ECS News

News articles concerning the society are frequently added to this page so please check back regularly to stay up to date. If you have an article that you would like to submit please contact a member of the ECS Council. Your contributions are appreciated!

ECS2012 Galway - Early Registration FRIDAY 27 JAN [Article added on 05.01.12 @ 07:53] The early registration deadline is Friday 27 Jan, members must have registered by then to avail of the reduced rate. After this date the full rate will apply. TOP

New Workshops at ECS2012 [Article added on 22.12.11 @ 08:09] There are eight workshops available during ECS2012 Galway. These range from aerial surveys to tagging and biopsy sampling, whalewatching to live stranding, Risso's dolphins to Killer whales. Check out www.iwdg.ie/ecs to find ones for your interest. All workshops are on during the weekend 24-25 March 2012. TOP

ECS Conservation Award 2012 [Article added on 03.11.11 @ 00:53] The award is for an outstanding contribution to the field of marine mammal conservation and/or welfare, with particular emphasis on contributions to environmental education and/or to conservation in practice (e.g. leading to improved legislation or management). The award will be judged on the basis of a proposal made using the format given below and related material as described. It will be decided upon by consensus, or a majority vote of the ECS Conservation Award Committee. The winner of the award will be announced during the ECS Conference. Self-nominations are discouraged. The Committee reserves the right not to present the award if no appropriate nominations are received. The ECS Award Committee comprises: Ayaka Oztürk (Chair) Simon Berrow Thierry Jauniaux Mandy McMath Aviad Scheinin Mark Simmonds Pro-forma: Name(s) of person(s)/institution/body nominated for award Address and contact details Description of the work/body of work proposed for the award (maximum length of proposal 250 words) NB The award can be given for a single conservation-education tool (such as a book or for an entire body of work - i.e. a series of linked contributions) in the sphere of education relating to marine mammal conservation and or welfare. Full references for the material identified above and any relevant web-links. Name of nominator(s) Address and contact details This form, and any supporting material if deemed necessary, should be sent to the Chair of the Award Committee by 17 February 2012. Dr. Ayaka Ozturk, ECS Conservation Award Chair Email: mmonachus@ttmail.com TOP

26th European Cetacean Society Conference, Galway, Ireland [Article added on 03.09.11 @ 04:42] First announcement of the 26th European Cetacean Society Conference, which will be held in Galway, Ireland from 26-28 March 2012; hosted by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group and the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT). The conference will be held at the Galway Bay Hotel (www.galwaybayhotel.com) and workshops held over the weekend 24-25 March at GMIT (www.gmit.ie). The theme of the conference is Communication: information and ideas worth sharing. We hope to explore communication across and between marine mammals, scientists, policy-makers and the public. The conference will be wrapped up in music, dancing, stories and chat. A chance to exchange ideas and experiences and meet old and new friends alike, because after all that is what conferences should be about ! We look forward to seeing you in Galway. Website details to follow. Abstract deadline mid-November. Conference email ECS2012@gmit.ie or follow us on twitter @ECS2012Galway. TOP

Krzysztof Skóra wins first ECS Conservation Award [Article added on 27.03.11 @ 12:38] Krzysztof Skóra is the winner of the first ECS Conservation Award in recognition of his outstanding commitment to trying to save the Baltic Sea Harbour Porpoise. Krzysztof has not only used his considerable scientific reputation to try and address conservation issues in the Baltic but has used public campaigns, media and even the market economy to try and achieve his objectives. ECS Conservation Award After the last ECS conference in Stralsund, Germany a number of ECS Members approached the Council with the idea of establishing an award to recognize those groups or individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the field of marine mammal conservation and/or welfare, with particular emphasis on contributions to environmental education and/or to conservation in practice, for example leading to improved legislation or management. A Committee was formed including Council members and ECS Members. Funding for this award has been made available from members and we have enough to secure this award for the next four years. The award includes 1000 euro and an engraved crystal but more importantly it is a small recognition from there appreciative colleagues. We invited nominees from the Membership and five were received. Two were of individuals and three were groups. The ECS Conservation Award Committee has decided to award the first ECS Conservation Award to Krzysztof Skóra . About Krzysztof Skóra Krzysztof is now Prof of Oceanography, at the University of Gdansk, but his work started long before that. As a boy he had a great interest in fish and as a student he was active in campaigning to 'STOP POLLUTING THE BALTIC.' We are only now assembling the scientific understanding of how right he was in that cause. In 1977 he founded Hel Marine Lab, and worked hard at the huge task of rotating the whole of Poland to face and appreciate its sea, instead of facing away from it. In 1986 he took on porpoises, even though they were not fish, and the last one he saw alive in the Baltic was more than 12 years before. He was encouraged in this by Iwona Pawliczka and they published the first ever summary paper on Polish Baltic Harbour Porpoises in 1988 with Margaret Klinowska. In 1992 his work extended to the plight of the grey seal and the task of securing its restoration to the southern Baltic, and in 1997 the station at Hel was equipped with its first pool for seals. Poster B5 describes the results of a decade of seal releases. He has worked with Ministry of the Environment, and fisheries. He has worked hard towards the restoration of the sturgeon, and other native fish populations, to the polish part of the Baltic. He has always had an infectious enthusiasm for the causes he has supported. We don't know where it came from. Some believe it may have something to do with the fact that he ate a large part of a zoological atlas before he could walk. But we can be sure that he has contributed hugely to the conservation of the Baltic and its mammals, and we all hope he, and we, will see the Balitc porpoise recovering as strongly as the Baltic grey seals. Dr. Simon Berrow, Chair of the ECS Conservation Award TOP

