On Tuesday 3rd Dec, we celebrated 20 years of the Seabird Tracking Database! We had many activities with people attending online and in person. Here is a recap of everything that went on.
We kickstarted the day with a workshop by the Seabird Tracking Database (STDB) manager herself Beth Clark. She shared how to use the portal and all its amazing functionalities to search, upload tracking data and request tracking data.
We also had Jono Handley, Senior Marine IBA/KBA Officer, showcasing the Marine Megafauna Conservation Toolkit. This is an open-access resource that facilitates the identification of important sites for marine megafauna and pathways to advocate for their conservation.
We then had a set of amazing talks hosted by Marine Science Coordinator Tammy Davies.
The first speaker was John Croxall, former Chair of the Global Seabird Programme of BirdLife International, CBE & Fellow of the Royal Society. He shared the history and original motivations behind creating the STDB.
We then had Marine Science Manager Ana Carneiro, who led a review of the results and conservation successes of the STDB. You can find this and more in the recently published article on 20 years of collaboration for marine conservation with the STDB.
Next was Martin Beal, a Post-doc at the University of Lisbon, who showed a case study that used the seabird tracking database and how seabirds connect countries and people. Martin was key to developing track2KBA, an R package for identifying important sites for biodiversity from tracking data.
Norm Ratcliffe, a Seabird Ecologist from the British Antarctic Survey, followed. He shared a penguin tracking case study from the extremely remote Zavodovski Island, South Sandwich Islands. Did you know Zavodovski Island holds the largest penguin colony in the world?
And to wrap up, Seabird Science Officer Beth Clark shared reflections on the challenges, opportunities & future of the STDB. Finally, we enjoyed drinks, snacks and chatting about seabirds!
Thanks to everyone who joined the event and to those involved with the STDB during the past 20 years! This is a true collaborative effort for the conservation of seabirds. Super fans can even get a t-shirt