25th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals
In November 2024, our Williamson Research Fellow, Ella Hutchinson, and our Research Officer, David Donnelly, represented the Dolphin Research Institute at the Society of Marine Mammalogy’s 25th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Perth. The Society for Marine Mammalogy is the peak global organisation for Marine Mammal science and publisher of the prestigious journal – Marine Mammal Science.
Ella presented her work on the multigenerational success of Port Phillips unique common dolphin community, including the calving rates of Port Phillips common dolphins and the presence of third generations calves. Ellas work utilised close to 100,000 images collected over 19 years of surveys.
This work also helped create a solution to tracking young calves after they leave their mothers side as five years ago it was not possible using normal fin-ID methods to map all
our calves to their mums and grandmas. We can now use subtle, temporary markings to track calves as their grow and become more independent. This work also helped solidify the methodologies used to estimate calf ages via photos. We have included a copy of this poster below.
David additionally presented work on aerial surveys for whales, conducted by our partner organisation, Fathom Pacific, to inform decision-making about windfarms in Bass Strait. David primarily works for Fathom Pacific whilst also working as our Research Officer. Ella also assists with aerial surveys conducted by Fathom Pacific.