ECS publications [Article added on 12.11.10 @ 06:55] The 2010 "marine mammals" special issue of JMBA is now available online here. Information on how ECS members can access full articles will follow shortly! The 2009 ECS Conference Proceedings have now been completed and the pdf will be posted online as soon as possible. TOP

ECS publications 2009 [Article added on 25.04.09 @ 17:53] Here is a brief reminder about this year’s ECS publications and the submission deadlines: Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK: special marine mammal issues The publishers provide free access to these special issues for ECS members. Three cetacean papers were published in the February 2009 JMBA issue. The full “special issue” from the 2008 conference should appear in July 2009. Other marine mammal papers still in the system should appear later in 2009. There will be a 2010 special issue: contributions of research papers and reviews are now invited, based on talks and posters presented at ECS 2009, or on other marine mammal research, with a deadline of 30 June 2009. European Research on Cetaceans / Conference Proceedings After a few years of issuing Conference Proceedings on CDs we are moving to a pdf-based format. The pdfs will follow the format of the earlier hard copy issues of ERC. We also aim to convert all the previous paper and CD Proceedings to pdf format and make them available online to ECS members. Please send all contributions (see attached instructions) by the deadline of 31 May 2009. Workshop Proceedings (i.e. Newsletters / Special Publications) ECS continues to issue these publications in hard copy format but aims to move to pdf format by 2010. All past newsletters will be reissued in pdf format. Workshop organisers from the 2009 conference are invited to submit reports for publication as Special Publications (see attached instructions). Delivery dates are flexible but should be agreed with the Publications Editor. Information about the format for proceedings contributions can be obtained from g.j.pierce@abdn.ac.uk. Instructions for authors for JMBA should be downloaded from the JMBA website. TOP

ECS RESOLUTION ON THE NEED TO REGULATE SONAR MITIGATION [Article added on 11.03.09 @ 10:21] ECS RESOLUTION ON THE NEED TO REGULATE SONAR MITIGATION Adopted in Istanbul, Turkey on 4th March 2009 There is sufficient evidence that active sonar exposure even at relatively low levels can have significant impacts on some cetacean species. Beaked whales in particular are vulnerable to serious impacts including mortality from exposure to mid-frequency active sonar (1-10 kHz). Here we reaffirm the ECS 2003 Statement of Concern on Marine Mammals and Sound. The development of knowledge since this ECS 2003 resolution was adopted underscores the need for urgent action on sonar mitigation. Current mitigation efforts are generally untested and insufficient for beaked whales. Recently available data includes further evidence on the causal link between sonar and beaked whale mass-strandings. This includes spatio-temporal coincidence between naval exercises and mortalities and a consistent pathology on necropsied whales, pointing to an acoustic source as primary cause of death/stranding. In addition, abundance estimations of local populations of beaked whales indicate that populations are small and that the reproductive rate of some beaked whales may be low. Small, sometimes isolated, populations with reduced recruitment rate are vulnerable to human impacts as they may have a limited capability to recover after trauma. This means that there is the potential for unsustainable impacts on beaked whales to occur in relatively short time periods. The advances in our understanding of behavioural reactions of beaked whales to sonar indicate that required mitigation ranges are larger than practical mitigation ranges in many cases. In consequence, regulation of standardised mitigation protocols, including practical measures recently available, becomes a priority. Mitigation should be applied by all countries using military sonar in the three stages of sonar exercises: before (the planning phase), during and after sonar use. As sonar may have transboundary effects, mitigation procedures need regulatory support at both international and national levels. Thus, the European Cetacean Society requests competent authorities to urgently adopt and enforce regulations for effective mitigation. The Workshop organisers propose to set up a small Working Group of relevant experts to produce a technical document providing practical effective techniques to apply mitigation in order to reduce impact of active sonar on cetaceans. TOP

The new ECS website is here! [Article added on 22.10.08 @ 13:39] After a few delays we are proud to present the new ECS website. There are several new online features which are all accessible once a website profile has been created. So please feel free to browse around and please contact the ECS webmaster should you find an error/bug. We hope you enjoy the new site! TOP