SMRU Consulting participating in SMM 2024
November 8, 2024
We are delighted to be a part of the 25th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals (SMM 2024), which is taking place from November 11 – 15 in Perth, Western Australia. The theme is “Culture and Conservation: Fishing for Change” which aims to shine a light on one of the most significant threats to marine mammals globally: interactions with fishing gear. A range of topics spanning contemporary marine mammal research will be covered at the conference, including the effects of climate change on marine mammals, and conservation management issues. There is a special focus on cultural aspects and human dimensions, reflected by the conference logo which embodies the spirit of the conference.
Dr. Samantha Simmons, Dr. Alex Brown and Dr. Dominic Tollit are representing SMRU Consulting at SMM 2024 and will be presenting several talks and participating in workshops. We welcome you to join us and say hi!
Dr. Brown will be presenting the talk "Combining dive tag data and visibility experiments to estimate the availability of harbour porpoises to digital aerial surveys" on Tuesday, November 12th. This talk will describe a study combining dive telemetry data with an experimental investigation of aerial visibility to reduce sources of bias in harbour porpoise density estimates from digital aerial surveys. A drone was used to collect aerial imagery of a life-size 3D-printed model of a porpoise which was representative of that collected by video digital aerial surveys. Imagery was collected with the porpoise model at a variety of depths near the surface and across a range of environmental conditions. Detections of the porpoise were modelled as a function of depth and environmental conditions to generate a predictive model of visibility. Combined, the dive telemetry and visibility data analyses allow predictions of the detection probability of harbour porpoise from video digital aerial surveys for a given survey date, time and set of environmental conditions. This reduces common assumptions of visibility and provides more robust density estimates for use in impact assessments and monitoring.
On Thursday, November 14th, join Dr. Tollit at the talk "Understanding the Biological Value of Voluntary Vessel Slowdowns to Southern Resident Killer Whales: Comparing New Acoustic Space Metrics with Behavioural Response-Based Metrics." The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority's Enhancing Cetacean Habitat and Observation (ECHO) Program runs a voluntary vessel slowdown aimed at reducing noise levels to improve outcomes for Southern Resident Killer Whales. This talk will present two different approaches to modelling the effects of vessel slowdowns: a 24-hour probabilistic SRKW-noise dose-response model, and a 14-day acoustic space model focused on auditory masking in two important SRKW frequency bands, Available Listening Space (0.5-15 kHz) and Available Echolocation Space (15-100 kHz). Both models demonstrate the clear benefits of voluntary vessel slowdowns to underwater soundscapes.
Dr. Simmons will be presenting at the workshop “Satellites to study live and stranded cetaceans: establishing best practices” on November 10th . This workshop is led by Hannah Cubaynes and Penny Clarke from the British Antarctic Survey and explores the use of very high-resolution (VHR) satellites orbiting the Earth to monitor live and stranded cetaceans. The workshop will center around establishing best practices in data annotation, automated detection, and data and code sharing within the community of researchers who are actively engaged in the study of whales using satellite imagery. Dr. Simmons is presenting at the workshop in her capacity as one of two representatives for the marine mammal Essential Ocean Variable (EOV) for the Global Ocean Observing System.
Dr. Brown is participating in the workshop "Marine Mammals & Offshore Wind; sharing experience across regions" on November 10th. This workshop is led by Dr. Paul Thomspon from the University of Aberdeen and Dr. Douglas Nowacek from Duke University, and will bring together researchers, representatives of the renewables industry, regulatory bodies, consultancies, and NGOs to discuss the global increase in offshore wind farm development and what this means for marine mammals. The three main themes of the workshop are (1) identifying how research findings are incorporated into risk assessments and regulation in different regions, (2) exploring opportunities for wider sharing of existing data and/or best practices, and (3) identifying key evidence gaps and opportunities to address these through future research and monitoring. As part of the workshop Dr. Brown will present on “Reducing conservatism in assessment and mitigation of auditory injury (RaDIN Project)” as an example of how strategic research can help to inform underwater noise mitigation practices.
We are also very pleased to be able to extend the support offered through the SMM’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) vision, to grant opportunities to people working in under-represented countries, by supporting two participants at this year's SMM; Dr. Vivian Sui Hyang Kuit and Dr. Fannie Shabangu.
Dr. Kuit currently works for MareCet Research Organization, a non-profit NGO in Malaysia dedicated to the research and conservation of marine mammals in Malaysia. She will be presenting the talk “Mitigating Humpback Dolphin Bycatch and Fish Catch Depredation in Artisanal Driftnet Fisheries in Perak, Malaysia, through Acoustic Pinger Trials” on Monday, November 11th. Dr. Shabangu currently works for the Fisheries Branch of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in South Africa, and his main areas of research are bioacoustics and active acoustics. He will be presenting the talk “Still safe? Marine mammals and underwater noise around two sub-Antarctic islands” on Wednesday, November 13th.
Dr. Kuit and Dr. Shabangu are making valuable contributions to the marine mammal research community, and their research aligns closely with one of SMRU Consulting’s specialty areas, impacts of underwater noise on marine mammals. If you want to explore what else is happening during the week at the conference, check out the scientific program for the week here. We look forward to seeing you!