San Diego, California, USA, 12 - 15 April 2011
The Next Generation of Research & Conservation

This year, the symposium took place in the USA in the city of San Diego in California. As stated by its president, Jeffrey Seminoff, “the Symposium has reached out to a broad range of sea turtle enthusiasts over the years, including researchers, conservation practitioners, educators, industry, and the general public”.

He also wrote in the introduction that “In San Diego we will highlight The Next Generation of Research and Conservation. Major efforts will be made to recognize and support student contributions to our Society and to advancing research and conservation of sea turtles around the world”.ʼ
In addition to the main meeting, numerous regional meetings and thematic workshops will be conducted.

Before the actual symposium, the Mediterranean Regional Meeting took place where we received an update on most countries in the Mediterranean region. It was mediated by Paolo Casale from Italy who was also elected on the board of the International Sea Turtle Society (Aliki Panagopoulou was the other one).

Paolo informed us that 12 poster and 2 oral presentation concerned our region.
Flegra Bentivegna gave us a presentation about the 4th Mediterranean Conference on Marine Turtles which will take place in Naples, Italy next November.

It was also announced the the next Marine Turtle Newsletter will be dedicated the the the Mediterranean region.

In the Afternoon, a Sea Turtle Medicine Workshop was organized which seems to grow very popular over the years. A wide range of people joined in both from different countries and specialties. Presentation were made on different topics such as head traumas, treatment of carapace injuries, anesthesia protocols,analgesia and release conditions... This proved to be very interesting and useful.
I gave a short presentation on head traumas treated at the Archelon Rescue Center.

During the course of the actual symposium, we follow many different sessions. Quite a few were related to topics such as ʽHeath and Rehabilitationʼ and ʽThreatsʼ

Special sessions were organized regarding recent events such as the recent sea turtle cold-stunning event in the southeastern U.S., and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
An emphasize was given to special thematic sessions on 'Finding Common Ground in Fisheries Management' and 'The Science of Advocacy'.

Another workshop was organized on the last day dedicated to ʽHooks and Related Lesionsʼ.
As usual, additional events were planned such as the Welcome Cocktail where we could brake the ice, meeting new people and reconnecting with colleagues.

On one evening, The Wild & Scenic Film Festival screened movies about sea turtles but also other wildlife.

The Silent and Live Auction are always great fun and helps greatly to raise funds for future grants.
This symposium was a great success in getting us together and sharing our passion for those ancient mariners.
Paul Tsaros