KEYNOTE AND PLENARY SPEAKERS FOR SMM2024

Helene Marsh is a conservation biologist with approximately 50 years of experience in researching threatened species conservation, management, and policy, particularly focusing on tropical coastal and riverine marine mammals. Much of her work has centered on dugongs in Australia, where her group at James Cook University has conducted studies on their distribution and abundance, habitat use, life history, and movements. Her contributions have been acknowledged with an Order of Australia and Fellowships from the Australian Academies of Science and Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Royal Zoological Society, and the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as several prestigious international awards. Helene served as President of the Society from 2012 to 2014 and was the recipient of the Norris Award in 2019. She considers the supervision of over 60 PhDs who have made a difference worldwide as her most significant achievement.

Title:Culture and Conservation: Fishing for Change. Learnings from a global review of dugong status and trends

Authors: Helene Marsh^1,2,Luisa Schramm², and Philippa Loates^3
1College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia
²Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystems Research (TropWATER), Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia
³Convention of Migratory Species Office, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The dugong’s range spans the coastal waters of some 40subtropical and tropical Indo-West Pacific countriesacross ~135^olongitude and ~50^o latitude. These countries are culturally and socio-economically diverse and include some of the world’s richest and most highly developed countries (e.g., Singapore, Australia, Gulf Arab States) and some of the poorest and most war-torn (e.g., Somalia, Sudan, Yemen). The coastal human population density of dugong range states extends from 0-10 to >400 people per km², with associated variation in artisanal fisher numbers. Although the dugong is currently listed as Vulnerable globally, the IUCN has recently listed two subpopulations as Critically Endangered (East Africa; Nansei, Japan) and one subpopulation as Endangered (New Caledonia). Our recent global review has identified a further 10 subpopulations, including three transboundary subpopulations, as likely eligible for IUCN listing as Endangered or Critically Endangered, with some abundance estimates at <10 dugongs. Artisanal gillnetting has replaced hunting as the largest source of anthropogenic mortality. Small-scale fishing using nets and trawlers also damages the dugong’s seagrass habitats. Range states have implemented a variety of non-technological management interventions aimed at mitigating fishing impacts. These include legal protection; spatial closures; fishery restructuring; public education; capacity-building programs for key front-line government officers; alternative livelihoods for fishers; educational scholarships and school-fee subsidies for their children; cash rewards for releasing live dugongs, compensation for net damage caused by cutting dugongs from nets; and seagrass restoration, which generates local employment. The effectiveness of these interventions has rarely been evaluated and enforcement is typically weak. In numerous regions, dugong density is now so low that there is little community awareness of dugongs or support for dugong-specific interventions. In such cases, generic interventions to protect coastal megafauna and their habitats might be a more efficient and effective approach.   

Dr. Richard Connor attended UC Santa Cruz, where he was mentored by Ken Norris and Bob Trivers. Following his graduation, he co-founded Shark Bay dolphin research in 1982. Under the guidance of advisors Richard Alexander and Richard Wrangham, Connor earned his PhD from the University of Michigan in 1990, focusing on male dolphin alliances and the evolution of cooperation. Subsequent post-doctoral positions at Harvard, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, The Michigan Society of Fellows, and The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford) paved the way for a 24-year teaching career at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. During this time, Connor’s students conducted research on cetacean behavior in various locations. Presently, Connor holds the title of Professor Emeritus at UMASS-Dartmouth and serves as a Courtesy Professor at the Institute of Environment and the Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University. He has authored over 100 articles on the evolution of cetacean behavior and intelligence, dolphin alliances, cooperation, and mutualism. Additionally, he has written two popular books on dolphins and whales and co-edited “Cetacean Societies.” Connor attributes much of his success to the serendipitous discovery of Shark Bay (Gathaaguda, Malgana Sea Country), where he experienced some of the most thrilling moments of his life while observing unexpected dolphin behavior from his boat. He expresses gratitude to the Malgana people, the traditional owners of the region.

Title: The Shark Bay dolphin alliances and the future of cetacean behavioral ecology

Author:Richard Connor^1,2
1Biology Department, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA 02747
²Department of Biological Sciences and Institute of Environment, Florida International University, North Miami, FL 33181.

