Every year, the International Sea Turtle Society holds its Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation. This year, the 30th Annual symposium was organized in Goa, India and it was the first time that the symposium came to the South Asian region.

This event was jointly hosted and organized by sea turtle conservation groups and research organizations as well as institutions that work on marine environment issues across India and South Asia. Based on previous Annual Symposia of the ISTS, we were expecting up to 700 participants, from as many as 50 countries across the world. The ISTS Annual Symposium is truly unique, drawing an enormous number and diversity of people interested in these intriguing animals and their habitats.

Theme: The world of turtles (from the symposium website)

Sea turtles inhabit the land and the sea. They connect the shallow nearshore waters to the open sea, cold temperate to warm tropical waters. They migrate across ocean basins. And through several thousands of years, they have connected us ecologically and culturally to the sea. The thirtieth annual symposium on sea turtle biology and conservation will seek to explore these connections and focus on the world they live in. The world of coral reefs, seagrass meadows, open seas and sandy beaches. The world of people, living and working on the coast or at sea; of fishing cultures and livelihoods. All connected by sea turtles and by us.

In keeping with the theme of the symposium, the programme attempts to draw attention to marine and coastal habitats, fisheries and other livelihoods related issues, environmental impacts, and much, much more, within the context of sea turtle biology and conservation.

The actual symposium ran from the 27th to the 29th of April but a lot of other meetings are scheduled before and after.

On the 24th we decided to get up early and follow the first 2 workshops. The one on statistics was intensive and very practical. This will hopefully allow us a better understanding of our data. The second one on invasive species gave us a better insight on the modification of our environment whether they are human related or natural. The way to deal with those changes was also elaborated.

On the 25th I decided to follow the Fisheries Forum in the morning to see how issues with fisheries are addressed in other areas. The interaction between conservation, livelihood and sustainability are sometimes difficult to combine. The collaboration with local communities seems to be the key to positive achievements.

In the afternoon I joined the Indian Ocean and South East Asia Regional Meeting. I have worked in Asia and wanted to have some updates on the situation. It also gave different approaches to similar problems.

On the 26th the discussion was enlarged to other animals with a session about conservation of Marine Turtles and Dugongs: Shared Synergies and Opportunities. It was interesting to learn about animals that have a close interaction with turtles. It was clearly shown how conservation groups can collaborate to achieve better information beneficial to both species.

Never the less the Mediterranean Meeting, has become a wonderful opportunity to exchange information and meet with people that share common targets. An update was given with the presentation of the latest Mediterranean Sea Turtle Report, a sum of all information available on a regional level. The Mediterranean Conference planned to be in 2011 was confirmed.

A special edition on the Marine Turtle Newsletter about the Mediterranean regional was also announced. More collaboration is necessary with a Mediterranean section on the MTSG website (Marine Turtle Specialist Group).

Also the idea to publish a Mediterranean nesting and stranding database on seaturtle.org was suggested.

Between the 27th and the 29th of April, a large number of talks were given covering a wide number of topics from nesting to fisheries bycatch. Several of those were given by members of ARCHELON.

“ANOTHER DECLINING LOGGERHEAD POPULATION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN: BAY OF CHANIA, GREECE” by Dimitris Margaritoulis, Alan F. Rees, Christopher Dean, and Aliki Panagopoulou.

“FIELD EXPERIMENT TO ASSESS LOGGERHEAD HATCHLING ORIENTATION DISRUPTION BY ARTIFICIAL LIGHT OF DIFFERENT WAVELENGTHS by Nikos Vallianos, John R. Speakman and Dimitris Margaritoulis

“EDUCATION AND OUTREACH: AN IMPORTANT ELEMENT IN THE PROTECTION OF LOGGERHEAD SEA TURTLES ON THE ISLAND OF CRETE, GREECE” by Aliki Panagopoulou, Maria Stravaridou and Dimitris Margaritoulis

A poster was presented named “THE PERCEPTIONS OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES TOWARDS MARINE PROTECTED AREAS AND THE CONSERVATION OF THE LOGGERHEAD SEA TURTLE; THE CASE STUDY OF THE BAY OF KYPARISSIA” by Niki Diogou, Ross J. Clifford, D. Dimopoulos and R. Perkins.

Another talk was given by Alan Rees called “SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO: OLIVE RIDLEY POST-NESTING MIGRATIONS” Alan F. Rees, Salim Al Saadi, Nancy Papathanasopoulou, Michael S. Coyne, Annette C. Broderick, and Brendan J. Godley

My main impression about this symposium was very positive because of the importance given to human interactions in the conservation process. It targeted especially local communities and fishermen. This brings around the table all different parties to participate actively in creating solutions for all interests. (Pavlos Tsaros)