EEA Meeting 2011 in Berlin, Germany

The 15th EEA Annual Scientific Meeting was hosted by the German Elasmobranch Society (Deutsche Elasmobranchier-Gesellschaft e.V., D.E.G.) from 28-30 October 2011. The conference was held at the Natural History Museum of Berlin.
Over 90 delegates from 27 countries from all over the world attended the conference, with some coming as far as Australia, Brazil or Japan. This year’s very international audience has brought in a truly global aspect to the meeting and extended the scope of this European meeting.

The conference started with two keynote adresses of invited speakers Dr Shelley Clarke and Sonja Fordham. Their talks “Keeping the Science in Shark Conservation” and “EU shark conservation: progress and next steps” led the way into an almost day-long thematic focus on fisheries management and conservation of elasmobranch fishes. Overall, twenty-six speakers presented their work in six theme sessions, and well over 30 posters were presented in a poster session.

The EEA’s Annual General Meeting took place on Friday the 28th prior to the first night’s ice-breaker reception in the museum’s showroom. The conference dinner on Saturday night hosted the annual charitable auction for the student bursary and delegates enjoyed an excellent dinner.