**Workshop Chairs: **Daisy Burnell, Tom Hart 
**Session Description:** To effectively conserve seabird diversity for the future, good data are necessary to provide evidence on potential negative impacts of pressures, but also the positive effects of conservation initiatives. The backing and or engagement of the local communities where conservation strategies are needed or being implemented, is also essential. By encouraging citizens to engage in active monitoring of seabirds and providing them with support, you empower them to take responsibility and ownership of their conservation, while gathering vital data on aspects of seabird ecology. With innovative technologies such as: remote cameras, drones, and data recording apps, coupled with communication tailored to reach wide audiences, the barriers once inhibiting such surveys are minimised. The aim of this workshop will be to provide a capacity building platform to facilitate communication between existing schemes and assist in the generation of new projects.

Workshop 1 - Empowering citizen science for seabird monitoring and conservation

**Workshop Replay: ** [Click Here](https://zoom.us/rec/share/t2d6LSyVTNXnnJjnT90qkA6F1jXK2a4c3uGeuovh33NOOIlGLd-TReugINXGFKkY.pde0ZHJs02Z7Coff?startTime=1633359699000) 

**Workshop Chairs: **Jeanette Zamon, Jeff Shenot 
**Session Description:** Individuals in various maritime industries (e.g. ocean energy, research,
fishing, eco-tourism, shipping) have been aware of seabirds attracted to
lighting and colliding with structures or vessels for quite some time. However,
the degree of negative impact to seabirds and the circumstances under which
this happens at sea are not well understood. Any collision-reduction strategies
must take into account navigational, safety, and work requirements for
lighting. The purpose of this workshop would be to bring together interested
parties (including voluntary non-scientific industry partners) to explore this
issue further and generate a list of prioritized recommendations for future evaluation
this resource conservation issue.

Workshop 2 - Night-time collisions with lighted vessels and structures at sea, and development of hazard reduction methods to reduce collisions

**Workshop Replay: ** [Click Here](https://zoom.us/rec/share/3IS-c0o1Z52a5BZt7THMZK6Ug0n4IRV-v6FEULgEZAIxOgwVzYbKrix6EKg3etJ9.-73m4qWSh2IdtlTx?startTime=1633363271000) 
 
**Workshop Chairs: **Peter Hodum, Matthieu Le Corre, Patrick Pinet 
**Session Description:** Community-based education and outreach programs are an essential component of long-term conservation strategies in places where humans co-exist with wildlife. With increasing threats of climate change, invasive species and other anthropogenic impacts, there is a compelling need for local communities not only to support but also to engage in efforts to conserve many seabird populations. Building on the successful symposium and discussion on community-based seabird conservation held at WSC2 in 2015, the goals of this applied workshop are to: (1) develop a network of seabird conservation practitioners to share experiences, methodologies, tools, activities and other resources to advance community-based seabird conservation, (2) create a database of global community-based seabird conservation programs, (3) identify barriers to effective community-based programs and tools to overcome them, (4) discuss best practices on engaging communities in conservation, and (5) create a toolbox of assessment tools to evaluate outcomes and effectiveness of community-based actions. We envision this workshop building on the 2015 symposium and creating resources that will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of programs focused on enhancing the knowledge and capacity of local communities to address issues relevant to the long-term conservation of seabirds.

Workshop 3 - Developing tools and resources for community-based seabird conservation

**Workshop Replay:** [Click Here](https://zoom.us/rec/share/lNvSb0zUp7LKpppAB_NF3Gzd8QEkCBv3VBqiGVS8b5_T5_jANgsBno64lL9FudNK.8mpAxVXva4GESzKu?startTime=1633366905000) 

**Workshop Chairs: **Mona Doss 
**Session Description:** This workshop will cover two technologies often used with seabirds: acoustics and tracking.  

Part 1: Using Bioacoustics: What can Sound
Reveal? (2 hours)

This workshop will discuss how
to use sound measurements for environmental management projects such as time of
arrival/departure of migratory species, population census, and biological
diversity.  We will cover the principals
of sound, the equipment needed for acoustic research and monitoring of
seabirds, and software tools/approaches for data analysis.  Attendees will
leave with a good understanding of:

 

·        
The basics of sound

·        
How to view wildlife audio recordings on a
spectrogram

·        
How to automatically scan recordings for
bird calls and species inventory

·        
Advice from the Field: Endangered Seabird
Recovery on Kaua'I, Hawaii, USA

 

Part 2: Using tracking devices to
understand seabird species behaviour (1 hours)

