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Short abstract:

In this contribution, we aim to conceptually expand how marine scientists engage with the sea along drastic environmental transformations. We will think about the relationship between scientists and the sea along three dimensions: environmental, academic and political time.

Long abstract:

Marine scientists report drastic environmental transformations in marine and polar regions as a result of pollution and climate change. Following transformations in the ways in which they research the ocean, e.g. through technological mediations, the relationship between scientists and the ocean is changing, in the wider context of ocean politics. This changing relationship is tangible in narratives about the sea, in which the sea is increasingly portrayed as an environmental concern, a fragile entity, while also sometimes a source of hope, bringing scientists' emotions to the surface. In this presentation we want to further explore the relationship between scientific work, environmental changes and political in/action. To do so, we think through dimensions of time to open-up the transforming relationship between scientists and the sea across three completed and two current research projects in which we study marine science. We will carve out the timescapes (Adams 1998, Vostal 2021) that are attached to the work of marine scientists and their academic living spaces (Felt 2009). For instance, times and tempos provide a format for scientists' engagement with the ocean: working on fast-paced scientific careers, spending precious time on research vessels, combining short- and long-term studies, researching effects of environmental changes that often originated before they started their career. Focusing on timescapes helps us to think about the relationship between scientists and the ocean along three dimensions: environmental, academic and political time. We aim to conceptually expand how engagement with the sea, its current and future challenges and promises transform human-ocean relations.