Third International Benguela Ecology Program Symposium

The 3rd International Symposium, BENGUELA DYNAMICS. Impacts of Variability on Shelf-sea Environments and their Living Resources, is being organised under the auspices of the Benguela Ecology Programme (BEP), and will take place at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, from 25-27 November 1996. Established in 1981, the BEP is an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional marine research programme, concerned with the shelf and adjacent offshore waters of southern Africa.

The Symposium will follow the 9th Southern African Marine Science Symposium (SAMSS) on 21-23 November, and will form a climax to the Gilchrist Centenary Celebrations of 1995-96. These are planned to celebrate the one-hundredth year since the appointment in 1895 of Dr John D. Gilchrist as the first Government Marine Biologist in South Africa.

The Symposium theme is: Assessments of variability and change in shelf-sea environments, and forecasts of the impacts on marine resources and their management.

The Symposium objectives are:

to assess variability and change in shelf-sea environments;
to evaluate the impacts of such change on marine resources;
to examine the management-, economic and social implications of resource variability;
to disseminate the results of the BEP to local and international research communities;
to provide impetus and direction for future research and monitoring in the broader Benguela region.

The symposium will address the following broad categories:

past, present and future environmental variability;
intra-annual variability impacting resources;
inter-annual variability impacting resources;
long-term variability impacting resources;
social and economic implications of resource variability;
management of varying resources.

For correspondence and enquiries about the Symposium, contact:

The BEP/SAMS Symposium Secretariat
Zoology Department
University of Cape Town
Rondebosch 7700
South Africa.
Tel.: +27-21-650 2681
Fax : +27-21-650 2681
e-mail: bep@ucthpx.uct.ac.za