The SMM2017 Biennial Conference Committee was pleased to host Wood Award Winner, Julie Van Der Hoop along with Hal Whitehead, Nigel Hussey and Alexandros Karamanlidis as plenary speakers following the opening ceremonies at the 2017 Biennial Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Now they are available for viewing online!
The SMM2017 Biennial Conference Committee was pleased to host Asha de Vos and Scott Kraus as plenary speakers following the opening ceremonies at the 2017 Biennial Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Their talks are now available on the Society’s YouTube Channel and below:
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.
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.
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
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: http://www.smmconference.org/WorkshopDescriptions
Many thanks for considering this and we hope to see you at the Workshop.
Per Berggren & Jeremy Kiszka
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.
Please register via the conference website:
http://www.smmconference.org/WorkshopDescriptions
We hope you will join us,
Amy Sloan (NMFS), Mary Cogliano (FWS), and Tiffini Brookens (the Commission)
Dear colleagues
Just a reminder re the upcoming full day workshop entitled ” Developing Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) to improve decision-making during mass stranding events” at the upcoming 22nd Biennial Conference of the Marine Mammal Society. The workshop will take place on Sunday 29th October from 0800 to 1700h and assemble scientists, vets, NGOs, government agencies and other stakeholders whom have experience and/or vested interest in (mass) stranding events. The workshop will engage expert opinion on the different parameters that can affect the likelihood of survivorship of refloated individuals and work towards establishment of predicted probabilities that can affect the outcome of rescue attempts. The overarching goal will be to prepare a submission for publication that addresses the application of BBNs to assess probability of survivorship in refloated whales.
Background
Despite costly, and often logistically challenging attempts to rescue live whales, there is often a lack of scientific evaluation underpinning current decision-making processes. Notably, matters of conservation (survivorship/fitness) and animal welfare (impacts of refloatation), remain largely undetermined. Historically, animal welfare science and conservation have been regarded as separate disciplines, with dissimilar objectives that often conflict. However, the newly emerging field of conservation welfare integrates synergies between two scientific disciplines with the aim of improving outcomes for both the species (conservation) and individual animals (welfare). This workshop addresses the issue of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the form of Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN) to challenge the human perceptions and psychology associated with whale mass strandings, while incorporating scientific evaluation into decision-making processes. AI tools are becoming increasingly popular to address an array of complex environmental problems, but have yet to be applied effectively at the interface between science and public interaction. The overarching goal is to apply recent technological innovations to an age-old problem, in order to provide a vital nexus between conservation and animal welfare sciences.
Workshop Summary
Decision-making processes required by authorities during live stranding events are typically fraught with difficulties due to complicated, often interlinked variables, including but not limited to logistics, ethics, public perceptions and animal welfare. Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) are a graphical rule based modelling technique that have recently emerged as a useful research and management tool. BBNs can provide a visual depiction of the causal linkages between multiple environmental drivers and ecological state. Notably, in the absence of empirical data, BBNs can be constructed solely upon expert opinion, with subsequent independent assessment applied to assess the prediction accuracy of the model. This workshop aims to convene and engage individuals with relevant live stranding event experience to determine as a collective, key parameters and their predicted probability of influence on survivorship of refloated cetacea post-stranding event.
Registration for the workshop can be completed via the conference website (https://www.xcdsystem.com/smm/member/index.cfm)
We look forward to seeing you in Halifax!
Dear SMM members and conference attendees,
October is fast approaching, and with it comes our biennial conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia! We’re looking forward to learning about all of the amazing marine mammal research you’ve been conducting. Additionally, over 300 SMM student members will be presenting at the 2017 conference. However, the costs associated with conference transportation and accommodation are significant, especially on a student budget.
In an effort to raise additional student funds, conference organizers, Tonya and Hilary (Tonya and Hilary Plan Smm2017), as well as members of the conference organizing committee and the student affairs committee, will collectively run over 50 kilometers in the Halifax-based, pirate-themed Maritime Race Weekend on September 16, 2017.
If you are able, please help support the development of emerging SMM marine researchers by sponsoring our runners as they work to raise funds for travel grants for students presenting at the upcoming conference. Every donation helps!
Donate today at: www.gofundme.com/SMM-Students
Thank you!
-The SMM Student Affairs Committee
This is to announce a workshop entitled “Sanctuaries: A New Seascape for Captive Cetaceans” at the SMM Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on the morning of Saturday 28th October 2017.
We will present three ongoing projects creating permanent seaside sanctuaries for dolphins and whales retired from marine parks and aquariums.
Speakers: Naomi Rose, Lori Marino (Whale Sanctuary Project), John Racanelli (National Aquarium Dolphin Sanctuary) and Colleen Weiler (WDC/Sealife Trust Beluga Sanctuary.
More info is at: http://www.smmconference.org/WorkshopDescriptions
Lori Marino and Naomi Rose