Conferences on Cetacean Conservation in South Mediterranean Countries
Fifth Conference on Cetacean Conservation in South Mediterranean Countries
(CSMC5)
The 5th Conference on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the South Mediterranean Countries (CSMC5), hosted by the National Centre for Marine Sciences of Lebanon (CNRS-L), was held online from 13 to 15 April 2021. This Conference was organised by the ACCOBAMS Secretariat, in collaboration with the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (UNEP/MAP-SPA/RAC) and was financially supported by the Principality of Monaco.
More than seventy participants (experts, researchers, doctoral students and students) from the ACCOBAMS region as well as several international organisations such as the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), the Commission for the Protection of the Black Sea (BSC) and the European Commission’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) took part to the Conference.
The objective of this CSMC5 was to take in consideration the state of knowledge available on cetaceans in the southern Mediterranean, to identify potential gaps and to encourage the development of conservation actions in order to promote the implementation of the ACCOBAMS recommendations.
During these two and a half days, five scientific sessions were organised on the following topics
– interactions between cetaceans and human activities – fisheries and bycatch, underwater noise, whale watching –
– cetacean strandings
– monitoring of cetacean populations
– areas of importance for cetaceans
These sessions provided an opportunity to exchange experiences and information and to consider the best approaches and actions for a perfect knowledge of cetacean populations in the southern Mediterranean region.
A training workshop was devoted to the use of the NETCCOBAMS digital platform for cetacean conservation.
POSTER AWARDS Thanks to the financial support of the Principality of Monaco, a competition was organised to elect the best informative posters presented by doctoral students and students. Thus, Isabelle ROSABRUNETTO, Director General of the Department of External Relations and Cooperation, awarded Mr Wael KOUCHED, post-doctoral student at the National Institute of Marine Sciences and Technologies in Tunisia, the first prize for his poster entitled: “Monitoring of Tursiops truncatus around an aquaculture farm in eastern Tunisia“. Mr. Wael KOUCHED will thus be invited to Monaco on the occasion of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of ACCOBAMS and to the 14th Meeting of the Scientific Committee of ACCOBAMS, scheduled for November 2021. The 2nd and 3rd prizes were awarded to Ms. Arwa CHAKROUN and Ms. Patricia SANZ for their posters entitled respectively: “Experimentation of two types of acoustic repellents to mitigate depredation on seines in North-East Tunisia” and “Using MEDACES to conserve cetaceans through stranding data“. |
DOCUMENTS FOR THE CONFERENCE
ACCOBAMS-CSMC5/2021/Doc01Rev1 | Provisional Agenda | |
ACCOBAMS-CSMC5/2021/Doc02 | Instructions for the online Conference | |
ACCOBAMS-CSMC5/2021/Doc03Rev1 | Provisional List of participants | |
ACCOBAMS-CSMC5/2021/Doc04 | Provisional Timetable | ![]() |
ACCOBAMS-CSMC5/2021/Doc05 | Provisional Booklet of Abstracts | ![]() |
ACCOBAMS-CSMC5/2021/Doc06 | Final Report | |
Posters area | ||
Article presentations |
ARTICLES SUBMITTED FOR THE CONFERENCE
After the Conference, the authors of selected article abstracts will provide complete scientific articles to be published under CSMC5 Publication.
The delivery of participation certificates to participants are conditioned to the timely reception of the complete scientific articles, no later 31st May 2021.
PUBLICATIONS
Two documents will be published:
– A Report of the Conference: with conclusions and recommendations issued by the sessions.
– The CSMC5 Publication: with complete posters and articles presented during the Conference.
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Four CSMCs were already organized with the support of the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (SPA/RAC-MAP/UNEP) and the Government of Monaco Principality.