Organizers announce a call for registration for the 3rd Blue Planet Symposium. This symposium will convene 31 May-2 June 2017 in College Park, Maryland.

Blue Planet is an initiative of the Group of Earth Observations (GEO). GEO aims to address global challenges and improve decision making by coordinating and developing Earth observation efforts among participating governments and organizations. The overall goal of Blue Planet Initiative is to ensure the sustained development and use of ocean and coastal observations for the benefit of society. Blue Planet is a network of networks made up of participants from a variety of existing international organizations, regional organizations, national institutes, universities, government agencies, project groups, and other interested parties.

The symposium will serve as a forum for discussion of societal information needs resulting from the important role the oceans play in Earth's life-support system and the challenge of minimizing the impacts of human activities on the oceans while also utilizing the resources of the oceans to meet our needs. The symposium will also be a platform for the participating communities to exchange information on their activities and identify potential pilot and prototype projects for Blue Planet to focus on in the coming years.

The symposium will address four subthemes:

- The changing oceans;
- Threats from pollution, warming, and acidification;
- Processes and life at the interfaces with the oceans; and
- Sustainable use of ocean resources.

The symposium is open to scientists, researchers, and students from academia, industry, government, users of ocean observation data and information, and other stakeholders engaged in monitoring, understanding, and managing the oceans.

Registration deadline: 28 April 2017.

For more information about the symposium, please go to: http://symposium.geoblueplanet.com/.

To register for the symposium, please go to: http://symposium.geoblueplanet.com/registration-and-abstracts.

For more information about Blue Planet, please go to: http://geoblueplanet.com.