President’s Report on the 35th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation, 18-24 April 2015, Dalaman, Mugla, Turkey

Abstract

The 35th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation was held in Dalaman, Mugla, Turkey on 18-24 April, 2015. The theme of the symposium was “Hospitality.” It was chosen as meeting participants will be attending from around the world and hospitality reflects Turkey’s friendly and inviting culture. Furthermore, Turkey brought everyone together, “bridging the civilizations,” bridging Europe, Asia and Africa. This is was a great opportunity for the people from these continents to participate in the Symposium, as it was easier for them to travel from their home countries. Besides the regular sessions normally held at past symposia, specific to the meeting in Turkey, is we celebrated “World Children Day” on 23 April with special sessions for children’s activities. Without a doubt, today’s children are the future sea turtle researchers and conservationists, and so we wanted to ensure that we pass our mission on to the younger generation A total of 610 people from 80 countries registered for the Symposium. An additional 250 local students and educators attended particular sessions. The venue for the symposium was the Hilton Hotel-Dalaman, Turkey. The program included 4 regional meetings (Africa, IOSEA, Retomala and East Asia), 9 workshops, 2 special sessions (Mediterranean Turtle Conference and Freshwater turtle Session), and a Video Night that showed 12 videos. In addition to the regular sessions, we hosted the 5th Mediterranean Conference on Marine Turtles. A total of 135 oral papers and 230 posters were presented.