For over 40 years we have studied the remarkable society of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Turiops aduncus) in Shark Bay (Gathaagudu, Malgana Sea Country). Our most prominent discovery is the multi-level male alliance system that we have claimed is the most complex outside of humans. In this plenary, I will review the evidence and logic for this claim, as well as how our understanding of the alliances has changed over time and the important role that serendipity has played throughout. I will also review alliance ecology; individual foraging specializations are clearly important among females, but we now know that male alliances specialize in foraging habitat and there is even an alliance whose members use sponges to forage. Further, alliance behavior varies in a general fashion with habitat. Comparisons with other taxa, especially primates, informed our developing understanding of the Shark Bay society. However, along with studies of several other cetaceans, such as killer and sperm whales, the Shark Bay dolphins have broadened the paradigm space of mammalian social evolution, requiring novel theoretical approaches. I will briefly review a model of odontocete social evolution that, happily, can also explain the multi-level male alliances. The extraordinary social complexity we find is likely related to Shark Bay’s extensive seagrass beds. Those seagrass beds, and by extension the dolphin society, are under dire threat from climate change. Simultaneously, technological advances such as drones and hydrophone arrays have led us into a new golden age of cetacean behavioral ecology, but we are in a race against climate change to learn about cetacean societies and cultures before at least some vanish. To appreciate why the current focus on defining stocks and habitat requirements is misplaced, ask yourself a question: If we lose a population of dolphins, what will we know about what we have lost?

Rochelle Constantine is a Professor at the University of Auckland – Waipapa Taumata Rau. She collaborates widely with very smart people using multidisciplinary research approaches to answer questions about the ecology, conservation biology and community interactions of large marine animals. Her research is conducted between the tropics and Antarctica, and she leads international initiatives including the Southern Ocean Research Partnership – IWC Humpback Connectivity Project, the Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force, and the IUCN SSC. She is solutions focused and works closely with communities, industry, and government taking a pragmatic approach to solve conservation problems. She has accidentally worked on the endemic Māui and Hector’s dolphins for almost 30 years and is excited about how science has informed conservation action. Dogs are her favourite people.

Title: The Māui Dolphin: A Cautionary Tale of Inaction

Author: Rochelle Constantine^1
 1University of Auckland – Waipapa Taumata Rau, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand

The Māui dolphin, endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand, is the most endangered marine dolphin with ~ 50 individuals left aged 1+ years. Wide use of monofilament setnets in the ~1970s led to a rapid decline and substantial range contraction of this sub-species. Despite warnings about this threat from the ~mid-1980s emphasising the urgent need for action, critical delays through court proceedings and disagreements occurred due to a complex interplay of logistics, finance, politics, differences of opinion, and knowledge gaps. In 2008, a Marine Mammal Sanctuary was established, restricting setnet and trawl fisheries. The sanctuary reduced the high risk of bycatch, and further expansion of the sanctuary boundaries in 2020 increased protection. In recent years, extralimital ranging by a few Hector’s dolphins from the South Island has been detected, however, the possibility of a ‘genetic rescue’ by Hector’s dolphins breeding with Māui has not yet been recorded. Genetic tools are the primary research method as only ~15% of Māui dolphins have unique markings, making photo-identification less effective. Small tissue samples have enabled genetic-ID mark-recapture, and innovations have facilitated multiple new approaches, including epigenetic aging, stable isotopes revealing diet plasticity, ddRAD sequencing to determine pedigree, and whole genome analysis, forwarding our understanding of Māui dolphin biology. Recent necropsies have confirmed multiple natural causes of death, with the leading anthropogenic cause of death being the cat-borne disease Toxoplasmosis. This disease poses new challenges and highlights how terrestrial ecosystem mismanagement can impact fragile marine species. Misleading information around current bycatch threats to Māui dolphins can cause difficulties with progressing broader conservation action. The work on Māui dolphins is a cautionary tale about taking sides, ignoring science and how hard it is for a species to recover when we spend too long doing nothing.

Dr. Ellen C. Garland holds the position of Royal Society University Research Fellow at the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) at The University of St. Andrews. Ellen earned her Ph.D. in Bioacoustics from the University of Queensland, Australia, in 2011, focusing on the cultural transmission of humpback whale song across the South Pacific. Following her doctoral studies, she embarked on a three-year National Academy of Sciences (NRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Marine Mammal Lab at NOAA (Seattle, USA), where she investigated the geographic variation in Alaskan beluga whale vocal repertoires. In 2015, Ellen joined The University of St Andrews as a Royal Society Newton International Fellow, exploring culture in whales. Subsequently, in 2017, she attained a Royal Society University Research Fellowship to delve into the cultural transmission, vocal learning, and function of humpback whale song.

