Category Archives: Outside Conferences, Workshops & Symposia

Call for abstracts – 5th International Marine Conservation Congress, Malaysia (24-29 June, 2018)

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The 5th International Marine Conservation Congress, Making Marine Science Matter, will be held from 24 June – 29 June 2018 at the Waterfront Hotel Kuching, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. We welcome your abstracts for Oral, Speed, and Poster Presentations, and OceansOnline sessions until 23:59NDT on 16 March 2018.

Congress Theme

The overall theme of the Congress is Making Marine Science Matter. For marine conservation to be effective, marine conservation science must matter to stakeholders, policy makers, and practitioners. To accomplish this, the Congress will be organized around specific topics of interest for marine conservation in general, as well as the local geographic region. This list is not meant to be exhaustive but merely a guide for those submitting abstracts. Others topics of interest are absolutely welcomed.

  • Communicating marine conservation
  • Fisheries, aquaculture, and the oceans
  • Marine food security
  • Conservation and management of the Arctic and Antarctic
  • Conservation and management of tropical marine ecosystems
  • Conservation engineering
  • Ocean science technology
  • Marine energy
  • Marine policy
  • Climate, ocean acidification, and the changing oceans
  • Culture and the marine environment
  • Advancing marine conservation through international treaties
  • Effective marine conservation planning
  • Participation in marine conservation science (e.g. citizen and indigenous science)
  • Marine tourism
  • Estuary and coastal restoration
  • Conservation at the land-sea interface
  • The marine conservation community

Click here to read more.

Student Conference on Conservation Science-New York (Oct 24-26, 2018)

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The Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) at the American Museum of Natural History host a yearly conference called the Student Conference on Conservation Science-New York (SCCS-NY).

As a part of the only international series of conservation conferences featuring students as well as early-career professionals, SCCS-NY provides opportunities for emerging scientists to exchange ideas, present and get feedback on their research, and gain experience to help them launch their careers.

– The conference will take place at the American Museum of Natural History on October 24-26, 2018.
– The abstract submission window will open March 1 and close April 8.

For more information about this year’s conference, please visit: www.amnh.org/sccsny

The first international conservation marketing congress (25-28 Oct 2018)

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The first international conservation marketing & engagement congress is now accepting proposals for abstracts and symposia/workshops (25-28 Oct 2018, Washington DC). The theme of the meeting is “getting your conservation message across”.

The conference is interested in your presentations, workshops, and discussions on the following topics:

  • Conservation online: what the digital frontier can add to the traditional toolbox of conservation marketers.
  • Community engagement for conservation: best practices and lessons learned in effectively engaging communities in conservation action.
  • Citizen science for conservation outcomes: engaging citizens and community members in collecting and interpreting data.
  • ​Bringing science to conservation policy: Engaging with managers, regulators and policy makers for conservation.
  • Marketing tools in conservation: best practices and innovative use of marketing tools to promote conservation behaviors, including audience research methods.
  • Conservation psychology: Exploring the psychological responses to conservation messaging, including the influence of access to nature, and human well-being.
  • Assessing success of conservation campaigns: Impact evaluation methods and ideas for measuring success of marketing and community engagement efforts.
  • Conservation social science: What we’re learning about the human dimension of environmental issues, including public attitudes, values, and opinions about conservation.
  • Innovation in conservation engagement: New approaches, methods, and ideas for promoting conservation.

For more details and registration go to: ​

Fifth International Conference on the Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life

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The Fifth International Conference on the Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life (AN2019) will take place during the week of 7-12 July 2019, in Den Haag, The Netherlands. The conference will follow from, and build upon, the earlier meetings, the most recent of which took place in Dublin in 2016.

The meeting will be held at the Grand Hotel Kurhaus of Scheveningen, a building dating back to 1884. The hotel presents itself with grandeur and flair. It is right at the sea with a wonderful beach. The boardwalk features numerous restaurants and cafes. The venue is easily reached from Amsterdam. It provides exceptional accommodation, meeting rooms, and places for informal discussions.

At this point, conference organizers are in the early planning stages and it will be very helpful for them to have some sense of interest in the meeting from potential participants. Therefore, they have set up a short online survey to get your thoughts on the meeting and to keep a list of interested participants so that they can keep you informed of major progress in planning. In addition, please share the link with others who might be interested in attending the meeting: https://goo.gl/xY6BKr

The conference website is in development: http://www.an-2019.org

Please visit the web site regularly so you will be aware of important information about the meeting.

Also, both Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/AquaticNoise2019/) and Twitter (@AquaticNoise) have been set up, so please follow for updates.

Over the coming months, the organizers will set up our Technical Advisory Board, raise funds, and develop a tentative program. They will be announcing calls for papers as well as how to sign up to attend the meeting and make hotel reservations. They are hoping to have sufficient funding to provide some support to students and younger colleagues, and so if anyone knows of (or controls) funding opportunities please contact Christine Erbe (c.erbe@curtin.edu.au) or Joe Sisneros (sisneros@uw.edu).

