SMM Student Awards
Student abstracts and presentations are assessed by a panel of judges and the most outstanding work and presentations are recognized during the end of conference awards ceremony.
Previous Student Conference Award Winners:
2024 Regional Student Award Winners:
Africa
- Clinton Factheu
Giant Salvinia invasion significantly influences African manatee distribution and habitat use in Lake Ossa, Cameroon - Erin Ross-Marsh
Same same or different: A comparison of humpback whale song along a southern African migration corridor
Asia
- Isha Bopardikar
Hearing the unseen: Using acoustic monitoring to reveal trends in Indo-Pacific finless porpoise populations off the Sindhudurg coast, India - Zhi Yi Teoh
Daylight behaviour budget of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) within the Satun-Langkawi Important Marine Mammal Area, Malaysia
Europe
- Tim Awbery
Using Dynamic Habitat Suitability Models Based on a Twenty-Year Dataset to Assess the Potential Risk of Entanglement of Minke Whales - Monica Ogawa
Feast at the glacier front fills the belly: Key foraging grounds of ringed seal (Pusa hispida) revealed by stomach contents
Latin and South America
- Haide Cruz Villagran
(Whale) life is a journey, not a destination: The importance of monitoring areas along migration corridors - Larissa Dalpaz
Fishers’ diversity and activity shifts in a dolphin bycatch mitigation context
North America
- Zoe Rand
Longer mothers tend to have more female calves: evidence for adaptive sex ratio behavior in rorqual whales - Paige Stevens
Learning in a sea of sound: anthropogenic noise disrupts novel task learning in bottlenose dolphins
Oceania
- Andrew Davenport
Exploring the contexts of eastern Indian Ocean pygmy blue whale song production - Caylee Lindsay
Phylogenetic Relationships Amongst Dwarf Minke Whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) in the Southern Hemisphere: Resolving Taxonomic Status
2019 World Marine Mammal Conference Global Student Award Winners:
ACCOBAMS Student Awards
- Alessia Scuder
How to get mutual benefit for whale watching companies and cetaceans - Alicia Borque Espinosa
Developing a diagnostic tool to assess respiratory health in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) through spirometry
Africa
- Sibu Ngqulana
A take on years of wrangling over a controversial taxonomy: Delphinus spp. in South African waters - Jonathan Botha
Geographic and individual-based differences in the trophic ecology of the Cape fur seal
Asia
- Sui Hyang Kuit
Ranging patterns of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) in the Matang Important Marine Mammal Area in Perak, peninsular Malaysia - Mika Kuroda-Matsuo
Clicks-sound production and frequency determining mechanism in the head of small toothed whales; Functional morphology with acoustical interpretation
Latin and South America
- Guilherme Frainer
Echo-devo: Ontogeny and evolution of the sound generating structures in dolphins (Odontoceti: Delphinidae) - Larissa Dalpaz de Azevedo
Another brick in the wall: Assessing population structure of Bryde’s whales (Balaenoptera brydei) through a multi-method approach.
Europe
- Jonas F.L.Schwarz
The deep, the shallow and the indecisive: Foraging strategies of Galápagos sea lions - Katherine Whyte
An evaluation of Mahalanobis distance as a method to detect behavioural response in marine mammals from tag data
North America
- Kahlia Gonzales
Female productivity and calf survivorship of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Bocas, Panama - Heather Barrett
Investigating the energetic cost of human disturbance on the southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis)
Oceania
- Kaja Wierucka
Chemical fingerprints suggest direct familiarisation rather than phenotype matching during olfactory recognition in Australian sea lions (Neophoca cinerea) - Laetitia Smoll
Osmoregulation and electrolyte balance in a fully marine mammal, the dugong (Dugong dugon)
2017 Student Conference Award Winners:
- Charlotte Dunn (Video)
Bahamian sperm whales: Smaller than average (Read abstract) - Emily Humble (Talk– Pre-doctoral Student) (Read abstract.)
Measuring inbreeding in a declining population of Antarctic fur seals - Charmaine Hamilton (Talk – Doctoral Student) (Read abstract.)
Impacts of sea-ice declines on a pinnacle Arctic predator-prey relationship; habitat, behaviour and spatial overlap between coastal polar bears and ringed seals. - Sarah Strobel (Speed Talk – Pre-doctoral Student) (Read abstract.)
A Behavioural Assessment of Active Touch in Sea Otters: Paw and Whisker Texture Discrimination in Air and Underwater - Kirsten Thompson (Speed Talk – Doctoral Student) (Read abstract.)
Gray’s beaked whales: An elusive but abundant species of the Southern Hemisphere? - Karen Backe (Poster – Pre-doctoral Student) (Read abstract; See poster.)
Effect of sea level rise and storm surge on Pacific harbor seal habitat: A comparison of haul-out changes at the Russian and Eel River Estuaries - Stephen Chan (Poster – Doctoral Student) (Read abstract; See poster.)
Survival or extinction of a declining population? Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins at the brink in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Estuary