I’ve just returned from the second Sharks International, a scientific conference for shark and ray researchers, which was held in South Africa. With nearly 300 researchers and conservationists from more than 38 countries in attendance, the conference was a fantastic learning and networking experience, and a huge success.

In addition to countless talks focusing on cool discoveries about amazing animals and important conservation issues from all over the world,  I don’t think I ate one meal at a table with fewer than 4 countries represented.   Our lab, the RJ Dunlap Marine Conservation Program at the University of Miami, gave 3 scientific  presentations, including my own, which was well-received and resulted in some fascinating discussions. The “social media for scientific outreach” workshop I gave had more than 50 people attend, resulting in a couple of dozen scientists newly joining twitter.

Speaking of twitter, more than 7,000 tweets (including re-tweets) were shared using the conference hashtag #Sharks14 ! Below are links to 8 Storify stories I made: 4 plenary sessions and 4 days of scientific presentations. * Scientists, if any of the tweets about your talk are incorrect, please alert me in the comments and I’ll edit or delete them immediately. *

Background: my paper explaining live-tweeting from a scientific conference.

Dr. Dave Ebert’s plenary:The first plenary from Sharks International. “Beyond Jaws” rediscovering the lost sharks of South Africa”

Dr. Demian Chapman’s plenary: “new insights into the population biology and trade in sharks based on molecular genetic approaches”

Dr. Colin Simpfendorfer’s plenary: “sharks, fisheries, and the future” 

Dr. Nigel Hussey’s plenary: “ecological information derived from biochemical tracers“

Selected tweets from Day 1 of Sharks International, including talks about acoustic telemetry, physiology, and ecotourism.

Selected tweets from Day 2 of Sharks International, including talks about acoustic telemetry, population genetics, satellite tagging, and age and growth.

Selected tweets from Day 3 of Sharks International, including talks about fisheries, sensory biology, population ecology, and baited underwater video arrays.

Selected tweets from Day 4 of Sharks International, including talks about trophic ecology, sawfish conservation, social science, shark control, and management policy.

I want to thank everyone involved for a great meeting, and to specifically thank the Save Our Seas Foundation for providing travel support for me so that I could coordinate conference live-tweeting!