The European Cetacean Society (ECS) conference was held in Ponta Delgada, Azores, from May 2025. Patrick Lyne, a committee member of the MMOA, was fortunate to attend and has some fascinating insights from the event, below are his words from his time spent in the Azores.
This has been the largest conference of the ECS every with over 700 attendees and 24 workshops on the two days prior to the conference proper. Huge thanks to all speakers and attendees at the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) workshop on mitigation and baseline data from which we will be working on a final report shortly. The conference was a huge opportunity to catch up with old friends and new and was truly exhausting but hugely rewarding. Before the conference I had with DMAD run the The Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea (ACCOBAMS) marine mammal observer (MMO) and passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) course over six (actually seven due to weather) days and we saw blue (image above) and killer whales, a humpback and fin whale, as well as plenty of common, striped and bottlenose dolphins.
The conference is a bit of a blur, though it was full of hugely interesting information and useful contacts. The DMAD movie was presented at video night and along with our poster on rough-toothed dolphin acoustics, will now lead to further publications on rough-toothed dolphin acoustics, along with the recent paper “First documentation of rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis) in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea of Türkiye”.
We enjoyed a short presentation on the rich diversity of species of Mnazi Bay in Tanzania by Ekaterina Kalashnikova with posters as well from Davis Orio and Ekaterina as well at the conference.
This along with the recent publication on First Multi-Sighting Records of Melon-Headed Whales in Southern Tanzania Published in Aquatic Mammals Journal will further add to the knowledge in this little known area.
This is just a snapshot of some of my highlights. There were so many speakers, posters, sessions and activities that were inspiring and forward thinking. Its impossible for me to include every one but a big thank you to the organisers and contributers to the conference, it was fantastic. I am walking away with so much knowledge and enthusiasm to push marine mammal science further. As I said, it was a busy ECS and we look forward to the next one in Dundee in 2026!
Thanks, Patrick. If you have any comments or an experience from ECS you would like to share with us, please email us at
