Category Archives: Society News

Welcome to our new Ethics Committee Chair,  Dr. Karen Stockin and Aloha to Dr. Paul Nachtigall

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Aloha,

Dr. Paul Nachtigall will be stepping down after five years of guiding the SMM Ethics Committee.  His legacy of commitment to the SMM is worth mentioning again.  He presented his doctoral work at Ken Norris’ meeting in Santa Cruz in 1975, setting in motion  his strong involvement at the founding meeting in San Francisco in 1981. He has been to all but one biennial meeting and led our Society as President. In Paul’s own words, “SMM has been my home scientific society though I have been active in others. I am retired now, 75 years old, and have been Ethics Chair for over six years. I have recently worked with an outstanding group of people on the Ethics committee and with three dedicated and wonderful boards.” Paul has given much to the Society over these many decades and for that, we should all be grateful.  

At the same time as announcing Paul’s departure we solicited expressions of interest from any member interested in taking over the role of Ethics Committee Chair. Thank you to those of you who reached out with interest. It was a small but esteemed group of colleagues willing to take on this important responsibility. After discussion and deliberation we selected Dr. Karen Stockin for the position. Many of you are familiar with Karen, but if you are not, she has extensive experience in marine mammal science, ethics and welfare. Karen is based at New Zealand’s Massey University where she is the leader of the Cetacean Ecology Research Group. Her research sits at the nexus of marine biology, behavioural ecology, vet pathology and animal welfare science with a particular focus on anthropogenic impacts which affect individuals as well as populations. These impacts include toxicology, vessel impacts (direct/indirect) and human-wildlife interactions. She is currently a Rutherford Discovery Fellow, which is supporting her exciting work assessing how AI and Animal Welfare Science can increase the effectiveness of human intervention efforts during mass stranding events. Her other experience includes serving as the inaugural Strandings Coordinator (2018-2020) for the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and she is currently a specialist on the IWC Strandings Initiative Expert Panel.  We are very excited to welcome her to the Board of Governors and see where she leads the Society on the many complex ethics and welfare discussions and issues within our field.  

Welcome Karen and mahalo and aloha Paul.

Emily B. Shane Award Now Accepting Proposals

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Greetings, members!

The EBS Award 2021-22 is now looking for proposals. This fund is open to all Society members for projects that focus on free-ranging odontocete and sirenian species.

Projects with clear conservation priorities for populations or habitat critical to these species will be scored highly. Research that also positively impacts local communities will also be given special consideration.

The award is for USD 10,000 (eqv. ~Colombian Pesos (COP) 38,000,000, ~Euro 8,500, ~Indian Rupees (INR) 735,500, ~ Chinese Yuan (RMB) 64,500, Australian Dollar (AUD) 13,500).

Please submit your proposal before 12 November 2021

Find out about eligibility and how to apply here. 

Thank you,
Lindsay Porter
Chair, Awards and Scholarships Committee
Society for Marine Mammalogy

DEI Webinar: Intentionally Building Inclusive Spaces for Queer Scientists

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Intentionally Building Inclusive Spaces for Queer Scientists

Co-hosted by the SMM and Absolutely Smashing Event and Consulting’s Mindful Conservation
on Thursday, 18 November 2021
12 PM–2 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time

To highlight matters of diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI) within the SMM, the ad hoc Diversity and Inclusion Committee are organising a series of DEI-related webinars. The first, focused on Internship Equity can be found here. The second, on challenges and successes of conducting research in Southeast Asia can be found here.

About the Event

The advancement of ocean science and marine conservation success ultimately relies on the well-being of the scientists involved. This well-being largely depends on our scientific community providing a safe and supportive space for scientists and conservation practitioners to work in. There are large number of LGBTQ+ scientists within our community that often face prejudice, exclusion, and discrimination. Success of the whole community depends on diversity, equity, and inclusion. In this webinar we seek to promote understanding of the issues and struggles our LGBTQ+ scientists face, and work towards solutions to problems and barriers that they face. 