This workshop will discuss up to date
technologies being used by seabird researchers in different countries and for
different purposes. We will discuss the best technologies to understand home
range, foraging behaviour and migration. Attendees will leave with good
understanding of:

·        
The technologies that are out there for
seabird tracking

·        
The best technology for their study
objectives

·        
Attachment methods with regards to weight,
technology, size

·        
Case studies of the different technologies

·        
Tests before deployment

Workshop 4 - When acoustics, tracking and data analysis come together

**Workshop Replay:** [Click Here](https://zoom.us/rec/share/Mu2pRGwTQSXBfOLt4EAyUClDFxPvpoNS7NmLEMkhjlOJCxcveDHFJfniuDWHsrpX.7HP97S0i0duJl-vO?startTime=1633374096000) 

**Workshop Chairs: **Graeme Taylor, Graham Parker 
**Session Description:** The purpose of this workshop is to gather people who have had
practical experience with deploying recording instruments to monitor bird
activity in remote sites.  The aim is to understand more about the
successes and failures with different types of technology. What works and what
didn’t. What information was gathered that would not be possible to obtain by
other means where it is not possible to set up field bases.

Many remote sites where seabirds breed are expensive to visit
and very difficult to access. Consequently information about vital population
demographic data are often lacking for many species (breeding productivity and
success, causes of land based mortality, annual variability in the timing of
the breeding cycle)

Technology is now available to capture PIT tag data or camera
images from remote sites that can assist in gathering these types of data where
visits by people are only practical for a few days per year.

The reliability of different types of data recorders and the
variable expense of cameras (from low cost units to expensive units) can lead
to patchy results either through gear failure or limited levels of deployment.
Weather, storms, sea surges, animal activity, humidity, water ingress and
battery life can all affect the ability of data loggers and cameras and videos
to function and record information.

The workshop will be an opportunity for people to share stories
and ideas to assist with future project design and planning.

Workshop 5 - Automated monitoring of seabirds at remote sites

**Workshop Replay:** [Click Here](https://zoom.us/rec/share/T5iIKRge8dmMmyamW1_B6s2k1BQ_U-plRYrXtihpE48Aqe7KoxCM6pgD7mwIBRdR.EZMS6UAuuVyjqPrF?startTime=1633374125000) 

**Workshop Chairs: **Karen Evans, Samantha Simmons, Tammy Davies, Lavy Ranarajah 
**Session Description:** 
Change description to: Ocean observing is essential for understanding how biodiversity and society are affected by human use and climate change. Relevant changes in marine biodiversity, ecosystem function, and the services they provide can be detected by monitoring some of their essential variables. Long-term monitoring of Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) represents a feasible and impactful way to effectively mitigate or manage adverse changes, help predict potential changes, and link science to policy.

Seabirds are an Essential Ocean Variable because they are wide-ranging, relatively long-lived, interact with and influence population dynamics and distribution of numerous prey species and thus play a crucial role in maintaining the health of their ecosystems. Monitoring the distribution and abundance of seabirds, as part of a global ocean observing system for marine biodiversity, is in the initial phase of development.

This workshop will provide an opportunity to contribute to the development of the concept of seabirds as an Essential Ocean Variable. An overview of the aims of the Global Ocean Observing System, and work completed to date will be presented. There will then be opportunities to highlight data, brainstorm ideas, and shape how the program moves forward.

Workshop 6 - Integrating seabirds into the Global Ocean Observing System

**Workshop Chairs: **Carina Gjerdrum, Karel Allard 
**Session Description: ** Seabirds are among the most threatened bird groups on the planet, but barriers persist that compromise our best efforts to achieve desired conservation outcomes. Projects are often isolated from one another and from broader conservation opportunities, and strategies may not include the effectiveness monitoring needed to demonstrate progress. Participants of this workshop will be introduced to a well-supported and openly accessible, standard framework approach to conservation: the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation (OS). Developed by the Conservation Measures Partnership in 2004, the OS approach aims to achieve more efficient and effective conservation efforts, and has been adopted by leading organizations and agencies globally. Workshop participants will learn how the adoption of OS can improve consistency in collaborative planning, implementation and monitoring, through adoption of common standard language, metrics and framework. This approach can enhance decision support and effective integration of conservation efforts across species, spatial scales, mandates, and jurisdictions. Participants will work collaboratively using a real-world example of a conceptual model for marine birds with defined conservation targets, ranked threats, and prioritized strategies for conservation actions. This workshop will help conservation teams understand how to apply the OS to overcome barriers to marine bird conservation, and to track the effectiveness of conservation strategies that are implemented.

