourne) | Sir Stanley Burbury Theatre, University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay, Tasmaia, 7005, Australia
Join the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) for a discussion on the future of Tasmania’s crowded ocean.
The future of Tasmania’s crowded ocean
Presented by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Australian Academy of Science and the Royal Society of Tasmania, this event will bring together leading scientific experts to explore the rapid changes occurring in Tasmania’s marine environment and the implications for fisheries, aquaculture, coastal communities and the state’s economy.
Tasmania’s waters are warming faster then almost anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere, driving significant ecological and economic changes. Through expert presentations and discussion, this event will examine the shifting marine ecosystem, the increasing prevalence of harmful algal blooms and how science-based tools can help governments, industries and communities prepare for the future.
The program will feature insights from:

Dr Alistar Hobday FTSE on the changing climate and changing activities around Tasmania.
Professor Gustaaf Hallegraeff FTSE on Harmful Algal Blooms – what are they and why do they seem to be on the rise?
Dr Beth Fulton FTSE FAA on what the future may look like for Tasmanian waters and how can science-based tools can help us prepare for it.

Coastal Resilience Talks: Advancing resilient marine fisheries in a changing ocean
2026-04-28 14:00 - 15:00 (Europe/Helsinki)
Exploring the FishSCORE2030 Ocean Decade Programme with Kathy Mills, 28 April 2026

The Decade Collaborative Centre for Coastal Resilience, together with its Partner Alliance Network, continues its Coastal Resilience Talks series with an upcoming webinar featuring Dr. Katherine (Kathy) Mills (Gulf of Maine Research Institute), focusing on climate resilience in marine fisheries.
The webinar will take place on 28 April 2026 and is part of the DCC-CR’s ongoing efforts to promote knowledge exchange and dialogue on coastal and marine resilience within the framework of the UN Ocean Decade.
The session will present the FishSCORE2030 Ocean Decade Programme (Fisheries Strategies for a Changing Ocean and Resilient Ecosystems by 2030), a global initiative aimed at supporting the resilience of marine fisheries in the face of climate change.
FishSCORE2030 is one of the Decade Actions affiliated with the DCC-CR, bringing together programmes and projects that contribute to the Ocean Decade and are aligned with shared challenges and objectives. Through this network, the DCC-CR fosters collaboration and exchange among initiatives addressing coastal resilience.
The programme works to develop integrated assessment and modelling frameworks that combine ecological, social, cultural, economic, and governance dimensions of fisheries systems. By drawing on evidence and experiences from diverse contexts worldwide, it aims to identify vulnerabilities and support actionable adaptation strategies.
In particular, FishSCORE2030 seeks to:

build a global network to facilitate knowledge exchange and learning
develop tools to assess climate impacts, vulnerabilities, and adaptive capacity
apply and refine these approaches across real-world fishery systems
contribute to advancing healthy ecosystems, resilient fisheries, and equitable outcomes

The webinar will provide insights into how science-based approaches and international collaboration can support fisheries facing increasing climate pressures, highlighting both methodological developments and practical applications.
Webinar’s Abstract
Climate change is causing direct, indirect, and cascading impacts on marine fisheries. FishSCORE2030 (Fisheries Strategies for a Changing Ocean and Resilient Ecosystems by 2030), a UN Ocean Decade endorsed program, facilitates a global network to co-develop knowledge, information and approaches to sustain resilient marine fisheries in changing oceans.
About the Speaker
Dr. Katherine Mills is a Senior Scientist at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Her research seeks to understand fisheries as coupled social-ecological systems, integrating physical, biological, social and economic information to support the resilience of marine fisheries.

REGISTER TO THE EVENT

Link to Zoom Event

WEBINAR Exploring the edges: What our research is revealing about uncharted climate futures
2026-04-23 12:00 - 17:00 (Australia/Melbourne)
When: Thursday 23 April 2026
Time: 12pm AEST
Register here >
Access to high resolution climate data across Australia has transformed how we understand the risks ahead. Yet as researchers work with increasing levels of detail in the data, they’re discovering important knowledge gaps; signals that suggest our current projections may not be capturing the full spectrum of possible futures. Understanding other plausible futures matters. Preparing Australia for climate risk means looking beyond the conventional outlooks and asking: what might we be missing?
In this upcoming webinar, Hub researchers will unpack what we know with confidence, where uncertainties remain, and why a range of possible futures should be considered. Participants will hear how scientists are exploring climate futures outside the currently modelled range, and how this work is helping decision-makers think more broadly and plan more robustly.
Our speakers will take a deeper dive into two critical emerging themes. First, they’ll examine how real world observations of Pacific Ocean warming differ from modelled projections and what those differences may mean for Australia’s future climate. Second, they’ll explore what current research tells us about global temperature overshoot scenarios and the implications for risk assessment and resilience planning. Together, these perspectives offer a clearer, more nuanced picture of the challenges we need to be ready for.
Join us for this important conversation and equip yourself with the latest thinking on Australia’s future climate. Register now to secure your place >

