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The First World Seabird Conference will be held in Victoria, British Columbia ,Canada from 7-11 September (click here).

A number of primary symposia and special paper sessions are expected to give opportunities for presentations and discussions of relevance to the conservation of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels (click here for a list and description of each symposium and session).

A symposium entitled Interactions between Seabirds and Fisheries: a Global Perspective to be convened by Ben Sullivan of BirdLife International should be of particular importance, as can be deduced from the following description:

"The rapid increase in industrial fisheries around the globe during the 20th century has led to increasing levels of interactions between seabirds and commercial fisheries in both near-shore, coastal and pelagic systems.  These interactions include mortality of seabirds as bycatch, competition between fisheries and seabirds for prey, and the use of discarded bycatch from fisheries as food by scavenging seabirds.  Mortality of seabirds in fisheries is thought to be one of the most critical conservation issues of our time.  This symposium will examine the demographic, behavioural, and ecological responses of seabirds to fisheries, with a particular focus on the role that global climate change may have on these relationships.  A demographic modelling workshop will integrate individual levels assessments of mortality with population consequences.  Other workshops will focus on mitigation measures, working with industry and recreational fishers, and offer new strategies to reduce seabird mortality from bycatch and competition with fisheries for prey in a rapidly changing marine environment."

Other sessions will cover such subjects of relevance to ACAP as marine debris, seabird island restoration, and opportunities and challenges for seabird Marine Protected Areas.

It is hoped to post a report of the meeting after its completion.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 3 August 2010