U3A guest speaker Dr Peter Ryan, director of the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town, will address the problem of plastic pollution on Wednesday February 5, at the Strand town hall, at 10am.
An ornithologist and conservationist, his talk will explain why we should be concerned about the increasing amounts of waste plastic entering the environment, and what we can do to tackle this wholly avoidable problem.
For his Master’s degree, Dr Ryan studied the impact of plastic ingestion on seabirds, and for his PhD the radiation of finches in the Tristan da Cunha archipelago.
He had a brief stint at the University of California, then returned to UCT to co-ordinate the institute’s Master’s programme in conservation biology until he became the Institute’s Director in 2013.
His research focuses mainly on understanding and managing environmental issues,
primarily those that affect birds, including plastic pollution at sea, island restoration, the impacts of fisheries on seabirds, and collision risk of power-lines and other infrastructure for large terrestrial birds.
However, he works mainly on seabirds, and is well known for his many articles and
books on birds and their conservation.
All are welcome and a
visitor’s fee is payable by non- members.
Tea and coffee will be on sale from 9.30am and the meeting starts at 10am.
For more information, contact Denise Fourie on delvier@mweb.co.za
