SORP conferences, meetings and reports
The International Whaling Commission
The Southern Ocean Research Partnership (SORP) is a collaborative partnership of International Whaling Commission (IWC) member countries that delivers priority Southern Ocean whale research to the IWC. SORP is directed by the Scientific Committee and delivers on the agreed objectives through the development and application of the latest in non-lethal research techniques. The research is managed through approved, large scale, multi-national projects which report annually to the Scientific Committee on progress and future plans.
SORP Conference, 2013
The Southern Ocean Research Partnership conference took place on Jeju Island, Republic of Korea from 31 May to 2 June 2013, immediately preceding the Scientific Committee Meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC/SC/65a).
Forty-seven delegates from 16 countries, including representatives of the IWC Secretariat, attended. The conference highlighted the progress and development of the SORP initiative to date, and the results of the five ongoing SORP research projects, including world first achievements.
Report of the SORP Conference, 2013 [PDF]
The SORP Living Whales Symposium, 2012
The SORP Living Whales Symposium took place in Puerto Varas, Chile 27-29 March 2012. The focus of the symposium and accompanying workshops was to review the strengths and weaknesses of current and new methods for studying living whales in the Southern Ocean. Presentations focused on methodological, analytical and technological advances in non-lethal methodology, including those that are still under development.
The workshops were each one day in duration and covered the following topics:
- Health assessment of live cetaceans
- Advances in long term satellite tagging techniques for cetaceans
- Population dynamics and environmental variability
- Estimation of diet and consumption rates from non-lethal methods.
The Symposium and workshops were a huge success: there were 124 registered participants from 16 countries (Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Australia, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Madagascar, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, South Africa, UK, USA). The Symposium was also live streamed on the web, allowing an additional 1,553 simultaneous viewers worldwide. Further information is available from the Living Whales Symposium page.
SORP workshops 2009
Reports from the 2009 SORP workshops held in Seattle and Sydney.
