Dear Marmam members,
We wish to draw your attention to the following workshop, to be held
immediately prior to the SMM biennial, titled "Rethinking Lagenorhynchus:
Taxonomy, genetics, acoustics, morphology, stock structure, status and
conservation status."
We delayed announcing the workshop on Marmam until we could find sponsors to
underwrite workshop registration fees. Thanks to the generosity of the Animal
Welfare Institute, Cetacean Society International and Society for Conservation
Biology (Marine Section), we are pleased to announce that we can underwrite the
registration fees for at least the first 10 attendees, and possibly as many as
30. Unfortunately, the delay in finding funding has created a crunch in terms
of getting at least 10 people to register for the workshop to avoid having the
workshop cancelled due to lack of interest.
If you plan to attend this workshop, please register before 30 Oct at
http://www.marinemammalscience.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=358&Itemid=65&workshop=40
Please e-mail me at [email protected] if you have any questions. With the
other organizers, I am currently drafting an agenda, which we will circulate in
advance of the workshop for feedback. A full description of the workshop
follows. Thank you very much for spreading the word about this workshop,
particularly among researchers working on southern hemisphere Lagenorhynchus
species, researchers whose first language is not English, or early-career
researchers (like me) whose work hasn't made it into a Google Scholar search
yet & who I may not have known to invite. We hope to see you there.
Sincerely,
Erin Ashe
On behalf of workshop proposers: Frank Cipriano, Bill Perrin, Randall Reeves,
Barbara Taylor and Rob Williams
Erin Ashe
PhD Candidate
Sea Mammal Research Unit
Scottish Oceans Institute
University of St Andrews
St Andrews
KY16 8LB
Scotland
Workshop Description
All research and management efforts in marine mammal conservation hinge on a
definition of the biological unit to conserve, whether that is a population, a
subspecies or species. Our statistical power to detect declines in oceanic
dolphins like Lagenorhynchus is generally poor. In recent years, acousticians
and geneticists have been developing independent lines of evidence that suggest
that it may be time to consider reclassification of the dolphin species in the
genus. Both acoustic and genetic information suggest that the taxonomy of the
genus as a whole may warrant reclassification, and that some Lagenorhynchus
species belong in the genus Sagmatias. The relationship between Lagenorhynchus
and Cephalorhynchus is currently under debate. At a finer scale, there is
little information on stocks, populations or any other biological units to
conserve within a species, but there is acoustic, genetic and morphological
evidence emerging to suggest that population structure can be found within
Pacific white-sided dolphins in waters off Mexico, US and Canada and within
dusky dolphins between New Zealand and South Africa. The SMM conference in New
Zealand presents a valuable opportunity for Lagenorhynchus researchers to
compare lessons learned and to build new collaborations with southern
hemisphere colleagues who have experience studying Cephalorhynchus. New Zealand
is home to excellent long-term studies on dusky, Hector's and Maui's dolphins,
which would provide useful templates for studies on Sagmatias. Our target
audience is researchers working on Lagenorhynchus (especially the species that
may be redesignated as Sagmatias) and Cephalorhynchus, including scientists
with expertise in taxonomy, molecular genetics, conservation, demography and
acoustics. The aim is to get all of the experts in a room and pull together the
"little truths" to get a sense of where we stand with respect to
reclassification of Lagenorhynchus, population structure within species, and
the implications that this new information carries for conservation status. The
morning will be allocated to approximately 5 speakers who will each give a
brief (15-20 minute) presentation to share the current state of knowledge on
the key themes: genetics, acoustics, morphology, taxonomy etc. The remaining
time will be allocated to discussion to identify research questions, next
steps, and partnerships/collaborations, and assess whether a topic worthy of
publication has emerged from the workshop. The afternoon would be focused on
identifying regional and international experts in these disciplines, and
develop a global research plan to reevaluate using multiple lines of evidence.
Outputs of the workshop identify where samples and other data are held,
partnerships, expertise and potential funding sources to conduct analyses where
needed, present current state of knowledge with respect to taxonomy, genetics,
acoustics, morphology, and conservation status, workshop report summarizing
state of the science, future research directions, and collaborations, if an
output from the workshop or from follow-up work emerges that is worthy of
publication, we aim to submit a paper to a peer-reviewed journal.
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