The ASCOBANS Secretariat participated in a scientific symposium entitled ‘Bright Future? Harbour Porpoises in the Wadden Sea’ which took place on 11 April at the UNESCO Wadden Sea World Heritage Visitor Centre. The aim of the symposium was to gather new information on the population status, monitoring and threats in the Wadden Sea. Opening speeches were delivered by Rüdiger Strempel, Executive Secretary of the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat; Roger Staves, Head of Education at the UNESCO Wadden Sea World Heritage Visitor Centre; and Jenny Renell, Coordinator at the ASCOBANS Secretariat.

The theme of this year’s World Wildlife Day campaign is “Life below Water: for People and the Planet” and is closely aligned to the 14th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG14), which aims to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources.

A paper compiled by an international team of researchers with expertise in animals as diverse as birds and whales has been published online today by the journal Science. The paper sets out the evidence accumulated over the years of the importance of social learning in a wide range of vertebrate species. The research shows that knowledge passed on through the generations by young animals learning from their elders is as important to the survival of species as genetic transmission especially in adapting to new migration routes and finding sources of food.

The Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic area (ACCOBAMS), member of the CMS family, developed the “ACCOBAMS Survey Initiative” (ASI) aimed at establishing an integrated and coordinated monitoring system for cetaceans throughout the ACCOBAMS area.