Category Archives: Society News

Nick Gales’ First Blog as Society President

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Well here we go – my first blog in my new role as President of this very fine Society.

Like all of us privileged enough to serve in the variety of roles that keep our Society vibrant, relevant, informative, influential and above all, attractive to be a part of, we do so in a voluntary capacity. We have to learn to balance our usually busy day jobs with the varied and (mostly) interesting roles we play for the society. The fact that my first blog has appeared a couple of months into my new role is a sign that I’ve yet to get that balance quite right! I promise to lift my game (particularly to my patient friends and colleagues on the Board)!

The first and most important task is to thank – most sincerely – out past President, Helene Marsh. Helene is quite simply a force of nature. Her drive, passion and depth of knowledge are a potent combination and have delivered measurable, positive impacts in marine mammal science and conservation. Thanks so much Helene for all you have done for marine mammals, and in this case, for the Society. It’s an overused metaphor, but you really have left very large shoes to fill!

So…the Australocene continues – two Australian Presidents (no – that’s not an oxymoron!) in a row. Its a great sign of our growing internationalisation; surely a healthy trend for our Society.

There are some very real – and in my view quite healthy – tensions emerging among our membership. Some of these were manifest in Dunedin where there were ‘robust’ views in the lead up, during and post our special events on issues of marine mammal killing techniques and killer whales in captivity – both complex and value-laden issues. While there were very few members who suggested that we had got it dead right for those sessions, there were almost equal numbers of people I heard from who said that we either went much too far, or not nearly far enough! So perhaps we did as well as was possible in steering our path on how our science should influence conservation and welfare issues.

I believe almost all in the Society would agree that we have an important role in issues like these – and many other marine mammal conservation issues where science intersects with disparate values, motivations and politics.

The tensions emerge primarily in resolving just what our role is and how we should enact it. None of us should be apologetic about having views on these issues that may not accord with some of our colleagues, but nor should we be intolerant or dismissive of those alternate views. This is a complex issue and there are many valid viewpoints.

Let’s start with the Society’s Mission: ‘… to promote the global advancement of marine mammal science and contribute to its relevance and impact in education, conservation and management’. We are unambiguously a global community focused on conducting and improving the quality and impact of our science (the growing impact factor of our Journal suggests we are making great progress on that front!).

I won’t try, in this blog, to outline a clear path for how we maximise the relevance and impact of our science, while avoiding the slippery slope to the role of advocate – a place where the well earned science credential of our Society would be devalued.

I, of course, have my views, and indeed I have spent almost my entire career in the challenging and interesting space where science interacts with the development of public good policy. But my role as President is not to promote my particular views, but rather, to ensure that I help facilitate, and indeed encourage, a respectful dialogue that takes accord of the divergent views and finds that acceptable pathway that ensures our science continues to make a difference.

In a couple of months I will meet with the Board and conference organising committee to further plan towards what is likely to be our largest ever gathering; San Francisco; 13-18 December 2015 (if you have not already done so – block it out in your diary and start saving your travel money!). The theme; ‘Bridging the past towards the future’ will ensure the conversation on influence and impact from our science will continue there, along with all the great diversity of the work and issues the conference will cover.

I will let you know how our meetings go in a later blog – but keep an eye out for the many conference updates in the meantime.

Best wishes to you all,
Nick

Last Call for the Vaquita

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The report of the fifth meeting of the Comité Internacional para la Recuperación de la Vaquita (CIRVA V) put forth strong recommendations that, if heeded, will give the greatest chance of recovery for the critically endangered vaquita. The CIRVA V report makes clear that with fewer than 100 individuals remaining, declining at 18.5%/year, time is indeed running out. The recent dramatic decline was exacerbated by the rapid resurgence of the illegal fishery for another Mexican endangered fish species, the totoaba. Saving vaquita is not Mexico’s responsibility alone, in fact coordinated work on the part of the Mexican government with the governments of China and the United States will be required if the recommendations are to be fully and successfully implemented.

The cause of the decline of the vaquita is clear: accidental drowning in gillnet fisheries. While conservation plans substituting gillnet fisheries with vaquita-safe gear are underway, time for gradual replacement has been stolen by resurgence of an illegal fishery for the endangered totoaba. Totoaba swim bladders are sold in Asia, involving points in the United States as part of the distribution chain.

