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The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels was well-represented at the Fifth International Albatross and Petrel Conference, held in Wellington, New Zealand over 12-17 August, with most its Secretariat and chief officials attending or co-presenting in absentia.

The ACAP Secretariat was represented by John Cooper, Information Officer and Wiesława Misiak, Science Officer.  Chief Officials of ACAP bodies were well covered by Marco Favero, Advisory Committee Chair, Barry Baker and Anton Wolfaardt, Convenor and Vice-Convenor of the Seabird Bycatch Working Group and Rosemary Gales and Richard Phillips, Convenors of the Population and Conservation Status Working Group.  Two of the four ACAP regional news correspondents, Matt Rayner (Australasia) and Juan Pablo Seco Pon (South America) were present.  Although not attending, Warren Papworth, Executive Secretary and Luke Finley, Web Administrator from the Secretariat co-authored presentations, as did Mark Tasker, Vice-Chair of the Advisory Committee and Mike Double, Co-Convenor of the Taxonomy Working Group.

Practically a full house!

Two ACAP presentations were made at the conference:  Marco Favero led on a multi-authored paper that summarized international efforts being made by ACAP to conserve albatrosses and petrels and John Cooper and Luke Finley put up a poster that looked at how the ACAP web site through ACAP Latest News and the ACAP Facebook Group Page was increasing awareness among the general public of the critical threats facing the 30 listed species.

Most of the rest of the ACAP community attending co-presented aspects of their own research on albatrosses and petrels that they had conducted in Argentinian, Australian and New Zealand islands and waters.  A number of other delegates closely associated with ACAP by being National Contact Points or members of its Advisory Committee and working groups also attended the meeting, presenting both oral and poster papers.

Abstracts of all these presentations may be found in the Conference Programme and Abstracts Booklet.

Some of the ACAP attendees at the conference:
Marco Favero, Advisory Committee Chair, smiles for the camera

Tea break!  Anton Wolfaardt and Rosemary Gales pause for the photographer

A serious conversation?  Barry Baker chats with Ian Hay, ACAP National Contact Point for Australia
All photographs by John Cooper

References:

John Cooper & Luke Finley:  Flying into cyberspace: using social media to help conserve albatrosses and petrels.  In: Fifth International Albatross & Petrel Conference 12 - 17 August, 2012 Wellington, New Zealand Conference Programme and Abstracts.  P24.

Marco Favero, Barry Baker, Mike Double, Rosemary Gales, Wiesława Misiak, Warren Papworth, Richard Phillips, Mark Tasker & Anton Wolfaardt:  The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP): international efforts to improve the conservation status of threatened seabirds.  In: Fifth International Albatross & Petrel Conference 12 - 17 August, 2012 Wellington, New Zealand Conference Programme and Abstracts.  055.

John Cooper. ACAP Information Officer, 30 August 2012