Living Whales symposium

Living whales in the Southern Ocean

Advances in methods for non-lethal cetacean research

 A symposium with associated workshops

There is now a newly developed specific website with updated information which can be accessed by going to http://www.simposioballenas.cl/?lang=en

 

Objectives: The focus of the symposium and accompanying workshop is to review the strengths and weaknesses of current and new methods for studying living whales in the Southern Ocean. Specifically, the objectives are to advance the synergies of non-lethal methods for investigations addressing three broad themes:

  1. Population dynamics, health status and life history parameters of recovering whales
  2. Ecological linkages, functional roles and relationships of whales in their ecosystem(s)
  3. The response of whales to climate change and anthropogenic impacts

Presentations will focus on methodological, analytical or technological advances in non-lethal methodology, including those that are still under development. There will be a focus on presentations that integrate methods. The symposium and workshop are part of the work of the Southern Ocean Research Partnership.

Key audience: The target audience for the workshop is scientists and managers interested in the application of new and developing non-lethal methods for understanding whales in the Southern Hemisphere and elsewhere. Given the multi-disciplinary nature of the symposium and workshop, it will have widespread appeal.

Structure: A one-day symposium will be followed by two days of workshops.

Symposium: The symposium will run over a full day and be structured into four research themes, each with a keynote speaker and specialist presentations. Presenters will come from a range of disciplines and will highlight advances in non-lethal research techniques. There will be presentations on specific research fields and also results from large scale multi-national programmes. In brief:

  • Keynote address – a presentation by an eminent scientist of non-lethal research providing a historical context for the development of non-lethal research for each of the four research streams, with a particular reference to Southern Hemisphere examples
  • Presentations of state of the art non-lethal research techniques – summarising the latest developments and describing the applications to southern hemisphere whales

The four research themes for the symposium are:

  • Molecular ecology – detailing the use of cutting edge techniques for the non-lethal assessment of age and reproductive state plus the application of molecular techniques to population level questions
  • Biologging – describing the use of instrumentation, including satellite, time-depth and acoustic tags, in cetacean ecological and other studies
  • Remote sensing – including the latest in habitat and spatial modelling, photogrammetry and acoustic methods
  • Long-term and large scale non-lethal research programmes – an overview of long term and large scale non-lethal research programmes and what they can achieve
Each session will include one keynote address providing an overview of existing techniques and future directions (25 mins), three specialist presentations (15 mins each), followed by an open panel discussion (20 mins). 

Workshops: Four workshops will follow the symposium spread over two days. These will focus on expert presentations with significant time for discussion of new and evolving techniques and their application to the themes of the workshop. The four workshops will relate to:

  • health assessment of live cetaceans
  • advances in attachment techniques for cetacean instrumentation
  • non-lethal ageing techniques
  • the estimation of diet and consumption rates from non-lethal methods

Location: Hotel Los Alerces (www.hotellosalerces.cl), Av. Vicente Pérez Rosales 1281, Puerto Varas, Chile. Puerto Varas is 15km from the Puerto Montt airport in southern Chile. 

Dates: symposium – 27 March 2012 and workshops – 28-29 March 2012

Project Steering Group: Scott Baker (Scientific Coordinator), Barbara Galletti (Conference Coordinator), Debbie Steel (Symposium Coordinator), Simon Childerhouse, Ari Friedlander, Nick Gales, Bob Brownell

Contact information: 

  • Debbie Steel (Symposium Coordinator)Marine Mammal Institute, Oregon State University, Hatfield Marine Science Centre, 2030 SE Marine Science Drive, Newport, Oregon 97365, USA. Email. debbie.steel@oregonstate.edu Phone: +1-541-867-0384
  • Simon Childerhouse (SORP Coordinator) Australian Marine Mammal Centre, Australian Antarctic Division, Channel Highway, Kingston, Tasmania 7050, AUSTRALIA. Email: simon.childerhouse@aad.gov.au Phone: +61-439-317-605