The webinar opened with a presentation of the language of identity by Zeke Gonzalez that discussed definitions in the queer community and the challenges that queer people in STEM who are out face. The panel then shared stories and thoughts in a discussion on a variety of topics covering the dangers of field work and travel, problems of intersectionality and heteronormative privilege, and the emotional load and time commitment of queer people who are frequently tapped to represent the community in DEI activities. The webinar ended on notes stressing the  the importance of support for the queer community from faculty, universities, and the wider STEM field in general.

 

Speakers and Panelists

Zeke Gonzalez (he/him/his)
Zeke Gonzalez is a queer graduate student in the Carleton lab at the University of Maryland studying cichlid color vision and reproductive behavior. Besides his passion for sexual selection, Zeke is also a swim coach and gives talks at local schools with arthropod specimens from the UMD Insect Zoo. He spends his free time hosting horror movie night with his friends and colleagues, trying out new games, and training for a triathlon.
Dr. Daniel M. Palacios (he/him/his)
Dr. Daniel Palacios is an Associate Professor with the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, where he leads the Whale Habitat, Ecology & Telemetry Lab. He hails originally from Colombia, and his research addresses questions dealing with the large-scale (“seascape”) ecology of top marine predators in relation to ocean processes, including interactions with the environment, with other species, and with human activities.
Annabel Gong (they/them)
Annabel Gong is a master’s student at the University of San Diego studying the movement of the shovelnose guitarfish and California bat ray along the Southern California coast. Annabel is also the co-host of the podcast LGBTQ+ STEM Cast, a podcast where they interview LGBTQ+ identifying STEM professionals from around the world. Annabel is a huge shark enthusiast and is currently applying to PhD positions to continue their work in shark and ray movement ecology.
Panel Planners and Moderators

Dr. Heather Penney
Heather Penney is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Memorial University in Newfoundland Canada. She is an evolutionary ecologist currently working on sea cucumbers. Outside of her primary job she helps plan conferences and workshops.
Dr. Ashley Scarlett, Founder of Absolutely Smashing Events and Consulting
Ashley Scarlett is a scientist that specializes in marine mammal science and science communication. She is a consultant of social media, product or service promoting, video & podcast production (editing, hosting, etc), outreach, events planning, and her favorite mindful conservation advocacy.

Please direct any questions or comments about the webinar to Dr. Ashley Scarlett.

If you have suggestions for future webinars in this series, please direct them to the SMM ad hoc Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

SMM Seminar Editors’ Select Series: Patterns of mortality in endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales

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You are invited to the next edition of the SMM Seminar Editor’s Select Series. This series highlights the latest and most exciting marine mammal science published in the Marine Mammal Science Journal. The SMM created this series to give scientists and citizens around the world a chance to engage with marine mammal scientists, learn and ask questions. All are welcome.

Join us on Tuesday, 16 November 2021 at 2 PM AKST (3 PM PDT / 10 PM UTC)
for the next SMM Seminar Editors’ Select Series:
Patterns of mortality in endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales:
Insights from pairing a long-term photo-identification study with stranding records with Dr. Tamara McGuire of the Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Photo-ID Project.

Free to attend. Registration required. Presented online on Zoom.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_O7140C1TR7-CREClYeWLkw
Space on Zoom is limited to the first 500 attendees. The talk will also be streamed live on the SMM Facebook page.

About this talk:
To understand why endangered beluga whales in Cook Inlet Alaska are not recovering despite over a decade of legal protections, we need to understand recent demographic patterns and sources of the population’s mortality. We used photographic records of individually identified live belugas collected over 13 years and combined them with stranding data from belugas found dead during the same period to assess mortality patterns.  Dead females and males were evenly represented. For both males and females, mortality rates were greatest in reproductive-aged adults, and there were no very-old adults. Live stranding was the most commonly assigned cause of death, but did not account for the majority of deaths. The cause(s) of most deaths and live strandings were undetermined. Our analysis advances the current understanding of mortality patterns in CIBWs, but linking a greater proportion of carcasses to photo-ID individuals and collecting more data from stranded carcasses would further improve our understanding of the causes of mortality in this population; we conclude with recommendations for achieving this.

