[Coral-List] ICRS 2012 costs etc

[Abigail Moore]

Dear fellow listers

I have been following the thread on the 12th ICRS costs. It is with deep sadness that I and my friends/colleagues are now resigned to almost certainly not being able to attend. If a big international NGO like TNC in Indonesia can't afford it, no way can small NGOs and researchers from provincial institutions. Can you imagine asking for more than a years wages to go to a less than 1 week conference? 


So many of us were really hoping that with this venue so close by it would be a chance to attend this prestigious event, and indeed with all the recent information we had been eagerly thinking about which seminars we ought to send abstracts to and/or plan to attend. Airfares to Cairns from Indonesia (even form the provinces) would be likely to be much less than the registration fees mentioned, and indeed as one person mentionned I also know there are many hostels for those willing to live simply during the conference. 


However with the news re registration costs, and especially in view of the current value of the Australian Dollar, all hope seems to be firmly quashed. Maybe we will just have to hope the on-line coverage is good and wait for the next Asia Pacific Coral Reef Symposium (hopefully in 2014?)... 


Anyway, I hope those of you lucky enough to get funds from somewhere will not just have a great time in beautiful Queensland but achieve something worthwhile for our reefs in peril across the globe, and find ways to share your knowledge and experience with the rest of us who also spend much of our lives working to know them better and/or to save them.

Yours in hope
Abigail