One of the highlights in the last few months was that I was invited to present our white shark research programme to the esteemed scientists and educators of the CoML International Scientific Steering Committee of this groundbreaking global initiative.
The Census of Marine Life is a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. The world’s first comprehensive Census of Marine Life – past, present, and future – will be released in 2010.
The meeting took place at the Breakwater Hotel at the V & A Waterfront. Dr. Ron O’Dor presented scientific highlights from the CoML project and one of my supervisors Prof. Charles Griffiths from UCT presented an overview of marine biodiversity research in South Africa. It was then up to Tony Ribbink (Sustainable Seas Trust), Martin Grundlingh (AfriOBIS) and myself to give this prestigious committee a taste of some of our own innovative research in South Africa.
It was a great pleasure and privilege to meet some of the most well respected scientists in the marine biodiversity field.
For more information visit their website at www.coml.org