ECS Conservation Award 2024

It is again my great privilege to present to you the ECS conservation award. 

So please stand by to loudly applaud and whooping is not only allowed, it is even encouraged – the award is also known as the McMath in honour of the late and much missed Mandy McMath, who was an inspired and inspiring conservationist -based in Wales where she worked for the national nature conservation agency and helped to spearhead much local marine conservation work, including initiating long terms studies on seals and dolphins. She was funny and highly motivating and we lost her too soon.

 [And for anyone new to this ceremony we try to do this little ceremony in a fairly humorous manner and reveal the winner – who does not know – little by little…. So bear with me.]

Here is the list of the distinguished previous winners.

Mandy McMath was involved in setting up the award and along with a small group of, at that time, council members helped to determine the first winners. This small advisory group consisted of Hanna Nutilla, Ayaka Ozturk, Aviad Schenin and Andrew Wright and continued to help the process some years.

  

More recently – as the number of award winner has grown - the final decision making about who the award goes to has been done exclusively by those who have previously received the award  – the conservation award laureates - but I would like to take this opportunity to thank our advisors Hanna, Ayaka, Aviad and Andew for their help and commitment to the award. Please give them some applause. 

 

At the outset, the aim for the award was to promote conservation work and celebrate those who had made major contributions in this sphere. It has been successful in this and it is now an award that is recognized, valued and which, I believe, people actually care about and pay attention to. 

The award process has always stayed the same – it is very simple – and it is described on the ECS website. There is a short nomination proforma to fill in and this goes to the panel of the previous award winners -who may seek more advice - and then they make the decision. 

From the outset it has been possible to give the award to not only a person but also to a project – and for the first time today we will recognize a project…. and then we will ALSO recognize a person. So please don’t all rush away after the first award – there is more to come!

But first I would like to take a few more moments to talk about conservation in concept and some of the things that have been achieved since we last met because we all need to see some positive things in this world. 

For example – our laureates don’t stop their conservation work when they get their awards and  two of our laureates Giuseppe and Erich lead the IMMAs project which was so beautifully described to us earlier this week by Caterina LanFredi. This initiative has made tremendous strides forward in the last year with sites declared for the SW Atlantic and for the NE Atlantic. 

Globally, there are now 280 IMMAs and 185 Areas of Interest (AoI). Giuseppe and Erich are supported by a great big team... which seems to be dominated by Italians. Truly it is the Ferrari of the marine mammal conservation world. 

Just one other example of positive conservation work in the intervening months since we last met - in February, we saw the postponed meeting of the parties to the UN convention for the conservation of migratory species meet in Samarkand in Uzbekistan. A lot of actions for marine species were agreed in this double land-locked country and another of our laureates, Heidi Frisch-Nwakanma, was deeply involved in this, and I just want to highlight one action today, which was the adding of the harbour porpoise of the Baltic Proper to the Convention’s annex one. This is the highest level of protection that the convention can deliver – getting this taxon listed was a battle that took place over several years but finally the EU states came around and supported it. This should be a strong message to the range countries.

The Baltic porpoise is the vaquita of Europe – taxonomically and genetically unique and critically endangered with just a few hundred left. 

Achieving a protected listing like this can take huge effort and the case has to be underpinned by good science – science provided by some of you. 

I will come back to this.

We have had many fine presentations touching on how conservation is achieved here but I want to present to you my own simple model to help our ceremony

 

There are various component groups in this. Let’s start with us – the scientists (you know what you look like – or maybe what people expect you to look like). Then there are the campaigners (a sort of mixture of pirates and Vikings) – they all seek to inform the decision maker, then there are other stakeholders and influencers  who represent other interests (let us call them the ‘dark wizards’; the graduates of Slytherin but let us not consider them further today).

It is quite likely that the policy maker has little or no scientific knowledge (and highly likely that their knowledge of statistics is non-existent…. And yet these people rule the world) this makes the scientists and the quality and clarity of what they provide even more important. 

Let us look at some of the scientists in a little more detail… and see if we can make them happy. 

 

Yes, these are pathologists – presented here with a fresh body in good condition! 

And we are tremendously fortunate in Europe to have very well developed and highly professional networks dealing with strandings. These networks provide invaluable information to the rest of us – information that has helped to understand diet, biology, disease, pollution, bycatch and much, much more. Major evidence providers to conservation processes. Pathologists we love you!

We celebrated some of this work when we made Paul Jepson an ECS conservation award laureate in 2019. And I know you would all like to send him love and best wishes as he continues to battle the terrible disease that has taken him from our community.

