The Second World Seabird Conference gets going today in Cape Town, South Africa

The Second World Seabird Conference (WSC2), with the overall theme “Seabirds: Global Ocean Sentinels” is being held this week in the International Conference Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. The formal programme starts today, following on from a welcome reception held in the centre yesterday evening.

The programme of talks in parallel sessions and of over 200 posters, along with their abstracts may be found on the conference website.

Grey-headed Albatrosses, photograph by Rowan Treblico

Of specific interest to the Albatross and Petrel Agreement are two sessions on fishery bycatch and a workshop on tackling seabird bycatch in small-scale fisheries. A session on international agreements and seabird conservation will also be held with ACAP making two presentations to it.  The Agreement is also presenting a poster that details its website as a growing resource for information on procellariiform research and conservation.

WSC2 is being hosted by the African Seabird Group and the World Seabird Union.  The Local Organizing Committee is chaired by Ross Wanless (BirdLife South Africa's Seabird Division Manager and African Seabird Group Chair).  The Scientific Programme Committee Chair is Peter Ryan (Director, FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town).

The First World Seabird Conference was held in in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in September 2010 with over 800 registered attendees from more than 50 countries.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 October 2015