Society for Marine Mammalogy

The Society for Marine Mammalogy was founded at San Francisco, California, U.S.A., on December 15, 1981, and incorporated as a non-profit entity under United States law on September 21, 1982, at San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

Past Presidents

• Andrew J. Read 2008-2010, USA
• John E. Reynolds III 2006-2008, USA
• Kit M. Kovacs 2004-2006, Norway
• Paul Nachtigall 2002-2004, USA
• Daniel K. Odell 2000-2002, USA
• Douglas P. DeMaster 1998-2000, USA
• Ian Stirling 1996-1998, Canada
• Jeanette A. Thomas 1994-1996, USA
• Bernd Würsig 1992-1994, USA
• Christina Lockyer 1990-1992, United Kingdom
• Robert L. Brownell, Jr. 1989-1990, USA
• William F. Perrin 1987-1989, USA
• James G. Mead 1985-1987, USA
• Kenneth S. Norris (deceased) 1981-1985, USA

Brief History of the Society

The Biennial Conferences predate the beginning of the Society. They were a successor to the late Tom Poulter's "Annual Conference on Biological Sonar and Diving Mammals" held at the Stanford Research Institute (formally separated from Stanford University in 1970 and now known as SRI International) in Menlo Park, California, beginning in 1964. After Tom's passing, Ken Norris picked up the ball and instigated the First Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, hosted by UC Santa Cruz in 1975. A second Biennial followed in 1977 in San Diego, supported by the U.S. Naval Ocean Systems Center. Attendance at the first conference was about 300 and at the second 480. Following the second conference, George Harry, then Director of what is now the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, initiated discussions about forming a society to organize and run the conferences. The responses favored the idea. In 1978, Ken Norris took the major steps of preparing a "Preliminary Design of a Society of Marine Mammalogy" and forming an organizational committee (consisting of Tom Dohl, George Harry, Burney LeBeouf, John Lilly, Ken Norris, Bill Perrin, Bill Powell and Forrest Wood, later expanded to include Bob Elsner, Bill Evans, Lou Herman and Ron Schusterman). The new society would "provide a vehicle for promoting the science of marine mammalogy." Proposed functions:

1. Organize and sponsor regular meetings
2. Sponsor workshops on special topics of interest
3. Work to improve the quality of scientific work being done on marine mammals
4. Provide for information exchange among marine mammalogists
5. Provide a voice in social decision-making from the leadership in marine mammalogy
6. Perhaps ultimately produce a journal for marine mammalogy and provide for its editorship

The committee met during the Third Biennial in Seattle in 1979 and discussed the preliminary design, proposed criteria for membership, and suggested by-laws. All was firmed up by correspondence, and at the Fourth Biennial in San Francisco in 1981, Ken presented the need and plans for a society to a meeting of those conference participants interested in forming one. The proposal was accepted by the group, and Ken was elected the first President by consensus. He then launched into the knotty tasks of confirming charter members (listed under "About Us" in this website), drafting a constitution and by-laws, getting the Society officially incorporated, recruiting people to act as interim Secretary, Treasurer and chairs of the committees on membership and nominations/elections, and helping start organization of the Fifth Biennial and the first full election. He truly was the father of the Society.

Subsequent Presidents: Jim Mead, Bill Perrin, Bob Brownell, Christina Lockyer, Bernd Würsig, Jeanette Thomas, Ian Stirling, Doug DeMaster, Dan Odell, Paul Nachtigall, Kit Kovacs, John Reynolds, Andy Read, Randy Wells (as of 2010).

The Biennials continued; the total list: Santa Cruz (1975), San Diego (1977), Seattle (1979), San Francisco (1981), Boston (1983), Vancouver (1985), Miami (1987), Pacific Grove (1989), Chicago (1991), Galveston (1993), Orlando (1995), Monaco (1998), Maui (1999), Vancouver again (2001), Greensboro (2003), San Diego again (2005), Cape Town (2007), Quebec City (2009). Next in line are Tampa, Florida (2011) and Christchurch, New Zealand (2013). Attendance has grown from the 300 in 1975 to more than 2000 in some of the venues.

The next major step for the Society after its formation in 1981 was the creation of a new journal devoted to the biology of marine mammals. Titles proposed included Journal of Marine Mammalogy, Marine Mammals, and others, but Marine Mammal Science won out. The first issue appeared in 1985. Joe Geraci was the first Editor, followed by Doug Wartzok, Bill Perrin, Don Bowen, Jim Estes and (currently) Daryl Boness. The first book-length special publication of the Society appeared in 1987 (Marine Mammal Energetics, edited by Huntley et al.), followed by The Bowhead Whale (1993, Burns et al., eds), Molecular Genetics of Marine Mammals (Dizon et al., eds) and Marine Mammals of the World (Rice, 1998).

The Society has gone on to offer special funding opportunities for students and student researchers (details in other parts of this website); this fulfills the educational goals and the role of supporting new researchers envisioned by the Society’s founders.

Acknowledgments: Most of the information on the formation of the Society was supplied by George Harry. Archival assistance was provided by Dan Odell.