Today we will celebrate again this specialised, demanding and often difficult work that is focused on strandings and pathology again. 

In 2016, resulting from ACCOBAMS Resolution n° 10, one country established a remarkable stranding network responsible for collecting and analyzing data and samples from marine mammals stranded along their coastline.

This country was the one we are standing in now, Italy…. And the network now includes 10 veterinary public health control and other research bodies. 

This stranding network is supported by the centre for Diagnostic Investigations in Stranded Marine Mammals'' (C.Re.Di.Ma.). A centre that is managed by 3 outstanding scientists who are shining symbols of passion, dedication, and enthusiasm. 

These brilliant veterinarian scientists are Cristina Casalone, Carla Grattarola, and Federica Giorda.

So today the very first conservation  project award given by the ECS in celebration of the whole Italian strandings network and specifically in recognition of their outstanding work, goes to C.Re.Di.Ma. The National Reference Center for Diagnostic Investigations on Stranded Marine Mammals  

Please (loudly)welcome Cristina Casalone to the stage to accept the award on the behalf of C.Re.Di.Ma. 

 

_______Loud Applause Follows____________________________________

Next we move to our next individual award where we create our new McMath laurate.

As you know, the award includes a very special picture that is passed down through the award winners and I would like to invite Giuseppe to join me on stage for this part of the ceremony – please welcome the great man.

Typically in this we have recognized those in later career who have made amazing contributions – and we have also used the award to recognize and empower brilliant contributors at an earlier stage in their careers. 

Let’s go back to my conservation process diagram. 

 

Of course my division between scientists and the pirates and Vikings is somewhat artificial– because some of us are surely both. 

 

When I was younger the notion that scientists should get involved with policy and politics was frowned upon. I don’t think that has served the planet well, although I do understand the philosophy and the notion of impartiality. Anyway, today we will honour and hopefully thereby empower someone who has most excellently transcended this boundary – being both a respected scientist – complete with a  hard-earned PhD (a process achieved part-time whilst they also held down a job and raised their kids) – and someone who is at the sharp end of conservation through advocacy and helping to manage key policy processes.

Indeed, whilst we were in that recent meeting of the migratory species convention, we were significantly building on their work. 

We have heard a lot about the harbour porpoise at this meeting – and the person I am speaking of is great and important advocate for them – especially in the context of the critically endangered Baltic Porpoise and… as she now prepared to flee from  the room….

 

The Baltic Porpoise is Europe’s vaquita – and it deserves as much attention and support. 

• Her interest in the only resident cetacean in the Baltic Sea goes back over many years, including over 20 years ago starting the first reporting programme of harbour porpoise sightings for the Swedish Museum of Natural History. 

• She was also a project manager for SAMBAH (Static Acoustic Monitoring of the Baltic Sea Harbour Porpoise) 

• And that famous  PhD from Stockholm University was on the Ecology and Conservation of the Baltic Proper Harbour Porpoise. 

• She has also been involved in ASCOBANS since 2003,

• For the past seven years, she have chaired the ASCOBANS Jastarnia Group (the Steering Group for the ASCOBANS Recovery Plan for Baltic Harbour Porpoises, AND the Conservation Plan for the Harbour Porpoise Population in the Western Baltic, the Belt Sea and the Kattegat). 

• She dedicates much of her personal time away from her day job (as Senior Policy Advisor at the Swedish Nature Conservation Society) to coordinating the technical implementation of these two ASCOBANS action plans. 

• She is also a member of the ECS council, which means they have been working hard on your behalf here, and you have seen quite a lot of them today. 

So – please get ready to welcome back to the stage the person chosen by the ECS Conservation Award Winners – the McMath Laureates - to join them – 

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my very great pleasure to introduce to you today the winner of the ECS Conservation Award 2024, the new McMath Laureate, the very wonderful, porpoise scientist and advocate, the blue haired Viking and unique bundle of energy, integrity and enthusiasm that is Dr Ida Carlen

 

Loud applause and a standing ovation follow and Ida gracious accepts the award.

[Thanks to Lucy Molleson for the porpoise images and to Laetitia Nunny and Rebecca Boys for the photos of the event.]

Just a hedgehog!

On the fourth day of Spring I spy hedgehogs active in the garden again.

The spy camera also catches a rare bit of film where the neighbours cat and the little hedehog interact. In fact they had been snacking alongside each other for sometime before the cat got a bit too close for the hedgehog's liking.

 

March 2nd - Sudden Snow Scenes.

