This chapter was established in July 2011 and provides an opportunity for those studying marine mammals in Australia and New Zealand to share ideas, start discussions, and keep in touch with students from different labs and universities across the region.

The primary objective of the chapter is to organise biennial conferences that give participants the chance to present and discuss their research in a relaxed environment while networking with other marine mammalogy students and researchers.

The 6th meeting of the SMM Australia/New Zealand Student Chapter was held at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies in Hobart, Tasmania. In April 2023, we had 28 students come together for an exciting and much needed in-person event. The conference included a guest speaker and networking event and one in-depth workshop. The workshop was held in collaboration with the IMAS Marine Predator (MPred) lab with the theme: “The theory and practise of establishing linkages between marine predators and their prey in a changing ecosystem.”
The whole event was designed to showcase the scientific departments that are located in Tasmania, including local government agencies and science faculties. The guest speaker event achieved this by showcasing a diverse selection of researchers who all have studied marine mammals at some point in their careers.
The conference included plenty of social get-togethers and we also allocated time for all students to give a speed talk on their research. It was very special to have the opportunity to get together in person for this event. By much of the grateful praise to the committee, we all walked away inspired from learning about each other’s projects and cannot wait to progress further in the marine mammal space.

More info and detailed event recap can be found on our ANZSCSMM conference website.

We look forward to hopefully seeing some of these students at SMM Conference in Perth for 2024!

To join the chapter and receive information on chapter-related activities, please fill in this membership registration form and send it to anzscsmm@gmail.com.

We would like to extend membership to any interested students from the South Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia. While we realise that geographic separation will limit our ability to facilitate face-to-face meetings, we also recognise the need for every student and young professional to have accessible to them a forum for networking beyond their immediate academic/research location. As such, we would encourage students from these regions to apply for membership, join the Australian/New Zealand Student Chapter of the Society for Marine Mammalogy Facebook group and get involved with any and all of our research-related discussions!

The chapter is under the new and enthusiastic leadership of Grace Russell (Southern Cross University), Brodie Elsdon (Curtin University), Gabrielle Genty (Flinders University), Ciara Browne (Curtin University) and Sophia Volzke (University of Tasmania) from Australia, Courtney Ogilvy (University of Auckland) and Rebecca Boys (Massey University) from New Zealand.

For any questions regarding membership or chapter activities, please contact us at the chapter email noted above.

Professional sponsors:

We would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to our event sponsors for their generous contributions, without which we would have been unable to organise our recent conference. We thank them for their support!