Scientists want to bring together people from Canada and other circumpolar nations in Iqaluit next year to talk about the health of the Arctic marine environment and the North's fisheries.

The annual Ocean Innovation Conference, to be held in the Nunavut capital in October 2011, is being organized amid concerns about the effects of climate change in the North.

Conference organizers from the Fisheries and Marine Institute at Memorial University in St. John's, N.L., are in Nunavut this week to meet with government officials and Inuit hunters.

Randy Gillespie, the institute's director of applied research, said organizers will work closely with partners in Nunavut to hold a conference that will include representatives from Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Russia and the United States.

"We want to explore the relationships between science and technology and traditional knowledge, recognizing that all three have something to contribute to a sustainable understanding of the marine environment," Gillespie told CBC News.

Conference delegates will discuss everything from pollution to ship traffic, Gillespie said.

Arctic fisheries will also be discussed, as Nunavut works to expand both its offshore and inshore fishing industries.

Joopa Sowdluapik, a board member with Pangnirtung Fisheries on Baffin Island, said representatives from his community will likely attend next year's conference.

"It's always good to hear ideas [of] what's going on in the fishery mostly, and let other people know what we do up here ... in Nunavut, in Cumberland Sound especially," he said. "So this meeting will be interesting for sure."