Ellen’s research interests span animal culture, social learning, bioacoustics, and behavioral ecology. She also delves into vocal sequence analysis techniques and employs vocal display similarities to delineate population structures for conservation management. Notably, Ellen has contributed to the UN Environment Programme CMS Animal Culture and Social Complexity Working Group, advocating for the integration of animal culture into international policy.

Title: Culture in whales: transmission of a complex display.

Author: Ellen Garland^1
1Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and Sea Mammal Research Unit, School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 8LB, U.K.

Animal culture and social learning have been controversial topics despite growing evidence of their existence in primates, cetaceans, and birds. Cetaceans show some of the most sophisticated and complex vocal and cultural behaviour we know outside of humans, including learning, shared traditions, and gene-culture coevolution. Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) songs are one of the most outstanding examples of transmission of a cultural trait and social learning in any non-human animal. Male humpback whales sing a long, stereotyped, vocally learnt, and culturally transmitted song display. At any point in time, most males within a population will sing the same version (arrangement and content) of this complex sexual display. However, the song is continually evolving, and males must constantly learn and incorporate these changes into their own song to maintain cultural conformity. In addition to evolutionary change, song also undergoes striking ‘revolutions’, where a novel song introduced from a neighbouring population rapidly and completely replaces the existing song. Multiple humpback whale song revolutions have spread across the South Pacific region from the east coast of Australia to French Polynesia, and on to Ecuador, with a one-to-two-year delay. This has occurred regularly, rapidly, and repeatedly across the region; the level and rate of change is unparalleled in the animal kingdom. Humpback whales are thus excellent models for studying social learning, however, we still have a limited understanding of the underlying mechanisms driving this cultural phenomenon and how these interact with sexual selection. Using empirical data, I will present our current understanding of the mechanisms involved in the song learning process, how these processes may be disrupted, and, finally, the evolutionary implications for this cultural phenomenon.

Mauricio is a behavioural ecologist interested in understanding the dynamics of social, cultural, and ecological systems. Mauricio obtained a BSc in Biological Sciences and an MSc in Ecology in Brazil, modelling the population and social dynamics of endemic dolphins, and a PhD in Biology in Canada, researching the causes and consequences of sperm whale cultural clans off the Galápagos Islands. After a series of postdoctoral appointments in Brazil, Germany, and Switzerland, he is now an Assistant Professor at the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Sciences, and the Marine Mammal Institute, both at Oregon State University, USA. There, he leads a research group dedicated to the intersection of animal behavioural ecology and human dimensions. Their mission is to conduct theory-driven and empirically grounded research with tangible implications for human welfare and the conservation of wildlife, as well as the environment they share. They focus on marine mammals and humans because of their remarkable behavioural diversities, learning capabilities, and social complexities—not to mention the exciting fieldwork challenges that come with studying them.

Title: Safeguarding Cultural Human-Dolphin Cooperative Fishing

Author: Mauricio Cantor^1
 1Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Sciences; Marine Mammal Institute; Oregon State University. 2030 SE Marine Science Drive, Newport OR, 97365, USA.

Our ability as humans to interact with nature has been key to our global ecological success, as well as a global ecological crisis. Many human-wildlife conflicts emerge from this crisis, yet there remain a few cultural practices wherein both humans and wild animals combine complementary skills for their mutual benefit. However, little is known about the function and stability of such cooperation, and cases are going extinct before we can comprehend their ecological and cultural significance. In this talk, we will discuss the behavioral mechanisms, population consequences, and conservation challenges of cultural practices involving artisanal net-casting fishers and wild dolphins. With a focus on human-dolphin cooperation in southern Brazil, we will first combine fine-scale behavioral sampling with long-term demographic surveys to reveal foraging synchrony as a key driver of the short- and long-term benefits reaped by dolphins and humans, in terms of increased fishing success, strong social connections, and higher survival probability. Second, we combine these empirical insights with numerical models to investigate the conditions under which this cultural fishery can persist under scenarios of declining prey availability and changing fishing practices. Finally, we will discuss the ongoing global collaborative effort investigating the last few centuries-old human-dolphin fisheries (in Brazil, India, Myanmar), with the hope of safeguarding the rare human-wildlife cooperation from turning into yet one more human–wildlife conflict.