Key recommendations from the CIRVA V report:

  • CIRVA strongly recommends that the Government of Mexico enact emergency regulations establishing a gillnet exclusion zone covering the full range of the vaquita -not simply the existing Refuge, starting in September 2014.
  • CIRVA recommends that the Government of Mexico provide sufficient enforcement to ensure that gillnet fishing is eliminated within the exclusion zone using all available enforcement tools, both within and outside Mexico to stop illegal fishing, especially the capture of totoabas and the trade in their products.

Further information including the full CIRVA report can be found on the IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group website (https://www.iucn-csg.org/). Several NGOs have sent letters to the Presidents of Mexico and the U.S. urging that the Government of Mexico follows the recommendations above.

For Society members within the U.S. there is a petition you can sign urging this action:

https://secure.oceanconservancy.org/site/Advocacy;jsessionid=8399D1166361249BAC174C8F19764608.app260b?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=846&s_src=14WAXAXXXX&s_subsrc=14AVQE

Vaquita

Vaquita photo taken by Thomas A. Jefferson under permit (Oficio No. DR/488/08) from the Secretaria de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT), within a natural protected area subject to special management and decreed as such by the Mexican Government.

Mekong and Ayeyarwady Irrawaddy Dolphin Conservation Update

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The following is an update on Mekong and Ayeyarwady Irrawaddy dolphin conservation, including a summary of a workshop held on June 1, 2014 in Phnom Penh to assess progress on implementation of the recommendations from the Kratie Declaration and to update Cambodia’s river dolphin conservation strategy.

https://www.iucn-csg.org/index.php/2014/07/03/update-on-mekong-and-ayeyarwady-irrawaddy-dolphin-conservation/

Marine Mammal Science is now online only!

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A friendly reminder from the Society for Marine Mammalogy

Are you wondering why you have not received a copy of Marine Mammal Science in the mail recently?

Two years ago, the majority of Society members voted during the annual April ballot in favor of switching to an electronic-only journal and eliminating the printed version. There was an announcement of this on the Society’s website for several months, but it is possible you missed it if you do not periodically check the site and did not attend the annual member’s meeting at the biennial conference. It took some time to plan for the transition, and now it has become a reality.

At present, you will not automatically receive e-mail notices when a new issue of the journal is out, although we are looking into whether we might get this changed. Regardless, Marine Mammal Science will continue to be published quarterly (January, April, July and October), and if you sign up for e-mail alerts, Wiley will automatically e-mail you when a new issue is released.

If you used the online version of the journal in the past, you will already know that you must go to Marine Mammal Science through the Society’s website while logged in as a member. This will give you full access to the journal as part of your Society of Marine Mammalogy membership benefits. If you try to log in to Marine Mammal Science directly through wileyonline.com, you will not succeed in obtaining access to articles by using your SMM member ID and password. Of course many of you can also gain access to the journal through an institutional membership if your institution has paid to have access.

Is Marine Mammal Science still the same as before?

Yes! The journal will continue to operate as it has, maintaining the high standards it has had for papers being accepted.

Having more pages available to publish does not diminish the need to keep Marine Mammal Science as a high quality journal. Indeed, we still cannot possibly publish all papers submitted, so we must also select papers to consider based on their relative importance and likely degree of interest to the readership of the journal.

Benefits to having an entirely electronic journal:

1) We now publish a greater number of pages without a change in membership fees (now 1600 pages per year, up from 1000)

2) Allows colored figures in papers without charge to authors (previously it cost $600 per printed color figure)

3) Eliminates charges for mailing copies of issues to members

4) Eliminates issues getting lost in the mail (as was a common occurrence in the past)

5) Contributes to conservation by saving trees and eliminating the carbon cost of shipping print copies all over the world

If you have not already done so, we invite you to read our first two electronic-only journal issues published January and April 2014.

If you have questions about this change or about Marine Mammal Science in general, you can e-mail me at mmsci@megalink.net.

