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The Second World Seabird Congress, organised under the auspices of the World Seabird Union (WSU) and hosted by the African Seabird Group will be held from 12 to 16 October 2015 in Cape Town, South Africa.

A local organizing committee has been formed, chaired by Dr Ross Wanless of BirdLife South Africa and BirdLife International’s Global Seabird Programme.  ACAP’s Information Officer (who founded the African Seabird Group in 1976) serves on the committee.

The First World Seabird Congress, hosted by the Pacific Seabird Group, was held in Victoria British Columbia on Canada’s Pacific coast in September 2001.  More than 850 registered conference attendees from over 40 countries were present.

This will be the fourth international seabird conference held in Cape Town.  Previous conferences have been the Symposium on Birds of the Sea and Shore in 1979, the Third International Penguin Conference in 1996 (both organized by the African Seabird Group) and the Fourth International Conference on the Biology and Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels in 2008.

Only a slim chance to see?  Spectacled Petrels are rarely seen at sea off Cape Town

Photograph by Ross Wanless

The Sixth Albatross and Petrel Conference is scheduled to be held in Barcelona, Spain in September 2016 (click here).

With thanks to Ross Wanless for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 May 2013