About the presenter and co-authors:
Dr. Tamara McGuire is the Principal Investigator for the Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Photo-ID project. She has studied marine mammals for over 25 years and is interested in habitat use, life history, behavior, and the effects of human activities on endangered and threatened aquatic species and their habitats. She has studied marine mammals in Alaska since 2006, and before that on the Oregon Coast and in the Orinoco and Amazon River Basins. She has worked with Federal, Tribal, and State agencies, NGOs, and private industry. She led the Cook Inlet Beluga Recovery Team and is an advocate for collaborative research. Kim Shelden is a marine biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration based at the Marine Mammal Laboratory of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. She has worked for the Cetacean Assessment and Ecology Program since 1990 studying species present seasonally and year-round in Alaska waters including Cook Inlet belugas, North Pacific right whales, bowhead whales, gray whales, Pacific white-sided dolphins, and harbor porpoise. Dr. Gina Himes Boor is Assistant Research Professor in the Ecology Department Montana State University. Her research focuses on developing models to better understand the demographic and spatial-use patterns that contribute to the decline and recovery of imperiled species. Amber Stephens has studied marine mammals since 1998, including beluga whales, Steller sea lions, harbor seals, narwhals, and Pacific walrus.  A CI on the CIBW Photo-ID Project, her responsibilities include cataloging, field work, public outreach, and website management. John McClung joined the Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Photo-ID Project in 2017 and has over ten years of photo-identification experience of cetaceans including humpback whales, melon-headed whales, and belugas. Prior to receiving his MS in wildlife science from Oregon State University, he served 26 years in the U.S. Air Force. Christopher Garner is a biologist for the Department of Defense at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.  He has studied beluga and harbor porpoise in upper Cook Inlet since 2001 with emphasis on beluga ecology within rivers emptying into a hypertidal region as well as the effects of military activity on marine mammals and their prey. Dr. Carrie Goertz is the Director of Animal Health at the Alaska SeaLife Center where she oversees veterinary care for animals in the aquarium and out in the field, working with sea birds, fish, invertebrates, sea otters, seals, sea lions, beluga, and other marine animals. Dr. Kathy Burek Huntington has been the pathologist for the Alaska stranding program and in particular for the Cook Inlet belugas for 23 years and works collaboratively with the rest of the stranding network throughout Alaska. She is particularly interested in emerging pathogens, harmful algal bloom toxins, pathology, the intersections of these topics with climate change, and mentoring young scientists in pathology. Dr. Greg O’Corry-Crowe is a behavioral ecologist and geneticist focused on marine mammals and conservation. He runs the Wildlife Evolution and Behavior (WEB) program at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and is a research professor at Florida Atlantic University. Bruce Wright is an ecologist with the Knik Tribe whose work focuses on Alaska marine and terrestrial top predators.

Open access to all Marine Mammal Science papers is available to current SMM members. Open access to this article will be made temporarily available to the public during the week prior to and of the presentation.

Missed a presentation or want to share this series with a friend? All previous Editors’ Select  presentations are recorded and archived on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUc78IynQlubS2DVS1VZoplf_t42-yZOO

Editor’s Select Series Seminar: A comparison of Northeast Atlantic killer whale call repertoires

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The SMM Seminar Editor’s Select Series highlights the latest and most exciting marine mammal science published in the Marine Mammal Science Journal. The SMM created this series to give scientists and citizens around the world a chance to engage with marine mammal scientists, learn and ask questions. All are welcome.

21 October 2021 at 4 PM UTC (9 AM PDT)
SMM Editors’ Select Series Seminar: A comparison of Northeast Atlantic killer whale call repertoires
with Anna Selbmann of University of Iceland

The SMM Seminar Editors’ Select Series highlights the latest and most exciting marine mammal science published in the Marine Mammal Science Journal. This is your chance to engage with marine mammal scientists, learn and ask questions from anywhere in the world. All are welcome.