Pádraig Duignan (he/him) serves as the Director of Pathology at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California. Additionally, he holds adjunct faculty positions at the University of Calgary, Canada, and UC Davis, California. Pádraig earned his B.Sc. (Zoology), M.Sc. (Immunology), and DVM degrees from University College Dublin, Ireland, and completed anatomic pathology residencies at the Ontario Veterinary College, Canada, and UC Davis. Under the guidance of Dr. Joe Geraci, his Ph.D. focused on the epidemiology of morbillivirus infection in marine mammals of the western North Atlantic and Canadian Arctic.

With over 35 years of experience, primarily concentrated on marine mammal health, Pádraig has held faculty positions at Massey University, New Zealand, the University of Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Calgary. He has contributed over 140 papers and 15 book chapters to the field. Pádraig has been an active member of the SMM since graduate school (Chicago, 1991) and was honored with the prize for the best doctoral oral presentation in Orlando (11th Biennial, 1995).

In his current capacity at TMMC, Pádraig is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of marine mammal pathologists globally and investigating emerging diseases and threats to marine mammals in our rapidly changing world.

Title: How long have I got, Doc? Marine Mammal Health in the Anthropocene.

 Author:  Pádraig Duignan^1
1The Marine Mammal Center, Sausalito, California 94965, USA.

By the dawn of the 21^stCentury, the global impact of human activities on marine mammal populations was already profound, ranging from extirpation of some species to significant decline in many others. Direct hunting, habitat degradation, resource competition, commercial fisheries and pollution have all had direct measurable population impacts. In recent decades, however, a growing body of evidence has implicated climate change as a negative influence on the environment, plants, animals, and us (One Health). Focusing the stethoscope on marine mammal health and that of their environment, there are several mechanisms by which climate change may manifest. Firstly, the emergence of novel diseases and disease presentations or the evolution of host-pathogen relationships that favors the pathogen; (2) Geographic expansion of pathogen range (pathogen spillover with climate driven host range shifts, warming water favoring tropical or temperate pathogens etc.); (3) Decline in body condition, reproductive indices, and health because of a shift in prey distribution or in the quality of prey available (e.g. gray whales in the N. Pacific); (4) Disturbance and stress because of anthropogenic activity in habitats previously inaccessible (e.g. Polar shipping, resource extraction, commercial fishing, and tourism in the Arctic); (6) Degradation of coastal habitat because of the severity and/or frequency of high category storms (e.g. loss of monk seal breeding habitat in Hawaii, freshwater incursion into estuaries and coastal lagoons an emerging threat to coastal odontocetes). However, from measurable change to confirmed impact is not always linear. Biological systems are complex requiring long-term research and surveillance programs to identify the linkage between climate and health indices. While effects of climate change may seem insurmountable on a global scale, we, the authors of the Anthropocene, are not without agency. By adoption of a One Health theory of change framework, we can identify specific problems and devise a set of measurable actions to ultimately create the pathways of change leading to the desired outcomes of healthy marine mammals in a sustainable ocean. 

Professor Karen Stockin serves as the Research Lead for the Cetacean Ecology Research Group at Massey University, New Zealand. She currently holds the prestigious position of Royal Society Te Apārangi Rutherford Discovery Fellow from 2019 to 2024 and serves as the Ethics Chair for the Society for Marine Mammalogy. Additionally, Karen is an Associate Investigator of the Animal Welfare Science and Bioethics Centre in New Zealand.

Previously, Karen held the role of inaugural Strandings Coordinator (2018-2020) for the International Whaling Commission and continues to contribute as a panellist for the IWC Strandings Initiative. Her research interests primarily revolve around human impacts on individuals and populations, bridging animal welfare science, ethology, veterinary pathology, and ecology.

In collaboration with local iwi and hapū (Indigenous New Zealanders), Karen and her team are currently investigating various research themes. These include exploring animal welfare implications associated with stranding events and examining the effects of legacy and emerging environmental contaminants on the health, disease, and life history of cetaceans.

