The Annual Science Conference 2011 will focus on the Baltic Sea, one of the regions from which ICES originated. The overall programme of the ASC, however, will not be limited to this relatively small geographic area. It will address much wider topics of the ICES Science Plan as well as the marine research themes shared by ICES and PICES (North Pacific Marine Science Organization).

On behalf of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, the Polish Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, local authorities of Gdańsk and Pomerania, as well as the Sea Fisheries Institute in Gdynia (MIR), we are pleased to invite you to Gdańsk for ASC 2011.

The last ASC in Poland was held in Warsaw almost 32 years ago. Today, only ICES old-timers remember that event. It’s high time to bring ICES community as a whole to Poland once again. The ICES Secretariat, the Ministry as local host, Gdańsk City Mayor, and MIR decided to provide a unique location for the ASC. It will be held in the Gdańsk Philharmonic and Congress Center at Olowianka Island, in the heart of the Old City of Gdańsk, a thousand-year-old medieval, as well as Hanseatic, city. The city has a history that veils a stormy history. We strongly hope and believe that the complicated history will connect people rather than dividing them. Nowadays, Gdańsk constitutes a great tourist attraction not only by virtue of its ancient historical and cultural heritage but also because of the city’s most recent history. Gdańsk is a cradle of “Solidarność” (Solidarity), the movement led by Lech Wałęsa, the one which finally ended the Communist system in Poland. Not only is it the capital of the region of Pomerania and the main part of the tri-city (Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot) municipal agglomeration, but it is also the Baltic capital of amber jewellers and craftsmen. We hope that the venue will give participants remarkable views on the beauty of the Old City of Gdańsk as well as excellent conference and hotel accommodations.

The ASC will provide an opportunity for Polish research institutes, institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and Polish universities to present their research to the international scientific community. The well-highlighted regional aspect of the conference will open the floor widely to contributions of scientists from Poland as well as all of the Baltic countries.

The social programme planned by the organizing committee will give you a chance to familiarize yourselves not only with Gdańsk but also with the selected attractions of the Pomeranian region and Poland at large.

We look forward to welcoming you all to Gdańsk in September 2011!

Gerd Hubold General Secretary, ICES	Tomasz Linkowski ICES Delegate Poland	Piotr Margoński ICES Delegate Poland