Exploring the edges: What our research is revealing about uncharted climate futures
2026-04-23 12:00 - 13:00 (Australia/Melbourne)
Access to high resolution climate data across Australia has transformed how we understand the risks ahead. Yet as researchers work with increasing levels of detail in the data, they’re discovering important knowledge gaps; signals that suggest our current projections may not be capturing the full spectrum of possible futures. Understanding other plausible futures matters. Preparing Australia for climate risk means looking beyond the conventional outlooks and asking: what might we be missing?
In this upcoming webinar, NESP Climate Systems Hub researchers will unpack what we know with confidence, where uncertainties remain, and why a range of possible futures should be considered. Participants will hear how scientists are exploring climate futures outside the currently modelled range, and how this work is helping decision-makers think more broadly and plan more robustly.
Our speakers will take a deeper dive into two critical emerging themes. First, they’ll examine how real world observations of Pacific Ocean warming differ from modelled projections and what those differences may mean for Australia’s future climate. Second, they’ll explore what current research tells us about global temperature overshoot scenarios and the implications for risk assessment and resilience planning. Together, these perspectives offer a clearer, more nuanced picture of the challenges we need to be ready for.
Join us for this important conversation and equip yourself with the latest thinking on Australia’s future climate.

Defining "Fishery Sensitive" Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal
2026-03-25 06:30 - 08:00 (Australia/Melbourne)
Fishermen and their representatives have been working through the Fishery Friendly Climate Action Campaign in partnership with the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) and three regional coastal/ocean acidification networks to define core principles of “fishery sensitive” marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR). In this webinar, we will describe a set of 17 fishing industry roundtables that we held on this topic in 2025, and then share RODA’s new “Guidance for Fishery-Sensitive mCDR” memo series, which was developed by the project partners based on fishermen’s input.
Agenda

Introduction to mCDR (Gabby Kitch)
Roundtables: what we did, what we learned (Sarah Schumann)
Introducing the “Fishery Sensitive mCDR” Guidance Memo Series (Fiona Hogan and Darcy Dugan)
What else is the fishing community doing regarding mCDR?
ICES Working Group on Interactions between mCDR with Ecosystems, Fisheries, and Aquaculture
Community Leaders and mCDR (CLaM) project in Alaska (Theresa Peterson, Kinsey Brown, and/or Danielle Ringer)
mCDR Literacy Course for Commercial Fishermen (Sarah Schumann)
Q&A and Discussion

Topics at the nexus of climate change, fisheries, and blue foods
2026-03-20 02:00 - 16:00 (Australia/Melbourne)
Data Discovery and Knowledge Networks to Support Informed Fisheries Management
Presentation 1: Salmon Data Discovery Tool, presented by Katie Barnas (NOAA) and Monica Diaz (PSMFC)
Presentation 2: North Pacific Ocean Knowledge Network, presented by Kathryn Berry (BECI / PICES)

Futures of Seafood: Pathway to a thriving Australian seafood community
2026-03-13 14:00 - 15:00, 2026-02-25 14:00 - 15:00, 2026-02-13 14:00 - 15:00 (Australia/Melbourne)
Futures of Seafood: Pathway to a thriving Australian seafood community

The Futures of Seafood Study set out to deliver an industry-informed program of work to support the transition to a secure, resilient and thriving Australian seafood community.
Please join Seafood Industry Australia and the Blue Economy CRC for this webinar as we take you through the draft roadmap. This roadmap has been informed by the collection of a comprehensive evidence base including integrated spatial mapping, economic modelling, scenario analysis and consultation with industry all across Australia.
The webinar will cover:

High-level outline of key components within the roadmap
Elements where feedback is sought and how you can get involved
Next steps

“Futures of Seafood. Wild catch. Aquaculture. Recreational. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders” was supported by funding from Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, Blue Economy CRC, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and Department Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water. It has received countless in-kind contributions from Australian Fisheries Management Forum members, industry, and research partners.
Register here