 

Upcoming Conservation Conferences around the world

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  • 5th European Congress of Conservation Biology (ECCB 2018)
    ​Planetary Wellbeing
    Jyväskylä, Finland
    June 12-15, 2018
    Visit the meeting site: org\eccb2018
    Follow ECCB on Facebookand Twitter
  • North America Congress for Conservation Biology (NACCB 2018)
    Conservation Science, Policy, and Practice: Connecting the Urban to the Wild
    Westin Harbour Castle Conference Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    July 21-26, 2018
    Visit the meeting site: http://scbnorthamerica.org/index.php/naccb2018/
    Follow NACCB on Facebook and Twitter
  • Oceania Congress for Conservation Biology(OCCB 2018)
    Conservation in a changing world
    Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand
    July 2-6, 2018
    Visit the meeting site: http://wellington2018.scboceania.org/
    Follow OCCB on Facebook and Twitter
  • Asia Congress for Biodiversity Conservation(ACBC 2018)
    American University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic
    August 7-10, 2018
  • International Marine Conservation Congress(IMCC5)
    Make Marine Science Matter!
    Kuching, Sarawak
    June 24-29, 2018
    Visit the meeting site: http://conbio.org/mini-sites/imcc5/
    Follow IMCC on Facebook and Twitter
  • Latin America and Caribbean Congress for Conservation Biology(LACCB 2018)
    Rainforest to Reef: Strengthening Conservation Connections Between the Caribbean and the Americas
    Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies, Trinidad & Tobago
    July 25-27, 2018
    Follow LACCB on Facebook
  • International Congress of Conservation Marketing & Engagement(ConsMark 2018)
    George Mason University Arlington Campus, Arlington, Virginia, USA
    October 25-27, 2018

Visit the meeting site: http://www.consmark.org

Follow on Facebook  and Twitter

Workshop: Development and implementation of low-cost methods to reduce cetacean bycatch in small scale gillnet fisheries (29 Oct 2017)

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Dear Colleagues,

If you are attending the 22st Biennal Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Halifax, Nova Scotia and working on bycatch issues we hope you will consider attending the following Workshop:

Development and implementation of low-cost methods to reduce cetacean bycatch in small scale gillnet fisheries

Description of Workshop:

Bycatch in gillnet fisheries is considered the most significant threat to cetaceans globally. In most cases cetacean bycatch rates are relatively low from a fishery perspective but high, and often unsustainable, from a cetacean population perspective. These are significant challenges to overcome when developing, testing and implementing potential bycatch mitigation measures. This Workshop focusses on low-cost cetacean bycatch solutions for small scale gillnet fisheries and is a follow-up to a similar Workshop organized at the SMM 2015. The Workshop will review available new bycatch reduction methodologies/gear modifications, and results from recent and ongoing bycatch mitigation trials. The Workshop will also identify areas and fisheries with relative high bycatch rates where bycatch mitigation trials may be conducted with high statistical power. This would be facilitated through development of collaborative international research proposals with participation of researchers from areas where trials are logistically difficult but where the results would be applicable. The Workshop will further review how to move from successful trial to implementation, particularly in locations and fisheries where legislation and enforcement may be absent. The Workshop will primarily address drift-and set gillnet fisheries and identify the most promising low-cost mitigation methods for both echo- and non-echolocating species. Workshop discussions will be introduced and stimulated by case study presentations.

We are looking for relevant case study presentations: please contact us if you plan to attend the Workshop and have a suggested presentation.

This will be a half day workshop with a maximum 50 participants.

Date/time: Sunday 29 October 2017. 08:00-12:00.

Organizers: Per Berggren (Newcastle University, UK) and Jeremy Kiszka (Florida International University)

For more information, please email: per.berggren@ncl.ac.uk

For more information about this and other SMM Workshops: http://www.smmconference.org/WorkshopDescriptions

 

Many thanks for considering this and we hope to see you at the Workshop.

Per Berggren & Jeremy Kiszka

Workshop: U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act research permitting (28 Oct 2017)

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Reminder:  Please join us for a half-day workshop on Saturday, October 28, 2017, from 8 am -noon titled: “U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act research permitting.”

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) oversee issuance of permits for take, import, and export of marine mammals under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES; FWS only). NMFS has jurisdiction over cetaceans and pinnipeds, except walrus.  FWS has jurisdiction over dugong, manatees, polar bears, sea otters, marine otter, and walrus. The Marine Mammal Commission (the Commission) provides independent oversight of the MMPA permitting programs.

Each agency will provide an overview of their program for processing scientific research and other permits including how to submit a complete application, review of applications by the agencies (including ESA and other consultations) and the Commission, and important updates for permit holders and applicants. Updates include changes underway to streamline permitting (e.g., updated application instructions, development of standardized research methods, and programmatic ESA consultations).

