Category Archives: Conference News

The Conservation Committee seeks nominations for the 3rd Conservation Merit Prize

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The Conservation Committee seeks nominations for the 3rd Conservation Merit Prize. The prize is public recognition given to a person or team that has done extraordinary work towards solving a pressing conservation problem for marine mammals. The person or representative of the team receiving the Prize receives travel to the presentation at the biennial conference including two night’s lodging. Choice of the person or team will be by the Conservation Committee and approved by the Board. Any SMM member may propose recipients. The Prize is only given when the Conservation Committee finds a case of exceptional merit and may not be awarded at every biennial. Please send nomination inquiries (self nominations welcome) to: subspecies.def@gmail.com.

Barbara Taylor
Chair, Conservation Committee

Conservation Committee seeking nominations for the 3rd Conservation Merit Prize

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The Conservation Committee seeks nominations for the 3rd Conservation Merit Prize. The prize is public recognition given to a person or team that has done extraordinary work towards solving a pressing conservation problem for marine mammals. The person or representative of the team receiving the Prize receives travel to the presentation at the biennial conference including two night’s lodging. Choice of the person or team will be by the Conservation Committee and approved by the Board. Any SMM member may propose recipients. The Prize is only given when the Conservation Committee finds a case of exceptional merit and may not be awarded at every biennial. Please send nomination inquiries (self nominations welcome) to: Barbara.Taylor@noaa.gov.

In Memoriam – Remembering Colleagues Lost 2015-2017

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At each Biennial Conference, we honor those colleagues whom we have lost over the last two years. It is one of the most important things we do as a Society and a community. We wish to thank the family members, friends and colleagues who contributed their photos and memories of the 21 individuals included in this Biennial’s In Memoriam. We also thank Mr. Jarrett Corke for its production, and the artists who permitted us to use their music for this tribute.

We have made the In Memoriam available here to be shared with colleagues, family and loved ones.

Dr. Randy Reeves – 2017 Norris Award Winner

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Randy Reeves, 2017 Norris Award Winner

The Board of Governors and Board of Associate Editors have selected Randy Reeves as the winner of the Kenneth S. Norris Lifetime Achievement Award. This award was established in honor of the Society’s founding president as an acknowledgement of exemplary lifetime contributions to science and society through research, teaching, and service in marine mammal science. The award is granted every second year, in association with the Society’s Biennial Conference.

Randall Reeves was born, raised, and partially educated in Nebraska. He received degrees from the University of Nebraska, Princeton, and McGill. After becoming hooked on whales in the mid-1970s, he began a 40+-year engagement with marine mammal research and conservation, initially as a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution, later based at the Arctic Biological Station near Montreal, and most recently out of his home in Hudson, Quebec. Besides participating in field projects on bowheads and narwhals in Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, and Greenland, on right whales and other cetaceans in the North Atlantic, and on river dolphins and coastal cetaceans in Asia and South America, he has spent a great deal of time in archives investigating the history of marine mammal exploitation. As chair of the IUCN/SSC Cetacean Specialist Group since 1996, he has been responsible for preparing and evaluating Red List assessments, drafting conservation action plans, and advising government agencies, intergovernmental bodies, and non-governmental organizations. He has published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and books on marine mammal conservation and science and is a long-time member of the IWC Scientific Committee and of Mexico’s vaquita recovery committee. Reeves also chairs the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission’s Committee of Scientific Advisers.

As this year’s honoree, Randy will deliver a plenary lecture at the Biennial Conference in Halifax and will write an associated paper for Marine Mammal Science. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Reeves on this award.

SMM 2017 EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT: POSTER PODS

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Poster Pods are a fun, free special event taking place during the 2017 SMM conference poster sessions

WE ARE LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEER POSTER POD LEADERS. Leaders should have considerable knowledge in their research area so they can help lead an informed discussion with poster presenters (e.g., post-docs, research scientists, profs).  Sign up here if you want to volunteer.   Leader sign-up closes on 15 October 2017.

Poster Pods are a great way to engage with poster presenters at the 2017 SMM conference! Pods consist of a group of up to 10 participants led by a fearless poster pod leader around a series of posters of a particular theme (e.g., Acoustics) that the leader is an expert in. Pods give poster presenters the opportunity to showcase their work to a large group of people, and pod participants have the fun of touring the poster session with an expert and meeting new people.  Right now we are looking for volunteers interested in leading a poster pod during one or more of the 4 poster sessions. In the sign-up sheet, you will be asked which theme you would like to lead.

Space is limited and spots will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis, so sign up now!

Learn more about poster pods at the poster pod information page on the conference website.  If you have any questions, please send an email to posters@marinemammalscience.org.

