Conferences on Cetacean Conservation in South Mediterranean Countries

Fifth Conference on Cetacean Conservation in South Mediterranean Countries

(CSMC5)

The 5^th 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 25^th anniversary of ACCOBAMS and to the 14^th Meeting of the Scientific Committee of ACCOBAMS, scheduled for November 2021.

The 2^nd and 3^rd 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 31^st 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.

		Topics	Reports
CSMC1	Tabarka, Tunisia 2009	Status, distribution and conservation of cetaceans Interactions between cetaceans and human activities Cetaceans’ strandings
CSMC2 in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture & Maritime Fisheries of Morocco	El Jadida, Morocco 2011	Interactions between cetaceans and human activities Monitoring of populations Pollution and other nuisances
CSMC3 in collaboration with the National Centre for Marine Sciences (CNRS) & the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation	Jounieh, Lebanon 2014	Interactions between cetaceans and human activities Monitoring of populations and stranding Critical habitats for cetaceans Conservation plans for cetacean species Networking and exchange of information Photo-identification of cetacean species
CSMC4 in collaboration the Algerian Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries, the National Research Center for the Development of Fisheries and Aquaculture	Oran, Algeria 2017	interactions between cetaceans and human activities (fisheries, anthropogenic noise, whale watching, …) monitoring of populations and strandings critical habitats for cetaceans conservation plans for cetacean species exchange of information photo-identification of cetacean species