Workshop to Develop a Sea Turtle Conservation Strategy for The Bahamas

25-27 January 2006

Atlantis Resort, Nassau, The Bahamas

Goal for Strategy: Provide a plan to recover sea turtle populations in Bahamian waters to fulfill their ecological roles to ensure healthy marine ecosystems for the benefit of Bahamian people

Wednesday, 25 January 2006 Day 1: Biology of Sea Turtles and Sea Turtle Conservation Issues in The Bahamas
9:00	Welcome	TBD
9:15	Welcome	US Ambassador
9:30	Introduction of Workshop Participants
9:45	Review workshop agenda, logistics and expected outcomes. Introduce concept of regional significance of sea turtles in The Bahamas: where they come from, where they go to	Alan Bolten
10:00	Review current laws and proposed legislation in the Bahamas pertaining to sea turtles	Dept. of Fisheries Representative
	Review international treaties and conventions that protect sea turtles. Review status of the Bahamas with respect to these legal instruments	Dept. of Agriculture Representative
10:30	Discussion / Questions from participants
10:45	COFFEE BREAK
11:00	Presentation and Workshop Discussion: Biology of sea turtles in The Bahamas Topics to include introduction to species of sea turtles in The Bahamas, general life history, demography, trends in abundance, and distribution patterns	Karen Bjorndal
12:30	LUNCH
1:30	Presentation and Workshop Discussion: Targets for recovery of sea turtle populations in The Bahamas Topics to include the importance of conserving healthy sea turtle populations to the Bahamas (ecosystem roles and ecotourism resource)	Karen Bjorndal
2:30	COFFEE BREAK
2:45	Introduction to threats to sea turtles (global approaches) Preparation for Day 2 break-out groups and discussion	Alan Bolten
3:15	Demonstration of sea turtle identification, measuring, and tagging
5:00	ADJOURN
6:30??	RECEPTION: ??location

Thursday, 26 January 2006 Day 2: Development of a Sea Turtle Conservation Strategy
9:00	Review accomplishments from Day 1
9:30	Identify threats to sea turtle populations in The Bahamas	Break-out groups
10:30	COFFEE BREAK
10:45	Results of break-out groups
11:15	Prioritize threats to sea turtle populations in The Bahamas	Break-out groups
12:00	Results of break-out groups
12:30	LUNCH
1:30	Introduction to identifying conservation actions
1:45	Identify and prioritize the major conservation actions needed to conserve sea turtles in the Bahamas: Identify what we know and what we need to know about sea turtles in the Bahamas and discuss how best to fill these information gaps.	Break-out groups
2:30	Results of break-out groups
3:00	COFFEE BREAK
3:15	Prioritize the major conservation actions needed to conserve sea turtles in the Bahamas	Break-out groups
4:00	Results of break-out groups
4:30	Introduce Implementation Planning (Day 3 activity)
5:00	ADJOURN
Friday, 27 January 2006 Day 3: Development of Implementation Plan for Sea Turtle Conservation
9:00	Review results of Day 1 and Day 2
9:30	Develop an Implementation Plan with a timetable to accomplish conservation actions/goals and identify institutions/organizations responsible for actions
11:00	COFFEE BREAK
11:15	Finalize Implementation Plan
11:30	Plan for the future: Appoint working group to complete DRAFT of the Conservation Strategy for Sea Turtles in the Bahamas and Implementation Plan. Appoint working groups to undertake conservation actions for sea turtles in The Bahamas: education, legislation, protected areas, funding.
12:30	LUNCH
2:00	WORKSHOP ADJOURNED