Days 1 and 2 at the World Seabird Conference

Viv and I have now wrapped up two full days of sessions and symposiums at WSC2!

We have filled our days with presentations and workshops on topics ranging from the impacts of fisheries bycatch and windfarm development and ocean warming, to seabird navigation, the status of the worlds 22 penguin species and many other topics. There has also been lots of time for meeting up with people we already know, and meeting new people.

We both attended the opening video address by Jane Goodall, which was bothinspiring and a challenge to do more to protect the world seabirds.

LBCS was featured in a video compilation during that Opening Session - a video that Lindsay and Keith shot on Limestone this summer. Our main events happen tomorrow: Viv will set up the poster and will tell people all about LBCS when they visit it during the evening poster reception, and Keith will give the presentation, that he has been paring down to fit the (very short) 15 minute time slot! The presentation is part of session with people from Iceland, New Zealand, Chile and the US entitled "Community based Seabird Conservation".

It has been exciting to hear from many people who already know of Limestone Island and LBCS. There are past grad students who have worked on the island, and other researchers who have come to volunteer. We hope by the end of the week that even more people know who LBCS is and what we do!

Monday in Cape Town at the World Seabird Conference

This week, Keith and Viv are at the World Seabird Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. This is a first update from Keith after their first day!

Hi - all friends of Laskeek Bay Conservation Society - Viv and I and our partners Ryan and Helen have all arrived safely in Cape Town. Tonight we attended the Opening Reception for the Conference which opens tomorrow. Lots of people, good food and some very vigorous drumming to open the event. Tomorrow morning we get serious.

The Registration desk tells us that there are almost 600 people registered from 55 countries. The program is a daunting 56 pages with a total of 500 presentations and posters in many interesting sessions. It will be fun, and we hope to learn a lot to bring home to inform our on-going programs at Limestone.

South Africa has penguins and we have visited the colonies of the wonderful little African Penguins close to Capetown. The biggest colony is about 2000 birds. It was a busy place on the blustery day we visited, smelling much like a very odorous Cassins Auklet colony, with lots of young and many little artificial shelters to create additional habitat. Africa also has black oystercatchers, looking very much like our own Haida Gwaii BLOY. And of course we have taken the opportunity to visit game parks, looking at elephants, rhinos and the many beautiful birds. I did a safari on foot with armed Zulu guides; Viv did a horseback safari. Lots of pictures.

More on the conference later. Thanks again for all your work and support to get us here.

A great evening with great company and great food!

This note was written by Viv Pattison following Saturday night's African stew feast. Thank you to all who attended and all who have supported us as we prepare for the World Seabird Conference!

Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday to our presentations and African stew feast! We had an excellent African Peanut Stew, made by Maureen Weddell, and many other goodies to go along with it. After dinner, everyone gathered around to hear Keith’s run-through of the presentation he will be giving to an international audience at the Second World Seabird Conference in Cape Town at the end of October, and to take a look at the poster that I will be presenting during two days of the conference.

Keith talked about the many activities we have been doing over the years, from seabird studies to invasive plant pulling, and also highlighted the fact that we could never have done all this without the hundreds of volunteers who have donated time and energy over the years. My poster also summarizes our activities and the involvement of volunteers and students from local schools. For this local event, I also talked about our 2015 field season, and showed photos of some of the interesting sights we saw, and some of the amazing wildlife we got to interact with in the spring.

It is very exciting that our small organization was accepted to present twice at the conference, as we anticipate that it will be a big gathering. The first World Seabird Conference, in 2010, had over 800 participants from 50 different countries!

Thanks again to everyone who has supported our fundraising efforts. Thanks to Maureen at the Visitor Info Centre for hosting and cooking, thanks to others who brought food, and thanks to an attentive audience of long-time supporters, past volunteers, and potential future volunteers! If you want to check out the poster that will be on its way to South Africa shortly, it will be displayed at the Visitor Info Centre until early October.

2015 Field Season Summary is here!

It's hard to believe we've wrapped up a 26th field season already! To bring it all together, Viv, Ellen and Sara have authored another fantastic Field Season Report discussing our programs, findings and of course, our volunteers. Thank you to all who supported us this year - we cannot wait for our 27th season to begin!