Daryl J. Boness
Editor-in-Chief
Marine Mammal Science

Call for Applications – S. Innes Memorial Student Travel Bursary

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On May 21, 2000, the world of marine mammal research lost two talented scientists and cherished colleagues, Stuart Innes and Malcolm Ramsay. Drs. Innes and Ramsay were conducting field research near Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada when their helicopter crashed. Both Stuart and Malcolm are remembered with affection and admiration for their boundless energy and devotion to their scientific endeavours in the Arctic.

Stuart was a vocal advocate for supporting students in their efforts to develop a career in Arctic marine mammal research. He believed that the Biennial Marine Mammal Conferences hosted by the Society for Marine Mammalogy were a good opportunity for young researchers to learn, network, and develop enthusiasm from the leaders in the field. As a tribute to Stuart, friends and colleagues have established the S. Innes Memorial Student Travel Bursary to help support a student’s travel to this conference each time it is held.

The award is open to post-secondary students conducting marine mammal research in the Arctic. Applications should consist of the following: the student’s name, affiliated institution, name and address of supervisor plus one additional reference, level (MSc or PhD) and year of study, the abstract submitted for consideration of a presentation at the upcoming Biennial conference, a current CV, and a letter of no more than 400 words describing the project and how the student would benefit from the award.

A selection committee of Stuart’s colleagues will review the applications and select one winner. The committee’s decision is final. After the conference, a brief report should be submitted summarizing how the student benefited from the conference experience. The award this year is $1000.00 USD.

Questions and applications should be sent by email (preferred) or mail to Nick Lunn (contact details below). Applications must be received by midnight 30 August 2013.

Dr. Nick Lunn
Environment Canada
CW405 Biological Sciences Building
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9
Canada

nick.lunn@ec.gc.ca

Update on Marine Mammal Science from the Editor-in-Chief

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I have two important announcements to make about the Society’s journal, Marine Mammal Science.

First, it is that time of year when Thomson’s ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) releases its latest Journal Impact Factor (IF; note that IF always lags by a year so the latest is for 2012) scores based on its Journal Citation Report. The impact factor for a journal is calculated based on a three-year period, and can be considered to be the average number of times published papers are cited up to two years after publication.

The 2012 IF for Marine Mammal Science is 2.128. This compares with last year’s value of 1.611 and a previous high of 1.787 in 2007.

The journal also increased in rank among both Zoology and Marine and Freshwater Biology journals. It currently ranks 26 out of 149 among Zoology journals and 30 out of 100 among Marine and Freshwater Biology journals. Rankings from last year were 38 out of 146 and 41 out of 97, respectively.

The second announcement is that as of the first issue of 2014, Marine Mammal Science will only be published electronically. There will no longer be printed versions of the journal.

This change follows on the vote last year by Society members in support of such a change. The change to electronic publication only will not change the volume and issue structure of the journal. Each year will be a new volume and there will be four issues published in 2014.

We will examine whether the journal could sustain six issues per year/volume in the future. One outcome of this change is that the journal will increase the number of pages published per year. This will ultimately relieve the back log of papers waiting to be published.

Of course another outcome will be that the Society will be “greener” in publishing its journal by reducing the need for paper.

Daryl J. Boness
Editor-in-Chief
Marine Mammal Science

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New Presidential Commission to Save Vaquita Takes First Steps

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The first meetings of the Comisión Asesora de la Presidencia de México para la Recuperación de la Vaquita (Advisory Commission of the Presidency of Mexico for the Recovery of the Vaquita) were held in Mexico City in February and March of this year, and significant actions are under way. Ing. Juan José Guerra Abud, Secretario de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, formed the 17-member Commission to expedite actions to save Mexico’s porpoise. The Secretary brought together the heads of government departments, the chairs of Congressional natural resource committees, representatives of the states of Sonora and Baja California, representatives of fishery unions, the Mexican Navy, non-governmental organizations and private foundations, and scientists to step up action on meeting what he describes as Mexico’s moral obligation to save the species.