About this talk:
Killer whale call repertoires can provide information on social connections among groups and populations. Killer whales in Iceland and Norway exhibit similar ecology and behavior, are genetically related, and are presumed to have been in contact before the collapse of the Atlanto-Scandian herring stock in the 1960s. However, photo-identification suggests no recent movements between Iceland and Norway but regular movement between Iceland and Shetland. We used acoustic recordings collected in Iceland, Norway, and Shetland to undertake a comprehensive comparison of the call repertoires of Northeast Atlantic killer whales. Time and frequency parameters of calls from Iceland and Norway were relatively similar but no call type matches were confirmed between Iceland and Norway or Shetland and Norway. Three call types matched between Iceland and Shetland. Therefore, these findings agree with what is currently known of the movement patterns of these whales but argue against past contact between Icelandic and Norwegian killer whales, since call repertoires are thought to be maintained over time.

About the presenter:
Anna Selbmann is currently a PhD student at the University of Iceland investigating killer whale acoustic behaviour and interspecific interactions between pilot whales and killer whales. She gained a BSc in Marine Vertebrate Zoology from Bangor University (UK) in 2015 and completed her Masters of Biology at the University of Iceland in 2019 investigating the call repertoire of Icelandic killer whales and comparing it to the repertoire of Norwegian killer whales.

Missed a presentation or want to share this series with a friend? All previous Editors’ Select  presentations are recorded and archived on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUc78IynQlubS2DVS1VZoplf_t42-yZOO

Webinar on Research Challenges in Asia

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Webinar on Research Challenges in Asia 

Overcoming Challenges in the Lands of Dragons and Mermaids:
Stories of Struggles and Triumphs in Marine Mammal Science and Conservation in Diverse Asia

Thursday, 7 October 2021
New York, United States,  8:00am – 9:30am (EDT); Delhi, India Mon, 5:30pm – 7:00pm (IST); Rangoon, Myanmar  6:30pm – 8:00pm (GMT+630); Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 8:00pm – 9:30pm (GMT+8)

About the Event
To highlight matters of diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI) within the SMM, the ad hoc Diversity and Inclusion Committee are organising four DEI-related webinars. The first focused on “Equity in Internships” and can be found here.

The second webinar in this series focused on research in Asia and issues around conducting marine mammal science in low-income countries.

During this webinar, four Asian researchers presented aspects of their research and how they achieved success working with limited resources but with an abundance of regional encouragement and camaraderie! The speakers were joined by several other researchers for a panel discussion, moderated by two members of the SMM Board who both live and work in Asia. The panel discussion focused on the diversity of people, cultures and disciplines of marine mammal work in Asia.

Speakers and Panelists

  • Jo Marie Acebes, National Museum of the Philippines and BALYENA.ORG, Philippines
    Balancing the Banca: Overcoming Challenges in Marine Mammal Research in the Philippines
  • Wint Hte,  Myanmar Coastal Conservation Lab (MMCL), Myanmar
    Diving into Marine Mammal Conservation in Myanmar: Opportunities, Growths and Challenges
  • Louisa Ponnampalam – The MareCet Research Organization, Malaysia
    It can be done on a shoestring budget! A Malaysian marmam research and conservation story
  • Weerapong Laovechprasit “Mac” – University of Georgia, National Thailand Strandings Programme, Thailand
    Turning strandings into a powerful resource for cetacean conservation in a resource limited environment.
  • Long Vu – Center for Biodiversity Conservation and Endangered Species (CBES), Vietnam
  • Wei-Cheng Yang – National Taiwan University, Taiwan

Moderators

  • Cindy Peter (SMM Member at Large) – Sarawak Dolphin Project, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia
  • Lindsay Porter (SMM Awards Committee Chair) – Southeast Asia Marine Mammal association (SEAMMAM) and the Asian Marine Mammal Stranding Network (AMMSN), Hong Kong

Please direct any questions about the webinar to Eric Archer and Tara Cox at diversity@marinemammalscience.org.

Meet the Presenters

Speakers

Jo Marie Acebes “Jom”

Balancing the Banca: Overcoming Challenges in Marine Mammal Research in the Philippines

Jom is a Senior Museum Researcher at the Zoology Division of the National Museum of the Philippines. She is also the Founder and Principal Investigator of a non-profit organization called BALYENA.ORG, with a mission to support the conservation of whales and dolphins and their natural habitats in the Philippines through research, education and capacity-building.