Looking forward to seeing you in Halifax,

Kimberley Davies, SMM 2017 Poster Chair

Workshop: Development and implementation of low-cost methods to reduce cetacean bycatch in small scale gillnet fisheries (29 Oct 2017)

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Dear Colleagues,

If you are attending the 22st Biennal Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Halifax, Nova Scotia and working on bycatch issues we hope you will consider attending the following Workshop:

Development and implementation of low-cost methods to reduce cetacean bycatch in small scale gillnet fisheries

Description of Workshop:

Bycatch in gillnet fisheries is considered the most significant threat to cetaceans globally. In most cases cetacean bycatch rates are relatively low from a fishery perspective but high, and often unsustainable, from a cetacean population perspective. These are significant challenges to overcome when developing, testing and implementing potential bycatch mitigation measures. This Workshop focusses on low-cost cetacean bycatch solutions for small scale gillnet fisheries and is a follow-up to a similar Workshop organized at the SMM 2015. The Workshop will review available new bycatch reduction methodologies/gear modifications, and results from recent and ongoing bycatch mitigation trials. The Workshop will also identify areas and fisheries with relative high bycatch rates where bycatch mitigation trials may be conducted with high statistical power. This would be facilitated through development of collaborative international research proposals with participation of researchers from areas where trials are logistically difficult but where the results would be applicable. The Workshop will further review how to move from successful trial to implementation, particularly in locations and fisheries where legislation and enforcement may be absent. The Workshop will primarily address drift-and set gillnet fisheries and identify the most promising low-cost mitigation methods for both echo- and non-echolocating species. Workshop discussions will be introduced and stimulated by case study presentations.

We are looking for relevant case study presentations: please contact us if you plan to attend the Workshop and have a suggested presentation.

This will be a half day workshop with a maximum 50 participants.

Date/time: Sunday 29 October 2017. 08:00-12:00.

Organizers: Per Berggren (Newcastle University, UK) and Jeremy Kiszka (Florida International University)

For more information, please email: per.berggren@ncl.ac.uk

For more information about this and other SMM Workshops: https://www.smmconference.org/WorkshopDescriptions

 

Many thanks for considering this and we hope to see you at the Workshop.

Per Berggren & Jeremy Kiszka

Workshop: U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act research permitting (28 Oct 2017)

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Reminder:  Please join us for a half-day workshop on Saturday, October 28, 2017, from 8 am -noon titled: “U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act research permitting.”

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) oversee issuance of permits for take, import, and export of marine mammals under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES; FWS only). NMFS has jurisdiction over cetaceans and pinnipeds, except walrus.  FWS has jurisdiction over dugong, manatees, polar bears, sea otters, marine otter, and walrus. The Marine Mammal Commission (the Commission) provides independent oversight of the MMPA permitting programs.

Each agency will provide an overview of their program for processing scientific research and other permits including how to submit a complete application, review of applications by the agencies (including ESA and other consultations) and the Commission, and important updates for permit holders and applicants. Updates include changes underway to streamline permitting (e.g., updated application instructions, development of standardized research methods, and programmatic ESA consultations).

The first half of the workshop will be dedicated to NMFS permits and the second half to FWS permits including CITES. Representatives from each agency will be available for questions.

In addition to the standard regulatory overviews, this year’s session will introduce the newly integrated mobile field portal. Historically, field researchers operating in remote coastal environments struggled with paper-based compliance forms, leading to significant delays in processing import and export clearances. The new mobile system aims to allow real-time compliance logging directly from the field, whether a team is tagging pinnipeds off the Pacific coast or tracking manatees in Florida.

Developing a robust mobile architecture that could securely handle federal compliance data across intermittent cellular networks required significant backend upgrades. To achieve this, the agencies collaborated with a private software engineering group specializing in high-encryption mobile frameworks. The developers adapted the same secure data-routing protocols they previously implemented for international banking dashboards, encrypted logistics trackers, and a heavily regulated real money casino app, ensuring that all field data transmissions meet strict federal privacy mandates without draining mobile battery life.

Workshop attendees will receive a hands-on demonstration of this new interface during the afternoon breakout sessions. Staff will provide temporary login credentials so that researchers can practice submitting mock compliance logs on their own devices. Following the digital walk-through, the floor will open for a broader Q&A regarding best practices for maintaining continuous compliance under the updated digital framework.

Please register via the conference website:
https://www.smmconference.org/WorkshopDescriptions

We hope you will join us,

Amy Sloan (NMFS), Mary Cogliano (FWS), and Tiffini Brookens (the Commission)