 

A view from the edge of Bath looking south.

A wood pigeon looking rather startled by the whole thing.

Foraging carrion crow.

Spring violets also surprised by the snow.

Views of Southstoke - the sweet little village to the south of Bath

Immediate response of the English to snow.... quick go and find the toboggan before it thaws...

The thaw begins!

Portrait of a Big International Wildlife Conference (CMS CoP14)

The winged snow leopard logo of CMS CoP14

The 14th conference of the Parties (i.e. the meeting of the countries that are members) of  the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species closed last weekend. It met in the city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan in a huge conference centre.

This LINK will take you to a personal account of what it is like to attend a meeting like this - with some 1,000 other delegates. 

And here are some pictures - 

Sunrise view from hotel room.

Released at the begining of the CoP - report (on the right) -
and the outline time table for the meeting.

A rather splendid coffee area in the conference centre.

The CoP opens its plenary in a huge hall.

The front of the conference centre at night.

The view from my desk. Laetitia Nunny of OceanCare is speaking.

The opening session featires dancers in costumes relecting local wildlife - storks, famingoes and even a snow leopard:

Some footage of the dancers and the giant screens that were simultaneously showng local wildlife: HERE

A 'side-event' on the conservation of animal cultures - featuring Dr Philippa Brakes (beamed in from New Zealand).

A splendid, lavish and loud reception genorously provided by the host country.

A giant wall mural of a snow leopard - this was painted over night panel by panel. It is about 25 feet high.

During a half day excursion provided by the hosts a tree planting event.

Delegates with their tree. 

At the close of the CoP, the Chair of the Committee of the Whole, Colin Galbraith is thanked by Amy Frankel the Executive Secretary of CMS. He recieved a standing ovation.

Team OceanCare.

Some of the many briefings distributed at the meeting.

And here - Simmonds introduces a document in the plenary: 

Amy closes the conference.

In a following blog, I will provide some views of Samarkand city itself. A very special place.

Excellent covereage of the conference including a summary of outputs from the Earth Negotiations Bulleting HERE.

Mark in action - photo c/o Earth Negotiations Bulletin.

Midwinter badger 2024

Sometimes, even on the coldest winter night, badger ventures out from her secret and undoutedly cosy den for some late night snacking. 

 

Come the morning others visit to enjoy any crums.

2023 - Seasons of the swans

Once upon a time on a small but busy spur of a canal, a pair of mute swans built a nest. The female (the 'pen') settled on the rather ramshackle nest to incubate her large white eggs and her life-partner (the male or 'cob') stood guard and steadfastly kept her company near by.

Occasionally she would stand to turn the eggs and once or twice she left them to go to the nearby canal to eat and drink. 

Several weeks passed and then it became apparent she was no longer alone in the nest....

Eventually the little ones took their first steps outside of the nest and six fluffy little chicks could  be counted. One egg did not hatch. 

Carefully protected by their mum and dad (assisted by some friendly folks living in nearby canal boats) the cygnets quickly grew.

Taking care of the little family in such a busy area was challenging for the parents and for the local 'support team' of friendly humans and especially as some viewed the swans as either dangerous or sport.

 The myth that they can break a man's arm with one blow of their wings is simply nonsense. They can peck but more usually the adults will warn intruders away with a hiss and a raised wing display. On ther land they are clumsy and ungainly.

Pa swan with raised wings.

The summer months were not without incident and the swans had to be rescued from a few close scrapes but tragedy struck one hot sunny day when a loose dog, a small terrier, entered the private grassy area where the swans had previously made their nest and where they would regularly rest out on the grass. The dog grabbed a half-grown cygnet and shook it. The swans retreated to the water and a swan-friend retrieved the poor little bird, which died in her arms. 

The remaining five cygnets continued to grow and became a regular feature at the local canal-side cafe, although by the end of the summer the fledgling were almost full size and some found their presence around the tables outside - where they had successfully begged for food their whole short lives - disconcerting. 

The fledglings finally developed flight feathers, meaning that at last they might be able to fly. 

And fly they did. Four leaving the old canal spur one day and suddenly heading off to find lives, mates and territories elesewhere. 

This left the parents and just one youngster. 

And then one day in mid-November all three disappeared and many weeks went by. 

The little canal spur was a sadder place without its swans and there were fears for their safety.

Then by chance I found them - all three on a very different part of the main canal several miles away and near to where it joins the river. 

And since then, the two aduts have been seen back near their original nest site and the fledgling seems to have been persuaded to go and make her life somewhere else.