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Friday, 03 April 2009

Excursion to the Island of Spiekeroog

	On Friday, two excursions to the East-Frisian Island Langeoog and Spiekeroog concluded the symposium week. The tour started with outstanding beautiful weather in Wilhelmshaven. With two buses, the participants were brought to the harbours on the coast. A hired fishery vessel to the island of Spiekeroog departed in the harbour of Neuharlingersiel. On the way to the island, a trawl net haul was collected. Next to the hundreds of common brown shrimp also juvenile flounders, plaice, hooknose and sand goby, common shore crabs and swimming crabs, true sea slugs, and numerous other animals were found. Due to the wind direction and current it was not possible to visit the seal haul outs on the east end of the Island of Langeoog, as previously planned.
After arriving on the Island of Spiekeroog the tour guide Roger Staves from the Wattenmeerhaus in Wilhelmshaven, lead the group through the dunes, past rare gorse species and the “Spiekerooger Easter-Egg-Throwing place”, to the environmental centre Wittbülten. The participants were welcomed by Swaantje Fock, the director of the environmental centre, who introduced the formation and history of the island based on a model it. Before lunch, everybody was free to visit the exhibition on their own.
	Following lunch, a walk through the wash over, pioneer marshes and dunes of the island was scheduled. In the field, Swaantje Fock could now demonstrate what she had already explained in the environmental centre. Every now and then, Klaus Günther could indicate some special birds and their extraordinary behaviour (like the hen harrier mating flight) to the group. After a walk on the beach, determining some shells and “sniffing” some plants, the group arrived at Wittbülten for a coffee break.
The second part of the tour on the Island of Spiekeroog was guided by Carsten Heithecker, who gave a lecture on some historical events, like first settlement on the island or the disaster of the ship Johanne. Roger Staves’ translations into English for sure caused some laughter. The visit of the old church and the story of the Madonna statue in it concluded the excursion. Having arrived at the harbour, the fishery vessel immediately departed to the main land. On board, Roger Staves and his puppets Femke, the pregnant seal, and Chris Cockle wished the group a farewell and a good journey back home. The whole day was a fantastic, hilarious, but also interesting and instructive event.
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Thursday, 02 April 2009

On the last day of the symposium the morning presentations started with keynotes on neobiota, fundamental driving forces and transformation processes in tidal basins, model approach on the assessment of human impacts, and on the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. They shortly comprised the issues to be discussed in the following sessions.
	After a delicious lunch, as the days before, not worth mentioning that one warm meal per day would have been sufficient anyway, numerous participants attended the final discussion. Over one and an half hours the audience, people working in all kind of fields of nature conservation and science, discussed the final five recommendations of the outcome of the 12th International Scientific Wadden Sea Symposium that are going to be presented to the politicians at the next Trilateral Governmental Conference in March 2010.
The final symposium dinner was held in the great hall of the Gorch-Fock-Haus. The Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety arranged the event and the fabulous Italian buffet for that evening. During the evening Jens Enemark addressed Wim Wolff, the initiator of the first Wadden Sea symposium, in a thank you note for his great work for the protection of the Wadden Sea. The audience gave standing ovations in tribute of his achievements for the Trilateral Cooperation.
	From what was told by some night owls during the excursions to the East-Frisian Island, the band did good work entertaining the remaining participants until the next day.
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Wednesday, 01 April 2009

Blog provided by Marcus Lange

	Focus of the 3rd conference day was laid upon the topics ‘Habitat & Restoration’, ‘Species and Assessment’ and ‘Sea as Cultural Landscape’. Around 200 participants joined the early morning session which was opened by the three keynotes presented by Mike Elliott, Friedrich Lüth and Peter Reijnders. As a focal point Mike gave an inspiring insight into Estuarine and Coastal Restoration on the basis of the Ecosystem Services and DPSIR approach. Friedrich Lüth pointed out perspectives for assessing cultural aspects of the early settlement of the Wadden Sea and North Sea basin. He gave an introduction into the session which was later hosted by Hauke Jörns and accompanied by around 40 participants in the small seminar room. In his keynote Peter Reijnders underlined the need for scientific input into public discussions, in policy-decisions and into management. On the basis of the Guiding Principle, scientific work should be taken as a basis achieving a natural and sustainable ecosystem.
After the early morning keynotes the symposium continued with three parallel sessions. Focal points were patterns of seabirds, trends in migrating birds and the distribution of fishes and interactions between fish stocks and seabirds. More thematic items were sediment and tide dynamics. The sessions were formally concluded by collecting and discussing the recommendations of the day. Both chairs and rapporteurs gave their best to finalise the import issues for the day final remarks.
	The more less informal part of the day was wrapped up by a great dinner and evening event in the beautiful Pumpwerk organised by the National Park Lower Saxon Wadden Sea. The event opened the stage to a well known traditional singer and the colleague from the Korean Wadden Sea who performed a typical Korean folk song.
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Tuesday, 31 March 2009

Blog provided by Tobias Dolch

When I first entered the Great Hall of the Gorch-Fock-Haus, I was delighted to see how many people got together: all colleagues working on the Wadden Sea. What could be noticed at once was the very relaxed and friendly atmosphere. It was a meeting of friends who know each other for long. By the way, the venue itself and the arrangement of chairs and tables also contributed to the relaxed atmosphere and it was not like attending university lectures. And I appreciated that drinks were provided during the talks.
	I attended the session ‘Ecosystem, Habitats and Assessment’ as this is also the field I am working in. I enjoyed the talks – especially those with scientific subjects. After the talks was the poster presentation, which I personally found really successful. I made some new contacts and got some interesting information from my colleagues. Facts that were more personal experience; important information you usually do not find in papers. So in my case, the poster presentation really did its job which I was very happy about.
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Monday, 30 March 2009

Icebreaker and Dinner

Here some pictures from a really successful evening. Sometimes pictures just say more than 1000 words...
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Monday, 30 March 2009

After a press conference, Jens Enemark officially opened the symposium and welcomed the participants and speaker. Surely a highlight of the opening session was the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Trilateral Cooperation and Korea. The memorandum will strengthen the exchange of science and strategies for managing tidal areas, and the protection of the Australasien-Asian flyway.
	Subsequent to the signing ceremony, the audience followed the interesting and ambitious talks.  Between the session the participants, while queuing up for coffee and traditional Frisian cake, took the opportunity to exchange first thoughts. The day was rounded by an icebreaker and dinner in the evening... to be continued...
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Sunday, 29 March 2009

The Korean delegation attending the symposium with representatives from the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, other governmental agencies, the Getobol Forum, universities and NGOs, visited the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat. They discussed with Mr. Jens Enemark (CWSS)  trilateral policy and management issues. Mr. Hubert Farke (National Park Lower Saxony) informed about the visitor and site management in the National Park.
In the afternoon, the Korean delegation together with Ms. Stefanie Hedtkamp (German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety) visited the Wadden Sea coast along the Jade Bay: the construction site of the JadeWeserPort, blue mussel smart farms and offshore wind turbines, the beaches and dunes at Schillig and the old harbour of Carolinensiel (photo left).
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For further information on the symposium please contact:
Ms. Kristine Jung
Common Wadden Sea Secretariat (CWSS)
Virchowstr. 1
D-26382 Wilhelmshaven
Phone: +49 (0)4421 9108 14
jung@waddensea-secretariat.org