Two IWC Strandings Initiative workshops are being held in Sri Lanka in March/April. The purpose of the first in Colombo is to start discussions to establish a new national strandings network within Sri Lanka. The second will be held in Kandy and will be a practical workshop for veterinarians and pathologists. This will teach safe and effective stranding response procedures, including analgesia and euthanasia. It will also teach protocols for conducting necropsies, collecting and handling biological samples and producing detailed necropsy reports.

Teaching necropsy best practice is vital to ensure valuable information can be obtained from carcasses when stranded cetaceans die.  Standardised, global data builds understanding of the causes of cetacean stranding, and enables more targeted action to tackle those causes which are man-made.  The second workshop will also discuss how necropsy findings contribute to ecosystem health and conservation strategies. 

These are the first Strandings Initiative workshops in Asia. They are funded by the UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) through the Ocean Country Partnership Programme with the support of the Government of Sri Lanka. These two workshops are likely to be followed by another one in India in April, funded by the Government of India.

Attendees at the first workshop in Colombo

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