Report on the 7th Alexander von Humboldt International
Conference
Ocean acidification: consequences for marine ecosystems and
society
Penang | Malaysia | 20 – 24 June 2011
Report by Lennart Bach
On the 13th of June, Luke Mackinder and I travelled to the 7th Alexander
von Humboldt International Conference on ocean acidification which took
place in Penang, a small island off the coast of Malaysia. Luke and I
decided to leave to the conference five days earlier. This gave us the
possibility to get an impression on the Malayan peninsula, situated in the
heart of South-East Asia.
After one day in Singapore, Luke and I travelled to more remote places on
the East coast of the Malayan peninsula and ended up on a small island
called Palau Tioman which was supposed to be surrounded by beautiful
coral reefs. The island was an amazing place to be.
Thousands of beautiful places, however, large parts of the coral reefs were
dead.
Luke and I were thinking that these coral reefs in the South China Sea
might have more acute problems than ocean acidification. Blast fishing,
bottom trawling and sewage disposal seem to be the major problems for
coral reefs in this region.
After three days on Palau Tioman we left the island to travel to Penang
which is located on the opposite side of the peninsula. We expected to
travel through the jungle when passing through the center of the
peninsula but by far most of the country was used for palm oil plantations.
The conference was hosted by the University of Malaysia in a lovely hotel
located directly at the beach.
The first two days of
the conference were
focused on impacts of
ocean acidification on
different kinds of
organisms. It was
interesting to see that
most scientists from
South East Asia focused
much more on impacts
on commercially
important species such
as oysters while
scientists from western
countries (especially Australian scientists) were focused on the impacts on
coral reefs.
On the third day the local committee organized a field trip for all scientists
through the island of Penang. We visited a traditional fruit farm and the
city center of Georgetown, which is located on Penang, and where we ate
lots of traditional food, as you can guess from this fruit farm impression
on the left.
The fourth and fifth day of the conference were focused on the impacts of
ocean acidification on the biogeochemistry of the oceans. A group of
Malayan teachers were also attending some of the presentations and they
explained that ocean acidification is virtually unknown in this part of the
world.
On Friday afternoon, one week of intense science communication was
over.
In summary, it was a great conference with a great atmosphere. The
Malaysian hosts were so friendly and kind and we met so many new
scientists from outside Europe and made lots of new friends. My
attendance of the conference was possible due to the strong financial
support by ISOS.
That’s why I want to thank ISOS for having made this great experience
possible!
Lennart Bach