Workshop 7 - Fostering an integrated approach to enable enhanced seabird conservation - Increasing efficiency and effectiveness through the use of Open Standards for the practive of conservation

**Session Replay:** [Click here](https://zoom.us/rec/share/pUkcYeME-fdT-Vhq0B0lBCFVvNnXkimO_JHG5-_uBYPuf7Gn1BS-UG6SirarxyJ6.u0tBFqLhCDcGpWxr?startTime=1633381379000)

**Session Chairs: **Céline Albert, Stephanie Borrelle, Jennifer Lavers 
**Session Descriptio ** Eco-grief, eco-anxiety, or anticipatory grief is broadly defined as ‘the grief reaction stemming from the environmental loss of ecosystems by natural and man-made events.’ Recognised as a increasingly common psychological affliction, groups of scientists researching climate and biodiversity are seeking peer and professional support to manage the mental health impacts. 

Our community faces ecogrief every day when studying the effects of human activities on seabirds, persistently declining populations and seemingly intractable global challenges. At the 3rd World Seabird Conference being held in the midst of a global pandemic, we believed it was time to open a dialogue about ecogrief and how it affects us. This will be an opportunity to connect with others, to build a global seabird community support network, and share ways we deal with ecogrief and anxiety as we continue to work to conserve and better understand seabirds and their ecologies. 

The session will consists on a ~25 minutes presentation (recorded), followed by ~25 minutes a question session (not recorded) and finally a break out session ~ 40 minutes for those interested continuing talking about the topic in smaller groups. 

Special Guest: Associate Professor Sandra Radovini (@Prof_Rad) is a Consultant Psychiatrist at The University of Melbourne and Director of Mindful, the Victorian state-wide Child & Adolescent Mental Health teaching and training unit for professionals working with children, young people and their families. Sandra has held a number of key leadership positions in Australian Mental Health: as the inaugural Chief Child Psychiatrist (2009–11), in the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist with the Victorian Department of Health and as the inaugural Clinical Director of headspace – National Youth Mental Health Foundation (2012–16). In 2019, Sandra joined the Homeward Bound Program as on-board independent Mental Health clinician. During this incredible journey to Antarctica, she gave an inspiring talk about mental health for women working in STEMM, she shared tools and opportunities to discuss the challenges of working in the environmental sector for the Homeward Bound participants. Sandra has also worked with scientists involved in the AR6 IPCC Climate Change Report to consider how to manage ecogrief and anxiety associated with this field.

Ecogrief session with Sandra Radovini

**Workshop Replay:** [Click here](https://zoom.us/rec/share/_ywGnHBbZ0VDEJZrjINl7FaH3mwbMhvqKb0Xbu17cUiKJEv_e5nVBtlLaC4OAwWH.izVg7OP4vRcJumU2?startTime=1633381418000) 

**Workshop Chairs: **Lynn Miller 
**Session Description:** By exploring a standardized approach to necropsies, data can be gathered that aid all established and upcoming researchers when exploring the anatomy and morphology of seabird species. The practical portion will cover a demonstration of the necropsy process, highlighting landmarks and data collection techniques for seabirds. Cadavers will be available for attendees to practice on, while working alongside and comparing species differences other attendees. Ultimately, the goal to develop a data bank will be the final discussion. The data bank can house all necropsy reports, including photos and graphics, and provide a rich source of practical knowledge, historical and potential points indicating evolving shifts in anatomy and structure to the seabird research community.

Workshop 9 - Seabird and ardeid anatomy - A standardized approach to necropsy and data collection

**Workshop Replay:** [Click here](https://zoom.us/rec/share/f-NeM8GJIjBVW-R4PDeVXCE7wDmlga1JYJAhOw-4k02zz4vVHhREEQl18XT_uUQs.qTSueGKV9wpAu0fr?startTime=1633391325000) 

**Workshop Chairs: **Robb Kaler, Yat-tung Yu 
**Session Description:** The East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF) is a region covering Russia and Alaska in the north, extending through East Asia, to Australia and New Zealand in the south. This region has recorded over 150 seabird species. Some species are abundanct but several are highly threatened, such as Chinese Crested Tern (Critically Endangered), Christmas Island Frigatebird (Critically Endangered) and Short-tailed Albatross (Vulnerable). The EAAFP Seabird Working Group (EAAFP SWG) was firstly established in 2007 to assist in the coordination of conservation activities through promoting, facilitating and harmonizing seabird conservation, education and research activities in the flyway. 

