In just over a week, from 9 to 13 December, the Society of Marine Mammalogy is holding its 20th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Dunedin, New Zealand. This biennial conference, held every two years, is a gathering of marine mammal scientists from all over the world.
This year’s theme is “Marine Mammal Conservation: Science making a Difference”, and so far over 1000 attendees from more than 30 countries have been registered, executing 357 talks and over 400 poster presentations. Besides these planned activities, two large panel discussions will be held on Human Killing Methods and Scientific studies of Captive and Free-living Killer Whales, with the goal to provide an overview of the scientific data available on these topics, and to offer an opportunity for experts to discuss these matters.
Additionally, a large variety of workshops will take place in the two days prior to the conference meetings, with many interesting topics as e.g. “Best practice principles for monitoring the effect of coastal development on marine mammals”, “Marine mammal tourism”, “Cognition and Self-awareness in cetaceans: a review of ethical implications for conservation laws”, etc.
For more information please check:
http://www.marinemammalscience.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=549&Itemid=65
The MMOA will be represented at this conference by two of its committee members, so check back in a couple of weeks for thier report on the conference!
