IWC entanglement response training has concluded successfully in Bahía Solano, Colombia. The training was held at the Pacific Botanical Garden and both organized and sponsored by the Environment and Sustainable Development Ministry, with support from the International Affairs Office of Colombia.
This was the first time that an IWC entanglement workshop was led by new IWC trainers, Beets and Frisch from the RABEN network of Mexico. This increase in training capacity enabled two training workshops to run in parallel and on opposite sides of the world. At the same time, training was also underway in Norway, led by the IWC Technical Advisor, David Mattila.
31 trainees attended the Columbia training, representing 14 institutions and agencies from the Pacific and Caribbean sides of the country. These organisations included the Coast Guard, which also supported the workshop with one of their boats, used in the practical training.
The practical, on the water training followed a day in the classroom where participants discussed a range of issues including the specific nature of the threat in their region. Isolation of the coastal communities where entanglements occur was identified as a particular challenge for Colombia, and the workshop also provided an important platform for information exchange about whale watching and research on humpback whales.
For photographs of the Colombian training, and other entanglement workshops, click here