Two international master's programmes in Iceland, on Polar Law (Akureyri) on the one hand and Coastal and Marine Manage­ ment (Westfjords) on the other hand, reflect this importance.

The TN-co-leaders now invite for a kick-off-session during ICASS VII. For making the kick-off-meeting as
accessible and attractive as possible, it seemed reasonable to connect to a larger event, as ICASS VII with it's
impressive number of sessions indeed is: http://www.iassa.org/icass-vii

The Seventh International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS VII), will take place in Akureyri, Iceland,
June 22-26, 2011. The organisers have reserved a session for the topic Human Aspects of Fisheries in the
Arctic Coastal Regions. Please note that official deadline for posters and abstracts will be 20.12.10.

The Thematic Network's future activities and focal points will be discussed in a side meeting on the
conferencc open to all researchers interested in participation.

The UArctic TN Coast&Marine aims at giving coastal and marine issues a voice within UArctic's open issue-
based cooperation. It also aims at enforcing the voice of UArctic in this important field of common concern as
well as organising dialogue with the societies in the Arctic. As a recent Icelandic attempt to introduce coastal
fisheries with a social impetus has been dicussed very controversially within the country, the choosen topic
could help to get a broader view.

The UArctic Thematic Network Coast&Marine encourages researchers to join in and send paper/poster
abstracts before 20.12.10 to ICASS VII