World Fund for Nature’s Barents Branch launches a three-year project to conserve the Red Book Atlantic walrus that inhabits the Oran Islands. This was reported by the coordinator of the environmental projects department Margarita Leskova. Together with World Fund for Nature, the Russian Arctic national park, scientists of the Marine Mammals Research and Expedition Center and the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences will work on the project, Interfax reports. The Oran Islands are the northernmost islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago (Arkhangelsk region), their total area is about 3 square kilometers. Environmentalists are concerned about growing threats to Atlantic walruses due to climate change, pollution of the oceans and increased tourist flow to the Arctic. Experts still do not know exactly how many individuals live on the islands. Scientists intend to install camera traps, and mark animals with satellite tags to estimate which water areas near the islands they use and where they migrate, leaving the rookery in late autumn. As reported by News.ru, a record number of walruses was observed off the northwestern coast of the Yamal Peninsula. According to estimates, there were about 300 individuals.  

Journalists of The Moscow Times talked to our employee Alexei Kotov, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, about why he signed the report “Warning scientists of the world about the climate emergency”. And about why only 4 Russian scientists did this. In total, the report was signed by 11 thousand scientists from around the world. It is published in the British scientific journal BioScience in the Opinions section. Follow the link to read the material in English.

IPEE RAS specialists Dmitry Glazov, Olga Shpak, Natalia Shumeyko, Svetlana Artemyeva, Olga Titova, Ilya Meshchersky and Maria Solovyeva will participate in the International Marine Mammal Conference in Barcelona on December 9-12, 2019, along with more than 2500 scientists, students and researchers who have dedicated their lives to study and conservation of marine animals. The main theme of this year's conference is Together for Science and Conservation. A large number of reports are devoted to climate change, ocean pollution and the reduction in the number of populations and species of marine mammals. The norm for modern researchers has been the use of advanced technologies - drones, underwater robots, autonomous sonar equipment, etc. The conference is attended by over 2500 people from 95 countries who will present 627 oral presentations and 1077 poster presentations. A large delegation of colleagues from various institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, universities, and environmental organizations is participating as well. Russian students take an active part and even schoolchildren from one of the Moscow schools presented their poster at the conference. In addition to plenary lectures, several sections, round tables, and meetings are held daily in parallel. This year a format of short 5-minute reports, which present advanced research in a concise form, is widely used.