Title: Cetacean Welfare – Past, Present and Future

Authors: K.A. Stockin^1,2, Clegg I.L.K.³, Nunny L.^4,5, Simmonds M.P.^5,6, Brakes, P.B.^7,8, Stewart R.O.⁹and Boys R.M¹.
¹Cetacean Ecology Research Group, School of Natural Science, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
²Animal Welfare Bioethics Centre, School of Veterinary Science, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
³Animal Welfare Expertise, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
⁴Wild Animal Welfare, La Garriga, Barcelona, Spain
⁵OceanCare, Wädenswil, Switzerland
⁶School of Veterinary Science, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
⁷Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Bath, United Kingdom
⁸Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom
⁹Te Kauika Tangaroa Charitable Trust, Ohau, New Zealand

In animal welfare science, it is recognised that mental experiences are the result of cumulative physical states and/or conditions which impact upon how an animal experiences its own life. Therefore, a physical state or external condition must impact upon the overall subjective mental state of the animal to have induced a welfare impact. Animal welfare is defined as the balance of positive and negative affective states. Conservation efforts targeted at sentient wild populations acknowledge the need to be inclusive of animal welfare, and that the welfare state of individuals can inform conservation management of populations. Indeed, within both the US Marine Mammal Protection Act (1972) and New Zealand Marine Mammal Protection Act (1978), disturbance and harm are defined at the individual level (welfare), even though the aim of management is to prevent population impacts (conservation). While the potential benefits of integrating welfare science, including individual health studies, into conservation management efforts grow in recognition, many scientists remain uncomfortable with discussions of welfare, including in terms of an individual’s subjective experience. Nonetheless, free-ranging cetaceans face an increasing number of changes to their environment, the vast majority of which are anthropogenic threats which may elicit risks to individuals, populations and species. The Society for Marine Mammalogy has formally adopted a code of professional ethics comprising a list of 17 guiding principles, two of which deal explicitly with animal welfare. Here we present an overview of animal and conservation welfare in the context of our field and outline what recent developments have occurred, especially in the context of cetaceans. We further discuss what future discourse and development is required for conservation initiatives to stand the greatest chance of success.

Nick Gales is well known to the international marine mammal community, having spent much of his career as a marine mammal scientist and having served as a past President to the Society for Marine Mammalogy. He is a global leader in marine and polar environmental science, policy, and management. Among his many career highlights, Nick has led Australia’s Antarctic Program and been Australia’s Chief Antarctic Scientist. He is currently Vice-Chair of the International Whaling Commission, as well as serving as Australia’s IWC Commissioner. He is also Chair of the Australian Antarctic Science Council. Nick and his wife, Taff, live on Bruny Island in Tasmania where surfing, ocean swimming and bushwalking opportunities abound!

Title: Are the whaling wars really over? Science, culture, politics, and diplomacy in an evolving International Whaling Commission

 Author: Nick Gales^1
1Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia

The iconic battle over commercial whaling has been at the vanguard of the modern conservation movement. The International Whaling Commission’s (IWC) fifty-year-old moratorium on commercial whaling is a rare conservation success story, but tensions over a resumption of commercial whaling persist. The so called ‘whale wars’ over the use of science to justify whaling programs in the North Pacific and Southern Ocean were played out in the form of dangerous clashes on the high seas, intense debate at the IWC, very high-level political interventions and, ultimately, in the International Court of Justice. Japan’s decision to withdraw from the whaling Convention in 2019 has changed the nature and extent of the debate about what place commercial whaling has in contemporary fisheries and ocean governance. In this talk, I will highlight the central role science has played in whaling diplomacy over the past decades, and how science must, as always, find its place among cultural, economic, and political priorities. The complex and nascent state of ecosystem modelling must attempt to inform our understanding of the role whales play in healthy and viable marine ecosystems as well as address the pressing challenges of food security in a world with a rapidly changing climate and growing human populations. The 88 Parties to the IWC must ensure than a convention written almost 80 years ago to regulate an insatiable whaling industry can evolve to address the myriad of new, pressing issues that threaten the world’s great whales. As economics and ecological change continue to constrain the viability of any future high-seas commercial whaling enterprise, the challenge within the IWC is to ensure that its expanding conservation agenda is not challenged on the basis of the past and, increasingly, ill-fitting paradigm of a ‘whale war’ between those who support commercial whaling and those who oppose it.

Dr. Barbara Taylor has been researching marine mammals for over 40 years. She led the marine mammal genetics group at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California for 15 years and is now retired from federal service but remains an independent scientist. She specializes in working to assess risk of extinction. She was Chief Scientist together with Dr. Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho on all vaquita surveys. She chaired the Conservation Committee of the Society for Marine Mammalogy and serves as the Listing Authority for the Cetacean Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). She co-chaired a workshop on Ex-Situ Options for Cetacean Conservation in 2018 and chaired a 2019 workshop to develop a One Plan Approach for Yangtze finless porpoise. She was awarded the Society for Conservation Biology’s LaRoe award for her outstanding career achievements in translating conservation science into real-world conservation efforts, the American Cetacean Societies lifetime achievement award, and was recently awarded honorary membership in the Society for Marine Mammalogy.