Twitter
Website

 

 

 

Wint Hte

Diving into Marine Mammal Conservation in Myanmar: Opportunities, Growths and Challenges

Wint is a co-founder of the Myanmar Coastal Conservation Lab (MMCL), a local youth-based organisation. As a conservation practitioner, researcher and trainer, Wint is eager to promote interdisciplinary, inclusive and innovative solutions for conservation and management in Myanmar. Wint and his collaborators were the winners of the SMM J. Stephen Leatherwood Memorial Award at the 2019 World Marine Mammal Conference (Barcelona, Spain) for their excellent conservation research in Asia, achieved through collaboration and community engagement.

Facebook
LinkedIn

 

Louisa Ponnampalam

It can be done on a shoestring budget! A Malaysian marmam research and conservation story

Louisa is the co-founder and Executive Director of The MareCet Research Organization, a grassroots NGO focused on the research and conservation of marine mammals and their habitats in her native Malaysia. Louisa is a Pew Marine Fellow and also Asia Co-Coordinator for the IUCN Cetacean and Sirenia Specialist Groups. Louisa is the Diversity Chair for the SMM 2022 Conference in Florida, USA.

Instagram
Twitter

 

 

 

 

Weerapong Laovechprasit “Mac”

Turning strandings into a powerful resource for cetacean conservation in a resource limited environment.

Mac is a marine-life veterinarian who is currently conducting his Ph.D. at the University of Georgia, USA. Mac was one on the founding veterinary staff of the National Thailand Strandings Programme. After working on one of the most comprehensive strandings programmes in Asia, Mac is further his skill set and is working on advanced molecular diagnosis development in sea turtles and marine mammals.

Twitter
Facebook

 

Panel Speakers

Long Vu

Long is a trained ecologist and conservationist, who started studying marine mammals in 2012. Currently, his work focuses on narrowing information gaps in our knowledge of the marine mammals of Vietnam to better inform conservation and management. Long founded Vietnam’s only dedicated marine mammal NGO, Center for Biodiversity Conservation and Endangered Species (CBES). Long was the winner of the SMM EBS Award for conservation focused research in 2019.

Facebook (Personal)
Facebook (CBES)

 

 

 

Wei-Cheng Yang “Jack”

Jack is an Associate Professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine and the Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the National Taiwan University, National Taiwan University. His research projects investigate pathogens and diseases, noise-related stress evaluation, diagnostic tool development and cetacean conservation medicine. Jack is an active member of the Asian Marine Mammal Strandings Network (AMMSN) and he recently secured substantial government support that allows his institute to act as a regional hub for marine mammal sample analyses. Jack became a member of the SMM Awards Committee in 2020 and has been a judge at the SMM Conference since 2017.

Website
ResearchGate

 

 

Moderators

Cindy Peter
SMM Member-at-Large

Cindy was a founding member of the first marine mammal research programme in Sarawak, Malaysia, the Sarawak Dolphin Project. After completing her masters, Cindy took up a lectureship position at the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation (IBEC), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, where she leads research projects focusing on cetacean interactions with local fisheries. Cindy became the SMM Member at Large in 2020.

Facebook

 

 

Lindsay Porter
SMM Awards Committee Chair

In 1993, Lindsay moved to Hong Kong to conduct her PhD and has lived and worked in Asia ever since. Lindsay is one of the founding members of the Southeast Asia Marine Mammal association (SEAMMAM) and the Asian Marine Mammal Stranding Network (AMMSN) and collaborates with many institutes and NGO’s within Asia and is a strong advocate of regional collaboration that strives to improve the status of cetaceans and sirenians throughout Asia, As Awards Chair for the SMM, Lindsay has established a committee of globally diverse participants with representatives from eight (8) countries spanning the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania and claims to have one of the best roles in the SMM.

ResearchGate

Editor’s Select Series Seminar: Echolocation behaviour of fish-eating killer whales during pursuit and capture of salmon prey

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The SMM Seminar Editor’s Select Series highlights the latest and most exciting marine mammal science published in the Marine Mammal Science Journal. The SMM created this series to give scientists and citizens around the world a chance to engage with marine mammal scientists, learn and ask questions. All are welcome.