At its first meeting, the Commission identified three actions for immediate implementation:

  1. publication of the NOM (official standard) that will make the use of small-type trawls instead of gillnets mandatory in the shrimp fishery;
  2. much more effective enforcement of existing regulations; and
  3. commitment of financial resources to compensate fishermen for lost income as a result of vaquita protection measures. The NOM was published for public comment on schedule in February, and this sets the stage for large-scale gear changes before next fall’s shrimp season. A small working group was established to develop the economic plan immediately.

Formation of the Commission was timely given recent indications that protection efforts to date have been insufficient to stop the vaquita population’s decline – there are now estimated to be fewer than 200 individuals. The International Recovery Team (CIRVA) noted at its last meeting (February 2012) that although Mexico has made real progress towards saving the species, the Vaquita Refuge has only slowed, and not stopped or reversed, the decline. Not only is the Refuge too small, but enforcement of a partial ban of gillnets has proven infeasible. The good news, however, is that a breakthrough has been made in the development of alternative fishing gear that should not kill vaquitas but will allow shrimp fishing to continue.

Phocoena sinusSmall trawls that can be pulled from the artisanal fishing boats (pangas) have been tested by Mexico’s fisheries agency. These trawls are equipped with turtle and fish excluder devices and use a ‘tickler’ chain to reduce bottom-fish bycatch. The trawls are effective for catching shrimp and are being tested for catching commercial finfish. Conversion will require training and gear replacement and it is anticipated that fishermen will need compensation to maintain their income. At the second meeting a proposal to further test the new gear involving more fishermen in August 2013 was adopted.

The Minister also decided on a new vaquita abundance estimation survey to be conducted as soon as possible. This survey will repeat the design of the survey in 2008 and could be conducted as early as fall 2013.

Progress will be closely monitored by numerous groups, some of which (e.g. IUCN, Society for Conservation Biology, and Society for Marine Mammalogy) have written letters to commend Mexico for actions taken and to plead for further quick and critical actions. Representatives of the CSG and SMM who are on the new Commission are optimistic that Mexico’s new Administration is serious and prepared to commit the necessary resources for timely and appropriate efforts to prevent the vaquita’s extinction. Stay tuned.

Barbara Taylor
Chair, Conservation Committee

Dr. Ian Stirling – 2013 Norris Award Winner

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IanStirling_copyI have the great pleasure in congratulating Dr. Ian Stirling on being the 2013 winner of the Society’s premier award, the Kenneth S. Norris Career Achievement Award, a fitting acknowledgement to his contribution to marine mammalogy.

The Society established the Kenneth S. Norris career achievement award in honour of the Society’s founding president and one of the truly great figures from our past. The Norris award is an acknowledgement of your exemplary lifetime contribution to science and society through research, teaching, and service in marine mammalogy. Ian presented a plenary talk at the 2013 Biennial Conference and his Norris Award article has been published in Marine Mammal Science Kenneth S. Norris Lifetime Achievement Award: Ian Stirling.

Ian Stirling is a Research Scientist Emeritus with Environment Canada and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. He has done research on southern fur seals, polar bears, and polar seals (Arctic and Antarctic) for 47 years, particularly in the areas of ecology, behaviour, evolution, relationships between polar bears and seals, the biological importance of polynyas, and the conservation and management of polar marine mammals and ecosystems.

Ian was a charter member of SMM (and a current life member), a member of the original editorial board for the Journal of Marine Mammal Science, and a past President.

His most recent book, for both scientists and the lay public alike is: Polar Bears: The Natural History of a Threatened Species.

2011 Winner of the Kenneth S. Norris Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. William F. Perrin

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Written by Randall Wells

PerrinBillIn the run-up to the SMM biennial conference, the Board of Governors and Board of Associate Editors have selected Bill Perrin as the winner of the Kenneth S. Norris Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr. Perrin, a past-president of SMM and current Board member, has been recognized for the high standards of excellence that he has demonstrated in his work, along with his dedication, perseverance, and strength of character in dealing with highly controversial issues.

His efforts have set an important example for the next generations of marine mammal scientists, and they have made a large and positive difference for the species with which Bill has worked, especially members of the genus Stenella, around the world.

The winner of the award delivers a plenary address at the next biennial conference, and publishes an associated article in Marine Mammal Science.

Bill has been dutifully informed that receipt of this award does not mean that he can refrain from continuing his contributions to the field and the Society.