The first half of the workshop will be dedicated to NMFS permits and the second half to FWS permits including CITES. Representatives from each agency will be available for questions.

Please register via the conference website:
http://www.smmconference.org/WorkshopDescriptions

We hope you will join us,

Amy Sloan (NMFS), Mary Cogliano (FWS), and Tiffini Brookens (the Commission)

Workshop: Developing Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) to improve decision-making during mass stranding events (29 October 2017)

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Dear colleagues

Just a reminder re the upcoming full day workshop entitled ” Developing Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) to improve decision-making during mass stranding events” at the upcoming 22nd Biennial Conference of the Marine Mammal Society. The workshop will take place on Sunday 29th October from 0800 to 1700h and assemble scientists, vets, NGOs, government agencies and other stakeholders whom have experience and/or vested interest in (mass) stranding events. The workshop will engage expert opinion on the different parameters that can affect the likelihood of survivorship of refloated individuals and work towards establishment of predicted probabilities that can affect the outcome of rescue attempts. The overarching goal will be to prepare a submission for publication that addresses the application of BBNs to assess probability of survivorship in refloated whales.

 

Background

Despite costly, and often logistically challenging attempts to rescue live whales, there is often a lack of scientific evaluation underpinning current decision-making processes. Notably, matters of conservation (survivorship/fitness) and animal welfare (impacts of refloatation), remain largely undetermined. Historically, animal welfare science and conservation have been regarded as separate disciplines, with dissimilar objectives that often conflict. However, the newly emerging field of conservation welfare integrates synergies between two scientific disciplines with the aim of improving outcomes for both the species (conservation) and individual animals (welfare). This workshop addresses the issue of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the form of Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN) to challenge the human perceptions and psychology associated with whale mass strandings, while incorporating scientific evaluation into decision-making processes. AI tools are becoming increasingly popular to address an array of complex environmental problems, but have yet to be applied effectively at the interface between science and public interaction. The overarching goal is to apply recent technological innovations to an age-old problem, in order to provide a vital nexus between conservation and animal welfare sciences.

 

Workshop Summary

Decision-making processes required by authorities during live stranding events are typically fraught with difficulties due to complicated, often interlinked variables, including but not limited to logistics, ethics, public perceptions and animal welfare. Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) are a graphical rule based modelling technique that have recently emerged as a useful research and management tool. BBNs can provide a visual depiction of the causal linkages between multiple environmental drivers and ecological state. Notably, in the absence of empirical data, BBNs can be constructed solely upon expert opinion, with subsequent independent assessment applied to assess the prediction accuracy of the model. This workshop aims to convene and engage individuals with relevant live stranding event experience to determine as a collective, key parameters and their predicted probability of influence on survivorship of refloated cetacea post-stranding event.

 

Registration for the workshop can be completed via the conference website (https://www.xcdsystem.com/smm/member/index.cfm)

 

We look forward to seeing you in Halifax!

Workshop: Sanctuaries: A New Seascape for Captive Cetaceans (28 Oct 2017)

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This is to announce a workshop entitled “Sanctuaries: A New Seascape for Captive Cetaceans” at the SMM Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on the morning of Saturday 28th October 2017.

We will present three ongoing projects creating permanent seaside sanctuaries for dolphins and whales retired from marine parks and aquariums.

Speakers: Naomi Rose, Lori Marino (Whale Sanctuary Project), John Racanelli (National Aquarium Dolphin Sanctuary) and Colleen Weiler (WDC/Sealife Trust Beluga Sanctuary.

More info is at: http://www.smmconference.org/WorkshopDescriptions

Lori Marino  and Naomi Rose

Workshop: Assessing the responses of marine mammals to anthropogenic acoustic disturbance (28 Oct 2017)

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28th October 2017

Anthropogenic sounds, such as from vessels, seismic surveys and pile-driving, can cause harm and disturbance to marine mammals over potentially large scales. In this workshop, we aim to draw on the experience of previous studies, identify lessons learned and recommendations for the future, and determine approaches for most effectively incorporating this knowledge into best management practices. This workshop follows the conference theme of reflecting on the journey of people who have studied this topic to inform future work. We will focus on four main themes: 1) Baseline data and models, examining appropriate measures, scales and resolutions, 2) Assessing individual responses to anthropogenic sounds, 3) Modeling population-level and cumulative effects of acoustic disturbance, 4) Application to best management practices. Each theme will consist of approximately four talks of 15 minutes each followed by a 30 minute discussion session.

If your research would be relevant, and you are interested in participating, there are still spaces available to give a 15-minute talk at the workshop.

Please Helen Bailey (hbailey@umces.edu) and/or Aaron Rice (arice@cornell.edu) know by 1st  September if you are interested in presenting.