2026 BioInnovation Festival
2026-03-09 - 2026-03-13
The BioInnovation Festival is a groundbreaking, five-day event that brings together the brightest minds in life sciences to celebrate innovation, investment, and collaboration. Spanning across medical, health, agriculture, aquaculture, and broader biological science sectors, this inaugural festival provides an unparalleled platform for exploring cutting-edge technologies, forging valuable partnerships, and driving the bioinnovation ecosystem forward.
Join us for five days of innovation, insights, and connection at Western Australia’s premier life sciences event, running 9–13 March 2026 across Perth and the South West.
Experience:
50+ world-class speakers across Health & Medical and Aquatic & Agricultural streams
Startup Alley and a vibrant Exhibition Hall showcasing cutting-edge innovations
Networking opportunities with WA’s life sciences leaders, innovators, and investors
Satellite events across the region for deep-dive learning and collaboration
Whether you’re a founder, researcher, investor, or industry professional, the BioInnovation Festival is the place to connect, learn, and be inspired.
Secure your spot today!

Tasmania's Seafood Festival
2026-03-07 - 2026-03-09 | Victoria Dock, Dunn Place, Hobart, Tasmania, 7000, Australia
This brand-new event is splashing into the Hobart waterfront over the March long weekend to celebrate world-class seafood, local producers, and the waterfront community.

Proudly presented by Mures Tasmania, and sponsored by TasPorts, this free three-day festival will turn Victoria Dock into a buzzing seaside playground filled with delicious food & drink stalls, live entertainment, and plenty of family-friendly fun.
A whole crew of seafood stars are hitting the festival main stage to talk & taste all things ocean!

From 12-3pm each day, head to the main stage for tuna carvings, oyster splitting, indigenous abalone and much more! Check out the full tide of events in our program, and don’t miss your chance to sample the catch of the day straight from the stage.

Aquaculture for the future 2026 outlook: What’s in store for WA aquaculture?
2026-02-19 15:00 - 16:00 (Australia/Melbourne)
On Thursday 19 February at 12pm AWST, join ACWA’s discussion on what aquaculture operators should have on their radar for 2026. We’ll hear from industry experts on recent developments in aquaculture – including innovation, research, and the latest in WA management and regulation.

Webinar: Preparing for a more volatile future
2026-02-19 13:00 - 14:00 UTC
Details
Across Australia, devastating bushfires, floods, a marine heatwave and enormous harmful algal bloom are affecting communities and wildlife. While natural disasters have long shaped this country, climate change is increasing their frequency and intensity, creating a more volatile future.

What does it take to prepare for a future shaped by more frequent disasters and a changing climate – and build resilience for people and nature?

In this interactive webinar, experts will share practical insights on what the future holds and how Australia can strengthen disaster readiness and response – drawing on lessons from events such as bushfires and marine heatwaves – while also addressing the often-overlooked mental health impacts of these events.

The webinar will include a Q&A session.

Register for the event here: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/22c8e5c4-ca2e-4603-b15d-01e44f15116f@fea0918e-fa13-41bf-affb-5f7ef42ce0c6

Modeling the impacts of climate change on oceanic processes and fisheries: Upwelling systems as natural laboratories for understanding climate change impacts on marine ecosystems and fisheries
2026-02-19 11:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York)
Presentation 2: Upwelling systems as natural laboratories for understanding climate change impacts on marine ecosystems and fisheries
Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems (EBUS) are highly productive and highly variable ocean systems. Forage fish in EBUS represent some of the world’s most important fisheries resources, while playing a key role in the food-web as prey for other fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Understanding how the climate-driven variations and shifts in temperature, planktonic productivity, and oxygen conditions affect ecosystem functioning, fisheries yield, and fishing-dependent communities in EBUS can therefore help us to better understand the resilience of marine fisheries systems to climate change. This presentation will discuss process-based ecological models for the California Current (CaCu) and the Northern Humboldt Current (Peruvian) systems, which link fish population and food-web dynamics fitted to observations, to climate forcing from regional ocean-biogeochemical models and fisheries impacts. An age-structured Model of Intermediate Complexity (MICE) for the CaCu explicitly represents environmental driving of processes such as recruitment, food avail-ability, migration, and reproduction, using an ensemble approach to quantify ecological uncertainty. A spatial food-web model (Ecosim-Ecospace) for the Peruvian upwelling system captures environment-driven dynamics in fisheries resources, trophic interactions and regionally detailed socio-economic scenarios. Using future projections under regionally downscaled Earth system models, we assess climate-driven shifts in fish productivity, food-web interactions, spatial distributions, and fisheries over the 21st century. The presented models support ecosystem-based fisheries governance and the co-development of adaptation strategies to sustain blue food production under global change.
Webinar Presenter: Stefan Koenigstein studies marine ecosystems and fisheries, combining concepts and methods from ecology, ecophysiology, and the climate and sustainability sciences to investigate how marine living resources are shaped by environmental and ecosystem conditions, and impacted by fisheries and other anthropogenic pressures. Dr. Koenigstein uses ecological models as integrative tools to better understand system responses, feedbacks and possible future trajectories, incorporating observational and experimental data, regional ocean and earth system model output, and stakeholder input. A primary focus of the modeling is on increasing incorporation of biological processes and advancing quantification of uncertainty. Dr. Koenigstein aims to improve the potential of models for extrapolation into the future under multiple global change drivers, and support the co-development of scientific advice for ecosystem-based governance and adaptation.
Since 2025, Dr. Koenigstein has led the newly established Working Group Ecosystems and Resource Sustainability at Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research in Bremen, Germany. Previously, Dr. Koenigstein was a Project Scientist at University of California Santa Cruz and NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, working on multi-species population dynamic models for forage fish species in the California Current. He has worked in interdisciplinary research projects in Peru, Portugal and Norway, linking marine ecology to fisheries, with an additional focus on incorporating local stakeholder input. He has also led the development of an educational table-top/role-playing game for high schools and environmental education groups, teaching an understanding of ocean systems and their users (www.ocean-limited.com).
*Note – the time zone may not suit, but if you register you will be able to receive a link to the recording

