The 29th Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology
and Conservation was held in Brisbane,
with our very own Dr Colin Limpus presiding
over the annual event. The symposium was
well organised and well attended, and
featured many useful side meetings (both
formal and informal), interesting keynote
speeches and a good variety of presentations,
with increased representation from Australia.
The next symposium will take place in
Goa, India, in April 2010. (Notwithstanding
the complete success of the Brisbane gathering,
I still maintain that these mega-symposia
should only be organised every two years,
with regional meetings in between.)
As
reported in a separate feature
article, the Secretariat took advantage
of the presence of many IOSEA associates
in Brisbane to organise a productive two-day
strategic planning session on the future
direction of the MoU.
* * * * *
We're
probably overdue to announce a number
of updates to the website that have been
made over the past several weeks, among
them:
Added 4 new projects to the Projects Database and entered minor updates in another 15 or so (If your project is listed in the database, you might want to check whether any of the contents are in need of revision.)
Added/updated
four entries in the Flipper
Tag Database - for Comoros, Indonesia,
Maldives, and Seychelles. (This database
still needs a lot of work to bring it
up to date. Please contact us if you know
of more recent tag series being applied
in your country.)
Created
a new section (under the Membership tab,
in the left-land menu) to accommodate
information on National
Committees/Networks. The Secretariat
has heard informally that India has taken
steps to establish a national committee,
and that Tanzania's committee recently
held a productive meeting. We look forward
to receiving first-hand accounts soon.
Completely revised the Species Overview section with new and improved content.
Added
several new entries to the Dates
of Interest calendar. Of note this
month: the forthcoming SEASTAR2000 workshop
being held in Bangkok later this week;
and the 28th session of the FAO Committee
on Fisheries in Rome, where a new International
Plan of Action on managing bycatch and
reducing discards is supposed to be discussed.
|
Last
year, the IOSEA Marine Turtle MoU Secretariat
secured funds from the Convention on Migratory
Species to support a meeting to consider
the future direction of the MoU. The initiative
was endorsed by the Fifth Meeting of the
Signatory States (Bali, August 2008).
Subsequently, the Secretariat invited
participants from a range of disciplines
to attend a strategic planning meeting
in Brisbane on 13-14 February 2009. 
Indigenous Sea Rangers from northern Australia have impressed international delegates attending the 29th Sea Turtle Symposium in Brisbane with their world-leading approach to turtle management.
Coinciding with the official opening of the 29th International Sea Turtle Symposium in Brisbane, Queensland's Environmental Protection Agency has published a comprehensive review of Australian marine turtles, compiled by Dr. Colin Limpus (IOSEA Advisory Committee member).
