I was really grateful to be asked once again by the Ecological Society of Australia to create a conference bag design for their 2022 conference. As with previous conference bag designs, I asked for ideas about which species I should illustrate via Instagram and Twitter. Thankyou to everyone who suggested their coast and marine favourites – there were quite a few!

Below are the species illustrated in the ESA conference bag design this year. Starting from the Pied oystercatcher on the middle left hand side and working clockwise around the picture:

Pied Oystercatcher

Flame tree Brachychiton acerifolius

Flannel flower Actinotus helianthi

Climbing Guinea Flower Hibbertia scandens

Pigface Carpobrotus glaucescens

Cabbage tree palm Livistona australis

Coast Banksia Banksia integrifolia

Australasian Gannet

Humpback Whale

Crested Tern

Little Tern

Pelagic nudibranch Glaucus atlanticus

Smooth Stingray Bathytoshia brevicaudata

Weedy sea dragon/Common sea dragon Phyllopteryx taeniolatus

Brown alga Phyllospora comosa

Eastern Blue Devil Paraplesiops bleekeri

Spotted Wobbegong Orectolobus maculatus

Golden Kelp Ecklonia radiata

Giant Cuttlefish Sepia apama

Blue-ringed Octopus Hapalochlaena maculosa

Australian Beach Worm Australonuphis sp.

This conference (which was also a joint conference with the Society for Conservation Biology) has just taken place in Woollongong, NSW. Unfortunately I couldn’t be there, but I received some nice feedback about the bags via Twitter:

Thanks Patt!

And thanks again to the ESA for seeing the value of art to promote science. I’m looking forward to working on the next conference bag design for Darwin in 2023.