The International Day of the Baltic Harbour Porpoise (IDBHP) is being celebrated this year on Sunday, 17 May.  The COVID-19 outbreak will certainly pose a challenge to event organizers, who will have to devise activities that conform to the restrictions on public gatherings.  However, if the experience of World Migratory Bird Day is anything to go by, there could be some innovative virtual offerings helping to raise awareness of the precarious status of the Baltic’s only regular cetacean inhabitant.

The "super year" for biodiversity will kick off with the Thirteenth Meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP13). Hosted by the Government of India in the city of Gandhinagar from 17-22 February 2020, the Conference will bring together CMS Parties, partners and scientific experts to address the alarming decline of migratory species, including birds, aquatic species and terrestrial animals.

The Species Action Plan (SAP) for the Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis), proposed in ASCOBANS Resolution 8.4 on the Conservation of Common Dolphins (2016), has been adopted in line with Resolution 8.4 and as per instructions from the 24th Meeting of the ASCOBANS Advisory Committee. The ASCOBANS Species Action Plan for the North-East Atlantic Common Dolphin sets out objectives for addressing the threats faced by the species in this region and describes a series of research, mitigation and monitoring actions aimed at improving its conservation status. The SAP seeks to involve a variety of stakeholders including national bodies, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs and regional bodies to achieve regional sea level actions.

A joint ACCOBAMS-ASCOBANS workshop on the best practices for conducting necropsies on cetaceans took place in Padua, Italy from 24 to 25 June 2019.