20th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals
Nienke van Geel
SAMS
20th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Dunedin, New Zealand
I sincerely would like to thank the Challenger Society for granting me a Travel Award which allowed me to attend the 20th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals held in Dunedin, New Zealand in December 2013.
At the conference, I presented a poster on the potential to investigate bottlenose dolphin movements using an array of passive acoustic monitoring equipment when dolphins are moving through geographic bottlenecks, as exemplified by a case study in the Sound of Mull (west Scotland).
Additionally, I attended four workshops, most of which were related to marine mammal conservation: 1) best practice principles for monitoring the effect of coastal development on marine mammals, 2) impacts of cetacean tagging: a review of follow up studies and approaches, 3) species distribution modelling with MGET, and 4) the student workshop, addressing CV writing, grant writing and writing papers.
In addition to being able to present my work, attending this conference also provided the opportunity to get feedback from other researchers, which will contribute to improve the final stage of my PhD. Also, the increased insight into latest research, both within and beyond my particular research direction, through other presentations and posters, was useful to place my research into the wider, most up to date research context. Finally, attending the conference was a great opportunity to network, to discuss current data gaps and future research challenges and to think about future interdisciplinary research collaborations.
I thoroughly enjoyed the conference itself, and the various additional experiences including a Maui welcome, the masquerade party, and seeing some sun in the middle of winter!
Nienke van Geel
Scottish Association for Marine Science
Oban, Scotland
Latest News
NOC Association (NOCA) AGM 2025
The 14th AGM of the NOC Association will be held on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th May 2025. This free, on-line event will take place on Zoom, across two consecutive mornings, each starting at 10:00 and ending at 12:30. The agenda will focus on national capability (NC) science, ships, and autonomous vehicles, and how the community can engage. There will be an update on AtlantiS and on the new marine science scoping group. All are warmly welcome to join.
To participate, please complete your registration here.
For enquiries: Jackie Pearson, Secretary to NOCA: jfpea@noc.ac.uk
Townhall on UK Arctic Ocean contribution to International Polar Year 32/33
The Arctic is one of the most rapidly-changing regions on our planet, with impacts on global sea-level rise, changes to our climate and weather patterns, and threats to our shared biodiversity and ecosystem services. With the international community rapidly mobilising towards the International Polar Year 32/33, and with new international programmes and initiatives now being shaped, it is timely for the UK Ocean Science community to come together and articulate what its unique offerings could be to Arctic research and technology.
This hybrid 2-day meeting, to be held at NOC Southampton, is intended to start this process. Recognising the Arctic Oceans role in global Earth and Human systems, anticipated outcomes include a high-level shaping of what the UK Arctic Ocean community would like to achieve over the course of the IPY, stimulation of new collaborations and proposals for grand Arctic challenges and a baseline from which wider integration with terrestrial, atmospheric and cryosphere communities, both in the UK and overseas, can be built. Discussions will continue in diverse forums, including the UK Arctic Science Meeting in September and at Challenger 2026.
This action is supported by the UK Arctic Office and UK Arctic and Antarctic Partnership
Further details and meeting registration link will be circulated in April together with a questionnaire to help shape the agenda and discussion
In the meantime…SAVE THE DATE
Potential Availability of NERC Ship Time During the 25/26 Programme Year
The NERC Marine Facilities Programme for 2025/2026 for the RRS Discovery and the RRS James Cook has been published on the Marine Facilities Planning website.
The RRS Discovery programme currently contains a 79 day alongside slot between the 2nd of November 2025 and the 19th of January 2026, which is available for science delivery if funded science projects can make use of this time. Due to the location of the vessel, the ship is most likely to be able to deliver fieldwork in the North and East Atlantic regions. Some support for science capability within the National Marine Equipment Pool is potentially available, although there is no capacity for use of autonomous vehicles or remotely operated vehicles. Any fieldwork within Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) will need the appropriate diplomatic clearance submitted to coastal states at least 6 months in advance, and to NMF with sufficient lead time for processing via the FCDO.
If interested in making use of this ship time, please contact NERC Marine Planning (marineplanning@nerc.ukri.org) ASAP to start discussions.