Title: Changing human behavior: Cases from around the globe reveal the need to expand conservation expertise

Authors: Taylor, Barbara L.; Reeves, Randall R.; Minton, Gianna; Braulik, Gill; Abel, Grant; Rojas-Bracho, Lorenzo; Wang, Ding; Fruet, Pedro; von Fersen, Lorenzo.

From vaquitas to North Atlantic right whales, anthropogenic impacts globally are causing more cetacean species to be at increasing risk of extirpation and extinction. Changing the behavior of humans is the key to conservation of these species, but change is too little and at risk of being too late. A recent analysis of IUCN Red List cetacean assessments indicated the number of threatened species has been increasing. The most threatened of these species live in proximity to human activity and nearly all are threatened by fishing activities. The IUCN’s One Plan Approach (OPA) promotes an integrated conservation planning process. It brings to the table a wide range of stakeholders implicated in conservation efforts, including representatives of communities that share resources with threatened marine mammal populations and can both play a role in, but also be affected by, conservation actions. We consider several case studies that have taken different approaches to dealing with the human dimension in conservation of threatened cetaceans: vaquitas, Yangtze finless porpoises, Atlantic humpback dolphins, Lahille’s bottlenose dolphins, and North Atlantic right whales. A recent meeting on the human dimension of small cetacean conservation highlighted the need for greater consistency in the application of the full range of available tools and expertise. While strategies may need to be tailored to each specific situation, they should consistently include actions aimed at changing human behaviour, which will require us to ensure that we include experts in sociology, psychology and economics when developing the full suite of components needed in an effective conservation “toolbox”. Furthermore, long-term and sustainable conservation action can only be achieved through investment in capacity building for scientists, managers, local communities and all other stakeholders implicated in research and management of threatened populations, many of which occur in countries where resources are limited.

Mark Hindell is emeritus professor at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania and has been working with Antarctic mammals and birds for 40 years. During that time, Mark has made more than 25 research trips to the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic, supervised 50 PhD students, and worked with numerous international scientific programs, including being the founding chair of the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) Expert Group on Birds and Mammals. Drawing on a range of biological disciplines (including biotelemetry, physiology, genetics, and demography), his studies are united by the common theme of understanding how predator populations respond to environmental variability, and how this knowledge can then be used to investigate the implications of human activities (in the form of commercial fisheries or climate change) for Southern Ocean birds and mammals.

Title:Conservation and Management of Marine Mammals: Lessons from the Southern Ocean.

Author: Mark A. Hindell^1
1Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania

Despite its remote location, the Southern Ocean has several conservation and management challenges, some uniquely Antarctic and some that it shares with others of the world’s oceans. This isolation, along with pronounced seasonality and extensive sea-ice, exacerbate the usual problems associated with studying marine mammals. Drawing on 40 years of research in the Southern Ocean, this talk is a personal account of how these challenges have been met in the past, with suggestions for the future. An important aspect of Southern Ocean research has been the focus on ecosystem studies, which reflects the nature of the major problems facing the Southern Ocean, such as harvesting of low trophic level, keystone species and detecting and predicting the effects of changing climate on ecosystem processes. Despite being a fundamental cornerstone for conservation and management, long term monitoring, such as the 60 years of census data for elephant seals at Macquarie Island, is often difficult to establish and maintain in the Antarctic. Southern Ocean biologists have therefore been early adopters of innovative technologies to fill important knowledge gaps (one of the first satellite tags deployed on a marine mammal was on an elephant seal). More recently, miniaturised temperature/conductivity tags, developed to provide scale-appropriate habitat data on Antarctic seals, now provide more than 70% of all CTD data collected south of -60 degrees used by physical oceanographers. Such interdisciplinary studies involving multiple national programs will be essential for bridging other knowledge gaps. For example, the Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) combined tracking data from 15 species to identify Areas of Ecological Significance to inform spatial management planning in the Southern Ocean. Basic ecological studies combined with oceanographic and climate research therefore still has a crucial role to play in developing future management directions in the region.