News

In December 2015 the 21^st Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals was held in San Francisco, California. The conference was one of the largest in its 40-year history and saw over 2500 attendees from 80 countries and over 1000 presentations including talks, speed talks and over 500 posters.

Prior to the official start of the Conference two days of workshops were held including the MMOAs workshop on 'Incorporating new mitigation technologies into guidelines for seismic surveys and other underwater acoustic activities and producing performance standards', co-hosted once again with Dr. Andrew Wright from New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (with the support of Mel Cosentino from Wild Earth Foundation). This workshop followed on from the very successful workshop the MMOA and New Zealand’s DOC hosted at the 29th European Cetacean Society Conference in Malta in March 2015.

The workshop in San Francisco was attended by over 50 people representing government, industry, environmental consultants, non-profit and academia. Professional MMOs and PAM Operators were also present, including at least 7 members of the MMOA.

In October 2015 the final Proceedings of the ECS Workshop New Mitigation Methods and Evolving Acoustic Explosure Guidelines were published. The proceedings, edited by Andrew Wright of New Zealand's Deparment of Conservation and Frances Robertson, current MMOA Chair, provides a combination of abstracts and short papers by those presenting at the workshop in Malta. The proceedings end with a summary of the workshop's afternoon discussion session -this summary also includes a list of the key points raised by workshop participants.

The workshop participants and organizers concluded that performance standards are key to addressing current and developting mitigation methods. It is surprising that to date there has been little assessment of the effectiveness of commonly applied mitigation methods -namely MMO and PAM methods and there are no specific standards to which these traditional methods are held. This makes it incredibly difficult to assess the effectiveness of new mitigation technologies. The report highlights the resounding need for minimum standards in terms of qualifications and experience of MMOs and PAM Operators, thier equipment and mitigation/data collection protocols. For example better data collection and reporting protocols would allow regulators greater opportunities to assess the effectiveness of different PAM systems and settings, as well as the effectiveness of MMO-based mitigation compared to PAM-based mitigation.

The MMOA and the Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology (IMarEST) have been working together to develop a professional partnership in order to support the professional development of the MMOA and it's members. This partnership is being kick-started by an incredible offer to all MMOA members of complimentary membership to the IMarEST for one year. 

What does this partnership mean for the MMOA?

• Industry Recognition
• Professional Accreditations
• CPD (Career Professional Development) support and guidance
• Access to IMarEST publications and resources

What is professional development and how does it affect our industry? 

"Any activitiy that strengthens knowledge that can be applied to an occupational role is classed as CPD. The term encompasses attending conferences, professional workshops, short courses, internships and even volunteering opportunities. It is an opportunity not just to refresh skills, but to demonstrate dedication to a cause thorugh actions."

Working together with IMarEST we hope to promote recognition of our members who have a proved track record of professional developement and meet a high standard of commitment to thier field to the relevent sectors, including industry and agencies. THis is just one more step in improving Marine Mammal Mitigation standards and that of the personnel working in the field as MMOs and PAM operators. 

Working with the Santa Barbara -based CIMWI (Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute) and Whalefish, I have been assisting regularly with the stranding program of sea lion pups along the Californian coast.  As part of a joint statewide rescue and research team the findings to date indicate that a likely contributor to the large number of stranded, malnourished pups has been a change in the availability of sea lion prey, especially sardines, a high value food source for nursing mothers.  This year alone there have been over 2600 unusual mortality events for the whole coast and stranding network.  CIMWI on its own have rescued over 320+ animals this year, predominantly California sea lions. 

In this case, a collective investigation overseen by NOAA has determined that warmer ocean temperatures had forced fish to move further offshore, thereby forcing the sea lion mothers to swim further out and effectively abandon thier young.  This resulted in thousands of pups being left emaciated, dehydrated and confused.