Dear all

I’m interested in finding out how many people would like to take part in and/or attend a workshop on “Interpretation in the Marine Environment and Training of Marine Interpreters and Guides”, at the ECS conference in Spain (April 2007) and at the 5th International Coastal & Marine Tourism Congress in Auckland, New Zealand (September 2007).

WDCS are involved in developing interpretative materials and talks for visitors to our Scottish wildlife centre, our 'Out of the Blue' whale watching holidays and for whale and dolphin watching boats. We are also developing a training programme for marine interpreters, starting with a small pilot scheme in Scotland with our residential and local volunteers.

I’d be interested in organising a workshop to share ideas on marine mammal education and interpretation, and particularly on training educators/interpreters/guides. There was a really useful workshop session at the SMM conference in San Diego on ‘Taking Conservation to the Public: Strategies for Getting the Message Out There’ and it would be great to follow on from some of the ideas presented during that workshop.

I know there’s lots of expertise out there and it would be great to bring some of that expertise together. If you think you would be interested in presenting at this workshop or just attending and sharing your ideas and experiences, either in Spain or in Auckland, please email me at deborah.benham@wdcs.org

If there’s enough interest we will go ahead and organise these workshops. Please also forward this message to anyone else who you think might be interested.

Many thanks

Deborah