Dear Members,

 Your 2020 ballot includes a variety of topics that need your vote including electing new officers for our Board of Governors, reviewing proposed modifications of our constitution and voting for the 2023 Biennial Conference location. 

 The details of each vote are included in the Ballot, but here is a brief synopsis. 

 We are presenting nominees for the Board of Governors positions: President-Elect, Treasurer, Secretary, Member-at-Large and Student Member-at-Large. 

 Modifications to the SMM Constitution: We are putting forward two measures that require a modification to our constitution.

 The first is to formalize our intent to make our Society more representative of the global community of marine mammal professionals in our governing documents by adding language codifying our focus on diversity and inclusion. 

 The second is to propose that SMaL term limits change from a two-year term to a two-and-one-half year term, enabling an experienced SMaL to facilitate conference organizing and execution in the following biennial.

 Finally, teams from Sanya, China; Perth, Australia; and Singapore have stepped up to host our 25th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals slated to occur in 2023. We have put together a table on the following web page that compares some of the important things that factor into our decisions, such as the costs for travel and hotels. We ask that when you place your vote that you please consider which location best suits the greatest number of our SMM community members.

 Your votes help to shape our continued evolution as a professional society and to celebrate the accomplishments of our colleagues. So when you receive the ballot please take a few minutes to review and vote!

Here is the link to the ballot: https://www.marinemammalscience.org/for-members/2020-members-ballot/

 The ballot will close at 3:00 PM EST on 11th May 2020.

 Best wishes,
Emer

We are pleased to share with you a recent list of Wiki species pages updated and curated by students across the world. Big thanks and kudos to all the Wiki curators involved in creating these pages. The development of marine mammal species Wikipedia pages is part of the Society of Marine Mammalogy’s education initiative to attract and engage our diverse student community. The curation of Wiki pages allows students and early-career researchers to meaningfully contribute to marine mammal education. Species pages follow a shared template and are reviewed by at least two experts. The multiyear project also allows students to refine their literature reviewing and technical writing skills, build species-specific knowledge, and cultivate new professional contacts in the marine mammal scientific community. New species pages will be added as they are completed. If you are interested in becoming a Wiki Curator, please email mridula.srinivasan@noaa.gov.

The Society for Marine Mammalogy, together with the European Cetacean Society, sent the following joint letter of concern to Vice Chancellor Jan Thomas and Massey University Council to show their concern by reports that Massey University has recently proposed to eliminate its natural sciences from its Albany campus, which among other significant losses, would result in the complete removal of a BSc in Marine Biology programme, along with its associated staff and students.

See copy of official letter sent

29 March 2020

Dear Vice Chancellor Jan Thomas and Massey University Council,

We write on the behalf of the European Cetacean Society (ECS) and the Society of Marine Mammalogy (SMM), two scientific bodies comprising a total membership of over 2,300 scientists, managers and conservationists. Our societies aim to promote and advance the science and conservation of marine mammals. Our respective membership is concerned by reports that important marine mammal conservation projects are at significant risk in New Zealand due to proposed university cuts to the sciences.

We understand that Massey University has recently proposed to eliminate its natural sciences from its Albany campus, which among other significant losses, would result in the complete removal of a BSc in Marine Biology programme, along with its associated staff and students. Such programmes are of national and indeed international significance, have enhanced the diversity of students involved with STEM education, and have been supported financially or through collaboration by organizations such as the Association for Commonwealth Universities, The Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi and the International Fund for Animal Welfare. We believe such dismantling of marine mammal research at Massey University will have significant detrimental impacts on critical welfare and conservation-based projects including programmes centred on tourism impacts and contaminant-disease associations for the endemic, endangered Hector’s dolphin. Furthermore, Massey scientists currently lead international efforts to assess survivorship and welfare considerations during the rescue and response efforts of whale mass strandings – a phenomenon of unprecedented frequency in New Zealand.

ECS and SMM members believe that the loss of critical research programmes currently offered by Massey University scientists within New Zealand will have severe and possibly irreversible consequences for marine mammal conservation. In just two decades, more than 30 post-graduate theses, with their associated peer-reviewed outputs in the field of marine biology, have originated from Massey University researchers. Many of these outputs, achieved by a diverse collective of national and international Early Career Researchers, span Australasia, Europe, Asia, UK and USA. As such we are writing to express our collective concern about about this situation and respectfully ask that the proposed removal of such significant conservation-based research be reassessed by the University Council and its Senior Leadership Team.

Sincerely,
Joan Gonzalvo, Chair
European Cetacean Society

and

D. Ann Pabst, President
Society for Marine Mammalogy