The Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) organised a successful Sixth Scientific Symposium in St. Denis, La Réunion (France) from 24-29 August 2009. From its modest beginnings, the biennial symposium has gone from strength to strength in recent years – now attracting hundreds of participants from across the region and well beyond.
The scientific programme was rich in content and covered a remarkably wide diversity of topics, in both oral and poster presentations. Marine turtles were well represented – alongside related subjects, such as community-based conservation, socio-economics, fisheries management, marine protected areas, and marine ecology. More »
At a time when the world's oceans are facing unprecedented pressures from human impacts in the marine environment, a new decision-making tool has been launched to provide the most current and relevant information about marine and coastal biodiversity and its protection status.
This marine protected areas tool (www.wdpa-marine.org), created by the United Nations Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is part of the recently redeveloped World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) – the authoritative and most globally comprehensive list of marine and terrestrial protected areas. More »
FROM THE SECRETARIAT
The Western Indian Ocean dominates
the news this month, with a special
Profile of the Month devoted to the
sub-region’s marine turtles;
and a feature article on the WIOMSA
Scientific Symposium held recently
in La Réunion.
And there’s
more to come from that part of the
world. A new Bibliography Resource – focusing
on the WIO – has been compiled
and is undergoing fine-tuning before
its formal launch on the IOSEA website
in the coming week or so.
Also, the IOSEA Projects Database
will soon be bolstered with several
dozen new or updated projects from
the WIO region.
Last, but not least, we can expect to hear
more in the coming months about a new project
being developed under the Southwest Indian
Ocean Fisheries Project (SWIOFP), with an
important marine turtle component, which
will strengthen IOSEA implementation in the
sub-region.
Of more general interest, IOSEA Focal Points
can look forward to receiving an announcement
this month, by email, about the new
IOSEA Technical Support and Capacity
Building Programme.
As always, contributions
to the website are most welcome!
MONTHLY ROUND-UP: What you may have missed in August
The Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) organised a successful Sixth Scientific Symposium in St. Denis, La Réunion (France) from 24-29 August 2009. From its modest beginnings, the biennial symposium has gone from strength to strength in recent years – now attracting hundreds of participants from across the region and well beyond. 
At a time when the world's oceans are facing unprecedented pressures from human impacts in the marine environment, a new decision-making tool has been launched to provide the most current and relevant information about marine and coastal biodiversity and its protection status.
