ADU travels, expeditions and events

Photo L.G. Underhill		The opening ceremony of this conference was held in the Aula Magna of the University of Sassari. We were addressed, at length, by the Rector of the University, the President of the Asinara National Park, the Mayors of the towns of Sassari and Porto Torres, and assorted other dignatories, some of whom had their welcoming speeches read in their absence. The main conference objective was to provide an international forum to discuss the threat that increasing traffic of oil tankers and other vessels in the Mediterranean Sea poses to marine wildlife. The threat is twofold: one comes from the possibility of major disasters producing large oil spills, and the other from the chronic and ongoing problem of ships discharging bilge and ballastwater
Photo L.G. Underhill		Some really important people presided over the proceedings from the walls of the Aula Magno. The first of these is Eleonora d'Arborea, after whom Eleonora's Falcon was named. She was a famous judge and legislator. The portrait is by Filippo Figari
Photo L.G. Underhill		The second key person was Francesco Cetti, Professor of the Mathematics at the University of Sassari. In 1777, Professor Cetti wrote The Natural History of Sardinia, which covers the mammals, birds, reptiles and fish of the island. Cetti's Warbler is named in his honour. You see, even in the 18th century, mathematicians were straying outside their narrow territory! The other guy in this portrait is Francesco Gemelli, Professor of Eloquence, who would have been delighted to have heard the opening proceedings
Photo L.G. Underhill		After a morning spent opening the conference, the University of Sassari provided a magnificent spread for lunch
Photo L.G. Underhill		This delicacy can best be described as octopus polony. It was delicous. The University of Sassari has 18 000 students and 335 professors and associate professors, spread across ten faculties. Two professors subsequently became Presidents of Italy. Professor Daniel Bovet, a microbiologist, won the 1957 Nobel Prize for Medicine for the discovery of antihistamines
Photo L.G. Underhill		After the morning introductory session at the University of Sassari (and of course the lunch), we returned in the neighbouring village of Porto Torres (where we were staying); the rest of the conference was held in the hall of the local high school, and some of the sessions were attended by final-year students at the school.
Carynn Underhill		The conference presentations, as they always do, covered a variety of topics. The conference sessions were entitled: The biological importance of oil spillages, Oil pollution prevention, Impact and conservation of coastal and marine biodiversity, Role of ports and local authorities, Oiled wildlife rehabilitation, and Post spill research and follow-up programme. It was to this last session that I contributed a talk entitled Recommendations in relation to seabird monitoring after oil spills, based on our experiences in South Africa for doing the post-release follow-up of oiled penguins

The conference produced a closing statement, known as the Asinara Declaration on Oil Pollution and Conservation of Biodiversity.

The conference was excellently organised by the Asinara National Park, IFAW and Medmaravis.

After the final day of presentations at the conference there was an excursion to the Asinara National Park. Time pressures dictated that I miss the outing, and I headed off to Germany.

Les Underhill
27 October 2002