Guest, Brianna Wright of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) presents: “Echolocation behaviour of fish-eating killer whales during pursuit and capture of salmon prey“

September 23, 2021 4-5:30 pm PDT (11 PM-1230 AM UTC)
Online. Free to attend. 

About this talk:
We used high-resolution acoustic and movement tags (Dtags) to analyse the echolocation behaviour of fish-eating killer whales during pursuit and capture of salmon prey. Whales produced more echolocation trains and had faster clicking rates prior to catching salmon versus afterward, confirming the importance of echolocation in prey detection and tracking. Extremely rapid click sequences (buzzes) occurred in the lead-up to salmon captures at depths typically exceeding 50 m, and were likely used for close-range prey targeting. Distinctive crunching sounds related to prey handling occurred at shallow depths following captures, matching observations that whales surfaced with salmon prior to eating them and often shared their prey.

About the presenter:
Brianna Wright received her B.Sc. majoring in Biology and Anthropology from the University of Victoria in 2007. During her undergrad she also participated in the UVic Biology Co-op program and studied at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre. From 2008-2010, she worked as a Technician with the Cetacean Research Program of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) before returning to school and completing her M.Sc. in 2014 at UBC’s Marine Mammal Research Unit under the supervision of Dr. John Ford and Dr. Andrew Trites. Brianna’s thesis investigated the fine-scale foraging behaviour of resident killer whales using suction-cup attached tags that recorded dive depth, body position and acoustic behaviour of individual whales. She returned to work with DFO’s Cetacean Research Program at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo in July 2014, and is currently a marine mammal Biologist with this group. She has participated in killer whale and sea otter census surveys and offshore ship and aerial distance-sampling surveys for cetaceans. Analytically, her recent work has focused on spatial density modelling of survey data for cetacean species to estimate their distribution and abundance. She also conducts assessments of killer whale diet composition and prey sharing behaviour through field collection and analysis of prey remains.

Open access to all Marine Mammal Science papers is available to current SMM members. Open access to this article was made temporarily available to the public between September 20-September 30, 2021.

Missed a presentation or want to share this series with a friend? All previous Editors’ Select  presentations are recorded and archived on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUc78IynQlubS2DVS1VZoplf_t42-yZOO

Dr. John Wang Receives the 2021 Society for Marine Mammalogy’s Conservation Merit Prize

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Cetacean biologist heralded for over 30 years of research and conservation efforts.

Every two years in the lead up to the Society for Marine Mammalogy conference, our Conservation Committee considers potential awardees for the Conservation Merit Prize. The Conservation Merit Prize is public recognition given to a person, team, or organization contributing toward solving a pressing conservation problem for marine mammals, either ongoing or resulting in a conservation success. The prize is only given when the Conservation Committee finds a case of exceptional merit and may not be awarded at every biennial.

After reviewing an impressive slate of nominees, the Society Conservation Committee and Board selected Dr. John Wang as this year’s recipient.

John Y. Wang, Ph.D.
2021 SMM Conservation Merit Prize Winner
• CetAsia Research Group Ltd – Chief Biologist
• Trent University – Professor, Department of Biology
• National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium of Taiwan – Adjunct Researcher

John’s work started in the chilly waters of Canada’s Bay of Fundy in the late 1980’s. Donning a wetsuit and snorkeling equipment, John jumped into herring weirs, a fixed fishing trap, to help fishermen release harbor porpoise. The fishermen used seine nets to remove herring that had aggregated in the weirs and porpoise would become trapped in the nets as they were hauled in. That work quickly pivoted to focusing on harbor porpoise bycatch in the gillnet fishery and lead Dr. Wang to start the first groundfish gillnet observer program in Canada.