The 3rd World Seabird Conference would have been held in EAAF region for the first time and we believe many seabird researchers from the flyway will attend this conference. This
will be valuable opportunity to promote the EAAFP SWG to seabird scientists in this region and other interested stakeholders. Many aspects of seabirds and their life history in the region are largely unknown and conservation activities to safeguard those highly threatened species are yet to be fully understood and implemented. In this workshop, seabird scientists and EAAFP SWG can discuss how to better share experiences and information, discuss how to promote and streamline seabird research in the region and encourage greater international collaborations of seabird projects.

Workshop 8 - Strengthening and harmonizing seabird researcher's network for better coordination on seabird conservation in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway region

Welcome Seabirders! 

Welcome to Virtual World Seabird Conference 3 - vWSC3! Whether you are in your office or lab, at home, in a coffee shop or bar poaching some wifi, or at a remote field site or research vessel – we are very excited to welcome you to the third ever World Seabird Conference. 

We would like to thank ALL of you for being so patient as WSC3 was scheduled, postponed, rescheduled, revised to virtual, and scheduled again. Throughout all those iterations there was one message that remained perfectly clear – seabirders were eager to meet and share their science. If we could not meet in person then virtual it would have to be, but a 3rd WSC was something everyone wanted. That support and commitment helped the WSU Board of Directors and Member Societies sort through all of the challenges they faced to plan and hold this conference. 

The list of those that need to be thanked is long and, while we plan on recognizing many during the live closing plenary, it is important to do so here in writing as well. 

The Australasian Seabird Group was our Local Host for our plan to meet in Hobart, Tasmania. They invested substantial time and effort to find venues and plan events that we unfortunately were not able to visit. Nonetheless we appreciate their work on behalf of WSC3 and encourage all of you to thank them when you see their members in Gathertown or elsewhere during our virtual meeting. Their willingness to host created the initial excitement for WSC3 and without that our vWSC would not have been possible.

We also wish to thank the Science Program Committee, the Virtual Committee, and the Early Career Scientist Committee for their hard work planning the logistics, events, and schedule for vWSC3. These committees also had to deal with changing parameters and short timelines that made what is always a challenging task even more challenging. The Travel Awards Committee also invested time and effort in developing procedures for awarding travel funds that ultimately would not be implemented. 

Our ability to shift from an in-person to a virtual meeting, and to do so in a way that would be financially feasible, was due to the effective efforts of The International Fundraising Committee and to our financial sponsors. The IFC raised funds to support WSC3 and then, through the good relationships they built with sponsors, ensured we could re-envision how those funds could be used to support a virtual conference that would be affordable and high-quality.

We all owe the WSU Board of Directors and the Representatives of the Member Societies a great deal of thanks. They are the ones who manage the WSU and, for the past 18 months, have had to have a series of challenging meetings and conversations, have had to make a series of difficult choices, have had to do all of that while considering the short- and long-term health of WSU and the World Seabird Conferences, and did this while also managing their own challenges at their day jobs. We are grateful for their diligence, patience, foresight, and throughout all of the meetings, their collegiality. Also – a 6-year term is quite a commitment!

There would not be a WSC3 without a successful WSC1 and WSC2. Thanks go to the Pacific Seabird Group for their support of WSC1 in Victoria, Canada, and to the African Seabird Group for their support of WSC2 in Cape Town, South Africa. In each of these endeavors and for our current conference we were fortunate to work with a dependable and trustworthy partner in Podium Conferences. Michelle Smith and Marischal de Armond have become valued members of our team and have not only helped us plan conferences but have assisted and advised the WSU Chairs and Board on issues above and beyond conference planning. 

As we embark on our vWSC3 week we extend to all of you our thanks for showing up, for being patient, and most importantly for the work you do with seabirds. We are all part of a unique, global community that shares an interest, a fascination, and a passion for birds that make a living in our world’s oceans. We have advanced the science, conservation, and management of seabirds as well the ecosystems they inhabit. We are consistently impressed and motivated by the work you do. 

The WSU formed in 2010 because we saw the need for a global organization to address challenges at a global level. Over the past 11 years WSU has grown, adapted, and evolved to become the community that this week is making vWSC3 a reality. Enjoy the week, appreciate and support the friends and colleagues you have made in the community, and if you see us in a virtual hallway please stop and say hello! 

Thank you for the opportunity to serve all of you and the WSU over the past few years,

Nicholas Carlile, Interim Chair, WSU 
Patrick Jodice, 2nd Chair of the WSU 

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3rd World Seabird Conference

Join us for four days of science, networking and virtual engagement with delegates from around the world!

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