BEST PRACTICE CONCERNS FOR REVIEWERS

The ECS strongly believes that all marine mammal research should strive to minimise its impact on animals. Some studies are more intrusive or invasive than others. Any potential impacts should have been weighed against the likely conservation benefits. Therefore, the ECS expects that work reported in conferences uses best practices, adheres to relevant national legislation, and is conducted under permits and licenses where required. For more information about best practices, please read the Guideline for Treatment of Marine Mammals from the Society of Marine Mammalogy endorsed by the ECS Science Advisory Committee (SAC).

Authors submitting abstracts should declare that they have obtained all necessary licenses and permits for the work presented, ensuring full legal compliance with regulations.

After scoring, reviewers will be asked to flag abstracts for which they have concerns regarding the potential impact of the research on the studied marine mammals, so that the Science Advisory Committee (SAC) can make an evaluation. 

If reviewers have some concern regarding best practices, they will be asked to use the checklist below, ONLY IF they judge that the research activity has had a significant deleterious impact on either the welfare or the conservation of the involved individuals or populations, and if the potential risk induced outweighs the potential benefit of the research. 

  1. Invasive procedures, liable to result in direct mortality or involving penetrating the skin and potentially causing pain or leading to infections:
    1. Live capture and handling
    2. Biopsy collection
    3. Tagging
    4. Experimental emission of sounds at levels high enough to cause pain.
  2. Procedures liable to exclude individuals from their optimal habitats.
    1. Use of pingers and other deterrents
    2. Experimental emission of sounds at levels high enough to remove individuals from their usual areas of distribution.
  3. Procedures liable to cause undue stress or behavioural disruption, for example introducing noise (e.g., from vessels, drones, or acoustic equipment) or threat of vessel strike, that could interfere with marine mammal communication or navigation, or may disrupt feeding or social behaviour, including potential separation of calves/pups from mothers:
    1. Photo ID
    2. Marine mammal watching
    3. Sampling with drones
  4. Association with activities that have an impact on marine mammals but that are carried out independently of research and would continue whether or not the research is carried out.
    1. Whaling and hunting
    2. Fishing operations that involve marine mammal kills
    3. Oil exploration
    4. Marine mammal watching
    5. Captive facilities such as dolphinaria
  5. Other concerns not listed above.