What do you get when you put 2000 coral reef scientists, 10 international coral reef organisations, and the likes of Terry Hughes, Jeremy Jackson and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg all in a 1km2 area?
A whole lot of craziness that’s what! Welcome to the largest coral reef conference in the world – the International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS).
The International Coral Reef Symposium had been a discussion topic at my university (James Cook University) for the last four years and so being able to attend and present my Honours finding was a real privilege. I arrived back from Palau and spent the next three days frantically preparing for my talk. I also tried to figure out which talks I wanted to attend and with 12 sessions running consecutively every 15 min (yes folks that is over 120 talks a day), this was a serious challenge.
I arrived at the Cairns Convention Centre on Monday where over thousands of like minded coral reef scientists were getting ready for the opening ceremony. I picked up my bag, scientific program, and name badge and headed to the main conference room. My name tag had an awesome picture of a fish being consumed by a clam (or potentially a crocodile) on it. These pictures were drawn by local school kids inspired by the Great Barrier Reef. Very cool!
The ICRS began with a formal introduction from Bilan Gudan who welcomed us in the language of the indigenous Iricanji people. We were then welcomed by Terry Hughes, the ICRS conveyor, Robert H. Richmond, ISRS President and Campbell Newman, our new Premier for Queensland. With the ICRS official opening finished it was time for the talks. I tried as hard as I could to attend a range of different presentations from different themes and mini symposia so as to get a broad overview of the current research. Luckily the chairs of each mini symposia were on strict time schedules allowing people to quickly duck in and out of different rooms without missing too much. Good workout I’d say.
Morning tea and lunch were an awesome time to catch up with everyone from my home University, meet new people, and visit some of the Exhibition booths. There was an awesome turn out of institutions from the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, to the Mahonia Na Dari Research and Conservation Centre and Coral Watch. I was also lucky enough to meet Juergen and Stella Chiu Freund whose photography I have admired since I first learned to dive. Juergen and Stella launched their new book “The Coral Triangle,” at the ICRS and I have to say their presentation was absolutely incredible. The photos, the music; everything including their explanations and stories was perfect. It was such a joy to watch and I think everyone in the room was truly touched and inspired. Definitely one of the highlights of my week.
My talk was scheduled for Tuesday morning in the Fish and Fisheries section and funnily enough, I was only a couple of talks before previous Australasian Our World Underwater Scholar, Steven Lindfield. This was my first scientific talk at what just happened to be the largest coral reef conference in the world so to say I was a bit nervous was definitely an understatement. But after a grueling few hours it was all over and I actually did okay. I think it must have been a combination of all the practice with my fellow lab mates Oona Lonnstedt and Rachel Manassa (thanks so much guys) and the blinding light shining into my eyes blocking out the audience, which allowed me to relax and actually enjoy myself.
The whole ICRS conference was an awesome experience and I am so glad that I attended. I watched some incredible talks from scientists around the world and was able to catch up with a number of people that I had always wanted to talk to and meet. Some of the highlights for me were watching Lida Pet-Soede, Programme leader for the Coral Triangle at WWF talk about monitoring by non-governmental organisations in Indonesia and watching Julia Spaet talk about the status of reef sharks in the Red Sea. I also greatly enjoyed hearing about co management of tropical, coastal, socio economical systems by Joshua Cinner, learning about quantifying unreported fisheries catch from Dirk Zeller at the Sea Around Us Project, and hearing about predator-prey dynamics in the Line Islands. For those who would like to read more about what was spoken about at the ICRS here is a link to the scientific program: http://www.icrs2012.com/Downloads/ICRS2012_Program_Book.pdf. All plenary talks can also be watched on the website here: http://www.icrs2012.com/.
The Gala dinner was held on the second last night of the conference and was a fantastic chance to socialise with friends and meet new people at the conference. The dinner was held outdoors near the Cairns esplanade. There were no set tables so everyone had the chance to mingle and meet. One cool thing about the dinner was the huge blow up marine creatures scattered around the park – yes it appears even the most well established marine scientists can’t resist larger than life sized marine creatures. The blow up octopus must have been about 8 m high and 5 m wide!! (unfortunately it was too dark for pictures). I had great fun that night and even managed to meet a couple of greats such as Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and Glen Almany.
Jayne Jenkins had organised to dive with Mike Ball Dive Expeditions following the week of the ICRS, allowing Steve Lindfield and I a great chance to catchup. During June/July of each year, dwarf minke whales migrate up the coast of Australia to breed and Mike Ball Dive Expeditions allows an unique opportunity to get up close and personal with these creatures. Steve and I tried to restrain our envy but it just didn’t work – sorry Jayne 🙂
I have to say a huge thank you to my supervisor Professor Mark McCormick for sponsoring me to attend the ICRS. Without all his guidance and support I would not be where I am today. Massive thank you to Oona Lonnstedt and Rachel Manassa for helping to film my talk and for taking loads of pictures. Finally thanks so much to everyone in the Scholarship Society for allowing me to travel and attend this amazing conference.
