We are pleased to welcome you to the Greater Atlantic Region Stranding Conference (GARSCON). GARSCON is held annually, and is hosted by one or more GARS Network member organizations on a rotating basis.
This will be the first in-person conference since the onset of Covid, so we are looking forward to “Stranding Together Again”!
Learn from the leaders in the marine mammal and sea turtle stranding and conservation community.
The 2023 GARSCON will be co-hosted by the Marine Education, Research & RehabilitationInstitute (MERR), The National Aquarium, and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and will be held at the Atlantic Sands in Rehoboth Beach from September 18th - 21st , 2023.
speakers
JOHN OSOSKY
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History
Museum Specialist - Division of Mammals
John Ososky has been a museum specialist for over 24 years at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. His primary responsibility has been the building and maintenance of the marine mammal collections, although he also does extensive work in terrestrial mammal collections. The marine mammal collection currently numbers over 18,000 specimens, including dry skeletons, anatomical fluids, frozen tissues, baleen, and earplugs, making it the largest and most diverse of its kind.
In 2019 Mote Marine Lab, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, NOAA, the Bonehenge Whale Center, and the National Museum of Natural History joined forces to collect a Bryde’s type whale specimen which had stranded in the Everglades. In 2021 the specimen was described as the holotype of a new species, Balaenoptera ricei, or Rice’s whale (Rosel et al. 2021). The species is endemic to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and is critically endangered. Subsequently, NOAA, NMNH, and strandings network members have come together to promote research, conservation, and outreach regarding this species, which will be described in John Ososky’s keynote address.
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: SEPT. 3 | ACCOMMODATIONS DEADLINE: AUG. 31
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