Modeling the impacts of climate change on oceanic processes and fisheries: Climate change risks for regional marine ecosystems and fisheries
2026-02-19 11:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York)
Presentation 1: Climate change risks for regional marine ecosystems and fisheries
Climate change is affecting ocean temperature, acidity, currents, and primary production, causing shifts in species distributions, marine ecosystems, and ultimately fisheries. Earth system models simulate climate change impacts on physical and biogeochemical properties of future oceans under varying emissions scenarios. Coupling these simulations with an ensemble of global marine ecosystem models has indicated broad decreases of fish biomass with warming. However, regional details of these impacts remain much more uncertain. Here, we employ CMIP5 and CMIP6 climate change impact projections using two Earth system models coupled with four regional and nine global marine ecosystem models in ten ocean regions to evaluate model agreement at regional scales. We find that models developed at different scales can lead to stark differences in biomass projections. On average, global models projected greater biomass declines by the end of the 21st century than regional models. For both global and regional models, greater biomass declines were projected using CMIP6 than CMIP5 simulations. Global models projected biomass declines in 86% of CMIP5 simulations for ocean regions compared to 50% for regional models in the same ocean regions. In CMIP6 simulations, all global model simulations projected biomass declines in ocean regions by 2100, while regional models projected biomass declines in 67% of the ocean region simulations. Our analysis suggests that improved understanding of the causes of differences between global and regional marine ecosystem model climate change projections is needed, alongside observational evaluation of modelled responses.
Webinar Presenter: Tyler Eddy is a Research Scientist at the Fisheries & Marine Institute, Memorial University, Canada. He is interested in past, present, and future human interactions with, and ecology of, marine ecosystems. Tyler is a Founding Coordinator of the Fisheries and Marine Ecosystem Model Intercomparison Project (FishMIP), a Steering Committee member of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Scenario-based Inter-Model Comparison (BES-SIM), a Founding Section Editor of PLOS Ecosystems, and a Visiting Scientist at the Charles Darwin Research Station, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador.
*Note – the time zone may not suit, but if you register you will be able to receive a link to the recording

evokeAG. 2026
2026-02-17 - 2026-02-18 | Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, 2 Clarendon St, South Wharf, Melbourne, Victoria, 3006, Australia
AgriFutures evokeAG. is Asia Pacific’s annual showcase of bold ideas, groundbreaking innovations and disruptive science driving agriculture towards a better future. Entering its sixth year, evokeAG. continues to facilitate investment, nurture innovation and create impact, which is reflected in its new evergreen tagline: Invest. Innovate. Impact. Since its inception in 2019, evokeAG. has brought together over 8,100 delegates, 391 investors, 577 speakers, and 1,122 primary producers to drive agriculture towards a better future.

World Seafood Congress
2026-02-09 - 2026-02-11 | Chennai Trade Centre, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
The World Seafood Congress (WSC) brings together global seafood trade leaders, policymakers, and experts to explore the latest innovations, sustainability practices, and emerging trends impacting on safe sustainable seafood trade. Organized by the International Association of Fish Inspectors (IAFI)—a globally recognized NGO affiliated with the United Nations—WSC sets new benchmarks for global seafood trade, fostering collaboration, innovation, and progress.
