EG-BAMM Expert Group Report 2020 Popular

Expert Group on Birds and Marine Mammals (EG-BAMM) 2018-2020 Report

Expert Group of the Life Sciences Group 

Report Author(s): Mark Hindell (Australia) and Yan Ropert-Coudert (France)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

EG-BAMM has been in existence for 10 years, after being reviewed and renewed by the SCAR delegates in 2017. The group maintained many of its usual activities in 2019 and 2020, participating in several international fora, such as CCAMLR and SOOS, as well as being part of several SCAR programs, most notably SCATS, ANT-Eco and ANT-Era. However, the COVID19 situation has also curtailed several activities, most notably participation in the Science program at the cancelled Open Science Conference in Hobart and our annual general meeting. We have also had to delay the implantation of three new working groups (cetaceans, functional responses and demography), but we anticipate these will begin in 2021.

This will be the last year that Hindell and Ropert-Coudert will be CI and secretary. Their replacements have been nominated and await approval from the SCAR Delegates, with a hand-over to take place in Hyderabad at the OSC in 2022.