IFOP Director meets with Magallanes Region’s authorities, for harmful algae conference to be held in Punta Arenas
January 25th, 2024
During Monday, January 15th, 2024, IFOP’s Executive Director Gonzalo Pereira, accompanied by Dr. Leonardo Guzmán, Red Tide monitoring program’s Head in national fjords, and IFOP Headquarters Head Erik Daza, met with various Magallanes Region authorities with aim on disseminating holding of its twenty-first International Conference on Harmful Algae, known by its acronym in English as ICHA (International Conference on Harmful Algae), a meeting that will take place between the 19th and October 24th, 2025 in Punta Arenas city.
The day schedule included a meeting with Universidad de Magallanes’s Rector José Maripani and Máximo Frangopulos professor from the same institution . Among addressed points, there was discussion about collaborative work for online talks development, which will allow remote participation by a group of scientists from various parts of the world who for various reasons cannot participate in person.
The schedule continued with José Ruiz Pivcevic Presidential Delegate visit , with whom we spoke about Fisheries Development Institute’s role in Magallanes Region, strategic research importance for decision making and red tide monitoring relevance to determinate if it is viable to extract southern oysters in southern region fjords during 2024 season. The scope of carrying out ICHA and the importance of having scientists most specialized in algal blooms were explained. harmful substances (HAFs) in Punta Arenas.
The dissemination activities continued with Regional Governor Jorge Flies visit, who was thanked for the support letter of provided in 2021 for the proposal of holding this event. There was discussion about the participation of more than 500 scientists, various topics to be addressed at the conference and the impacts and benefits that this activity will bring to the region not only from a scientific point of view, since among other activities it is planned to allocate time to visit various places with tourist attractions. The Regional Governor thanked IFOP delegation for the visit and provided his support for holding this world-class Conference.