Due to the corona situation, the 16th Danish Marine Mammal Symposium 2020 was online as a Zoom-meeting on November 6th. Dr. Fern Wickson, the Scientific Secretary of the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission was the keynote speaker, giving a very interesting and unique insight into the present and future science and management needs in the North Atlantic.
Since this was an online event, all presentations were short talks (5 min) covering sessions on: 1) Management in Arctic regions; 2) Ecology of Arctic species; 3) Genetics; 4) Acoustics; 5) Habitat use of DK marine mammals.
*Names and presentations are not shared here due to GDPR considerations
Symposium 2019
15th Danish Marine Mammal Symposium 2019 took place January 23rd in Odense at University of Southern Denmark as an integrated part of the biannual “Danish Marine Science Meeting” (Dansk Havforskermøde). The 2019 symposium did not have a particular theme as the symposium it self, was a “marine mammal theme” within the larger conference. Professor Rune Dietz from University of Aarhus, Department of Bioscience provided the keynote with a presentation summing up his 30 years of research into the effects of contaminants on marine mammals and those who eat them.
The rest of days presentations contained sessions dealing with: 1) Arctic marine mammals; 2) Rorqual Biology; 3) Harbour porpoise biology and conservation; 4) Harbour seal behaviour and monitoring; 5) Morphology and evolution.
*Names and presentations are not shared here due to GDPR considerations
Symposium 2018
The 14th Danish Marine Mammal Symposium 2018 – New challenges in conservation, took place March 9th -10th in Hillerød at Danhostel. The 2018 symposium had a particular focus on the challenges caused by bycatch and thus had three keynotes on the subject.
The first was provided by Lotte Kindt-Larsen from DTU Aqua on “Development of Vaquita freindly fishing gear in the Upper Gulf” which was followed by a field report from the Danish members of the Vaquita CPR team who had just returned from Mexico. This was presented by senior researcher Jonas Teilmann from the Department of Bioscience at University of Aarhus. The third keynote was provided by post doc Julie van der Hoop, also from the Department of Bioscience at University of Aarhus with the title “Conservation challenges for North Atlantic right whales: past, present and future.
The rest of days presentations contained sessions dealing with: 1) Climate change and contaminants; 2) Disturbance; 3) Management; 4) Physiology and Acoustics; 5) Behaviour and Abundance; 6) Genetics
*Names and presentations are not shared here due to GDPR considerations
European Cetacean Society Conference in Denmark 2017
(Symposium 2017)
The Danish Marine Mammal Symposium 2017 was not convened as a unique event, as the society’s board together with Aarhus University’s Department of Bioscience were the national organizers, fund raisers, coordinators etc. of the annual European Cetacean Society Conference. The conference took place from April 29th – May 3rd at Hindsgavl Castle in Middelfart with the theme “Conservation in Light of Marine Spatial Use”. Keynotes included 1) Professor Lars Bejder, Murdoch University, Cetacean Research Unit, Australia; 2) Dr. Asha De Vos, Post-doc, University of California, Santa Cruz; 3) Dr. Len Thomas, University of St. Andrews, Scotland. The conference included multiple scientific workshops and public activities included on sea classes for local high school students, public lectures at the castle and more.
The Board would like to thank all organizers, volunteers, participants, financial contributors and more for an incredible conference.
*Names and presentations are not shared here due to GDPR considerations. However the full programme can still be downloaded from ECS’s website using this link https://www.europeancetaceansociety.eu/sites/default/files/ECS_full-program_opslag.pdf
Symposium 2016
The 13th Danish Marine Mammal Symposium 2016 took place March 4th -5th at Den Blå Planet, National Aquarium Denmark. The 2016 symposium did not have a particular theme, but had two unique key notes provided firstly by Professor Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, on the science behind advice to whaling committes such as the IWC. The second talk was provided by Denmark’s Commissioner to the IWC, Gitte Hundahl from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The rest of days presentations contained sessions dealing with e.g. 1) Monitoring of marine mammals; 2) Human impacts; 3) New findings; 3) Fisheries and seals.
The Board would like to thank Den Blå Planet, National Aquarium Denmark for its generous sharing of its beautiful conference room.
*Names and presentations are not shared here due to GDPR considerations
CCK 60 – Half day conference on Cetacean knowledge
On June 17th 2016 – the Society hosted a half day conference organised by the Society’s former chair Carl Christian Kinze in relation to his 60 years birthday.
Symposium 2015
The 12th Danish Marine Mammal Symposium 2015 took place April 24th – 25th at Aarhus University, Department of Bioscience. The 2015 symposium did not have a particular theme, but had a key note by both Peter Teglberg Madsen and Frants Jensen both from University of Aarhus.
The rest of days presentations contained sessions dealing with e.g. 1) Acoustics and behavior 2) Foraging, population and interspecific competition; 3) Evolution; 4) monitoring, evolution and feeding; 5) Anthropogenic assessment and methods
*Names and presentations are not shared here due to GDPR considerations
Symposium 2014
The 11th Danish Marine Mammal Symposium 2014 took place March 21st – 22nd at University of Southern Denmark in Odense. The 2014 symposium was titled “Marine mammals and fisheries interactions” and spent the entire first day dedicated to talks from researchers, agencies, fishermen and other stakeholders to get a full overview of the Danish situation with regard to types and impact of interactions. This was followed up by a highly interesting discussion with input from a large panel composed of panelists from DTU Aqua, Dyrenes Beskyttelse, the Danish Nature Agency, the Danish AgriFish Agency, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Landsorganisationen Levende Hav and the Danish Fishermen’s Association.
The second day of presentations contained sessions dealing with e.g. 1) Physiology and anatomy 2) Population biology and conservation.
*Names and presentations are not shared here due to GDPR considerations
Symposium 2013
The 10th Danish Marine Mammal Symposium 2013 took place April 19th – 20th at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, a part of University of Copenhagen. The 2013 symposium was titled “Marine mammals from species to management units”. The symposium did not have a key note but sessions dealing with e.g. 1) Conservation of marine mammals; 2) Conservation of harbour porpoises; 3) Species, subspecies, eco-types, populations or management units; 4) Acoustics and sound production; 5) Behaviour, acoustics and sound production in harbour porpoises; 6) Ecology and movements
*Names and presentations are not shared here due to GDPR considerations
Danish Marine Mammal Society 