Welcome to the ECS 2010 conference website!
The 24th Annual Conference of the European Cetacean Society will take place in Stralsund, Germany, from 22nd to 24th March 2010 and will be hosted by the German Oceanographic Museum (GOM) in cooperation with the Research and Technology Centre Westcoast (FTZ) of the University of Kiel, the Marine Mammal Science Centre of the University of Rostock, the University of Potsdam, the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) and the Hel Marine Station of the University of Gdansk (Poland). After thirteen years - who remembers the 11th conference of the European Cetacean Society? - the ECS is back in Stralsund!
Patron of this conference is Dr. Angela Merkel, the German Federal Chancellor.
- the old town of stralsund (photo: C. Rödel)
Theme of the conference is:
Marine Mammal Populations: Challenges for Conservation in the Next Decade
The theme highlights the Society’s scientific concern with the perilous status and dire needs of several marine mammal populations at the beginning of a new decade. Fourteen years earlier at its annual conference in Lisbon, the ECS dealt in detail with “Population Biology in Relation to Conservation“.
Four years earlier (in 1992), the European Commission issued its Habitats Directive calling for “strict protection“ of all cetacean species in its waters (Annex IV of Council Directive 92/43/EEC). The condition of several species, populations and sub-populations in European waters, however, has continued to deteriorate almost unimpeded since then. Typical examples for such populations are the Mediterranean monk seal, the Baltic harbour porpoise or the Mediterranean common dolphin among others.
These challenges in conservation attempts appear to have political and sociological reasons. They are exacerbated by a lack of scientific knowledge of the biology of these and other marine mammal populations. The threats to marine mammals, however, are well identified and widely spread such as bycatch and pollution; they impact pinnipeds and cetaceans all over the world.
- harbour porpoise (photo: P. Toft - GSM)
Conference Announcement
Do not hesitate to announce the ECS 2010 conference at your facility. For doing so, please download the conference announcement as pdf-file.
Organizing Committee
- seaotter (photo: R. Wolt)
Ursula Verfuß (Chair), Harald Benke, Stefan Bräger, Anja Brandecker, Michael Dähne, Anja Gallus, Martin Jabbusch, Kathrin Krügel, Sylvia Osterrieder, Johann Subklew (German Oceanographic Museum); Ursula Siebert, Klaus Lucke (University of Kiel Research and Technology Centre Westcoast, University of Kiel); Guido Dehnhardt (Marine Science Center, University of Rostock); Ralph Tiedemann (Institute of Biochemistry and Biology/Unit of Evolutionary Biology, University of Potsdam); Iwona Pawliczka, Krzysztof Skora (Hel Marine Station, University of Gdansk); Polona Kotnjek (Morigenos - Marine Mammal Research and Conservation Society); Roland Lick (European Cetacean Society)
Scientific Committee
- humpback whale (photo: Getty Images)
Meike Scheidat (Chair) (Institute for Marine Resources & Ecosystem Studies, The Netherlands); Ursula Siebert, Klaus Lucke (Research and Technology Centre Westcoast, University of Kiel, Germany); Frederike Hanke, Wolf Hanke (Marine Science Center, University of Rostock, Germany); Ralph Tiedemann, Valerio Ketmaier (Institute of Biochemistry and Biology/Unit of Evolutionary Biology, University of Potsdam, Germany); Iwona Pawliczka (Hel Marine Station, University of Gdansk, Poland); Marije Siemensma (Marine Science & Communication, The Netherlands); Cecile Vincent (University of La Rochelle, France); Harald Benke, Stefan Bräger, Michael Dähne, Ursula Verfuß (German Oceanographic Museum, Germany)
Co-operation Partners
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Research and Technology Center Westcoast University of Kiel | Marine Science Center
| University of Rostock
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Institute of Biochemistry and Biology Unit of Evolutionary Biology University of Potsdam | Federal Maritime & Hydrographic Agency
| United Nations Environment Programme
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Society for the Conservation of Marine Mammals | Hel Marine Station University of Gdansk | ||
Financial Support
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German Research Foundation
| Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety | Northern German Foundation for Environment and Development - from the lottery incomes of BINGO! The environment lottery | |
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Old Brewery Stralsund | World Wide Fund for Nature |
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International Fund forAnimal Welfare | German Environmental Aid Association | ||
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Convention on Migratory Species | |||
