ACEP attends WIOMSA 30 August – 1 September 2005

Tony Ribbink (Director of ACEP), Lucy Scott (Information and GIS co-ordinator), Kerry Sink (Marine Ecology co-ordinator) and Berny Snow (Environmental Education co-ordinator) travelled to Mauritius to attend WIOMSA's (Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association) fourth scientific symposium.

Tony Ribbink gave two presentations, one in a parallel session, entitled The African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme: a multidisciplinary programme and a vehicle for sustainability. The other, presented In the plenary session on major regional programmes and to launch the Heads of Institutions forum, he presented The African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme: In support of the forum. Dr Ribbink was invited to attend as the Head of a Regional Research Programme and unofficially to represent SAIAB. After considerable discussion and several decisions on how to shape the forum and execute its activities, it was agreed that the forum should be launched officially. It was proposed that chair for the forum would rotate, with the host of the WIOMSA symposium assuming responsibility and the deputy chair would come from the country designated to host the next meeting.

Lucy Scott presented a paper entitled “A marine Geographic Information System for the western Indian Ocean.

Kerry Sink presented a paper and a poster. The paper was entitled An experimental evaluation of the effect of subsistence and recreational exploitation on intertidal communities in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa and the poster The diversity and abundance of fish in the submarine canyons of the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, South Africa.

Berny Snow attended the conference in Mauritius and through meetings and interactions initiated an informal science communication and environmental education network for the WIO. The network has communicated primarily through e-mail with new partnerships and collaborations in the pipeline. Berny would like to encourage continued participation in this network so it can grow from strength to strength. The aim of the Environmental Education (EE) coordinator attending was to build networks with partner countries and gather information on general trends of EE linked to science, and this has been very successful.