In the mid-1990’s the global issue of cetacean bycatch pulled John beyond the borders of Canada to the other side of the planet when he started working on understanding cetacean fauna and bycatch throughout Taiwan. Early investigations consisted of visiting fishing ports around the country, recording carcasses, and conducting interviews to understand local fisheries. He attended stranding events and visited various scientific and academic institutions to examine their specimen collections. These efforts resulted in one clear conclusion – bycatch was a significant conservation issue for cetaceans in Taiwan. Specifically, large-mesh pelagic driftnets were clearly a serious problem as well as smaller-scale gillnet fisheries throughout Taiwan with a total annual cetacean bycatch in the thousands to tens of thousands per year for Taiwanese fisheries. His path for cetacean conservation in Taiwan was set.

In 2002, John was encouraged by a good friend and colleague to conduct exploratory surveys in the inshore waters along the heavily-industrialized and developed coast of western Taiwan. It was during these surveys that the endemic and highly restricted Taiwanese white (or humpback) dolphin subspecies was discovered. Given the status of the subspecies and the many threats it faced, John decided to put the driftnet bycatch issue on the backburner as urgent attention and focus on the Taiwanese humpback dolphin was the priority. For more information about the Taiwaianese humpback dolphins, threats and recovery actions please visit the IUCN Red List.

To this day, conservation of the Taiwanese humpback dolphin still occupies most of John’s attention. However, his expertise and decades of experience working with small cetaceans and local communities/fisheries has proven valuable to other ongoing bycatch reduction and other conservation efforts around the globe including finless porpoise bycatch in several areas in east Asia, underwater noise and cetaceans, Indo-Pacific humpback conservation in other parts of east Asia and river dolphins in Brazil.

Dr. Wang has made a career out of working on challenging conservation issues, many of which are ongoing – taking years or decades to affect change. We asked John why he does his work and what kept him motivated to continue his efforts all these years. His response spoke of a deeply seated belief that scientists have a duty to use their abilities to better the natural world.

“ Other living things have no “voices” (or votes) to choose not to be exploited and to be driven to extinction so we should lend them our voices. The voices of scientists are often “louder” and will be given more attention by others. Although the main responsibility of a scientist is to conduct solid, objective research to better our knowledge of the universe, being a scientist is a small subset of the responsibilities of being human. Humans have a much larger responsibility to not stay quiet and voiceless when we possess specialized/privileged knowledge of conservation issues (some of us may be the only people who know of some issues) and this responsibility supersedes those of being scientists. It is clear that there is no reason why scientists cannot advocate for conservation and environment issues while continuing to fulfill his/her role as a scientist and maintain a high level of credibility and scientific integrity.”

As far as what motivates him, it is about knowing he is doing what he believes is right.

“Working on conservation issues is difficult because there is often strong opposition, the chance of failure is high and rewards or accolades are few (if any). But it’s the right thing to do and being self-satisfied with doing the right thing is the strongest motivation.”

The Conservation Merit Prize includes travel to the award presentation at the Biennial Conference. Conservation Merit Prize nominees may be nominated at any time for the next upcoming Biennial Conference by any active SMM member and the SMM Conservation Committee selects award recipient(s) with the approval of the Board of Governors.

Webinar on Equity in Internships Recording Now Available

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Thank you to all who joined us for our first webinar on equity in internships, hosted by SMM and WDC. Special thanks to our panelists, who shared their perspectives as program leaders and former interns and to our audience for your excellent, thoughtful questions and participation. We look forward to hosting the next webinar in our Diversity and Inclusion Series in September.

Here is a recording of the webinar, in case you missed it, would like to rewatch or share.

Reminder to Vote for SMM’s Honorary Member Nominees by 2 September 2021

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Dear Members,

This is your reminder to vote for SMM’s Honorary Member nominees by 2 September 2021.

We are pleased to present two new nominees to become Honorary Members for you to vote on. An Honorary Member is a member recognized for distinguished service to the field of marine mammalogy, as recommended unanimously by the Board of Governors, and elected by two-thirds of the voting members. Honorary Members have all the privileges of full members but are exempt from dues.

Here is the link to the ballot: https://www.marinemammalscience.org/for-members/2021-members-ballot/

The ballot will close at 3:00 PM EST on 2 September 2021.

Best wishes,
Emer Rogan
Nominations and Elections Committee Chair