UKIRSC Marine Mammals

And shoutout to our UKIRSC committee for organising this year’s conference #UKIRSC26 🙌

@beth-harvey.bsky.social @oshuwilson.bsky.social @miahurst.bsky.social @eva-mariab.bsky.social @isha-just-isha.bsky.social @rebeccahdudley.bsky.social @crday-reader.bsky.social @ellenlhayward.bsky.social

That’s a wrap for #UKIRSC26! Thank you to everyone who came to Plymouth for our 20th Annual UKIRSC Conference! It was a pleasure meeting everyone and hearing all of the amazing presentations! 🦭🐬🐋

Finally our winner for the Bernie McConnell Prize for Innovation was @ecostone1.bsky.social “An automated method to rapidly estimate pinniped body volume at scale for population monitoring” 🏆🦭

Our winner for best poster at #UKIRSC26 was our very own @miahurst.bsky.social “An automated method for polynya detection using a geomorphon algorithm” 🏆🧊

Thank you to Seiche and Whales et al. ART for sponsoring this prize!

Our winner for best long talk at #UKIRSC26 was our very own @oshuwilson.bsky.social “Projected shifts in Southern Ocean humpback whale distribution under a changing climate” 🏆🐋

Thank you to the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT) and Whales et al. ART for sponsoring this prize!

Our winner for best short talk at #UKIRSC26 was Josh Symes “Risso’s dolphins of the South-West” 🏆🐬

Thank you to @prstats.bsky.social and Whales et al. ART for sponsoring this prize!

Our runner up for best poster at #UKIRSC26 was Ethan Wrigglesworth “The impact of endocrine disrupting chemicals on the male reproductive physiology of the harbour porpoise”

Thank you to British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) for sponsoring this prize!

Our runner up for best long talk at #UKIRSC26 was Emily Martens-Oberwelland “Royal Fish, Sea Monsters, and the great Leviathan: Whales in Seventeenth Century England” 🐳

Thank you to ReWild swimwear and @thembauk.bsky.social for sponsoring this prize!

Our #UKIRSC26 Conference prize winners have been announced! First up, we’ve got the runner up for best short talk: @dasweeney.bsky.social “Using mark-recapture models to understand goose-beaked whale residency in Southern California” 🌊

Thank you to @infohackit.bsky.social for sponsoring this prize!

@stineop.bsky.social

Stine Omdahl Petersen (@stine.op.bsky.social) compares how climate change is causing diverging distribution responses for minke whales and white-beaked dolphins in the North Sea. 🌊🐬 #UKIRSC26

‘Humpback to the future’! @oshuwilson.bsky.social projects how Southern Ocean humpback whale distributions might shift southward by the end of the century.🐋 #UKIRSC26

Patrick Kagerer shares a study on harbour seal haul-out behaviour in the Wadden Sea to help improve the accuracy of population size estimates. 🦭📈 #UKIRSC26

Charli Grimes discusses the social ontogeny of resident killer whales, exploring how lifelong social bonds form and change from early life through maturity. 🐋🤝 #UKIRSC26

Inspiring keynote from Dr Clare Embling on her career journey so far 🐬🐳
From porpoises to sperm whales, PhD & postdoc tips, insights into predator–prey interactions and impacts of noise. A brilliant, honest look at building a career in marine mammal science. #UKIRSC26 @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social

Our second workshop is off with a bang! We are going to learn about communicating our science to a wider audience. 📝 #UKIRSC26

Amy-Jo Randalls (@pintofangrybees.bsky.social) uses photo ID and citizen science to investigate common dolphin site fidelity and whether Loch Broom serves as a vital nursery area. 🐬🍼 #UKIRSC26

Claire Stainfield shows us how "Rootpainter," an open-access AI tool, can automate drone image processing to monitor grey seal populations without disturbance. 🚁🦭 #UKIRSC26

Ag Czernecka evaluates the recovery of the Baltic grey seal, assessing its ecological functionality and the potential impact of seal-fishery interactions. 🦭🐟 #UKIRSC26

Josh Symes at @exetermarine.bsky.social is tracking Risso's dolphins in the UK's south-west, using photo ID to reveal site fidelity and core social alliances within this sub-population. 🐬📸 #UKIRSC26

Presenting on biodiversity, David Sweeney (@dasweeney.bsky.social) kicks off our Population session by using Bayesian mark-recapture models to better understand the residency patterns and population dynamics of goose-beaked whales in Southern California. 🐋📉 #UKIRSC26

Closing our first session, Grace F. Bradley
(gracebradley99.bsky.social) explores how interannual climate variability
influences the abundance and distribution of baleen whales in the Mid North
Atlantic 🐳☀️ #UKIRSC2026

Gemma A. S. Bekki is looking at how multiple gliders with
hydrophone arrays can be used to detect and localise sperm whales in the
Mediterranean 🐳📣 #UKIRSC2026

Evie White is sharing new insights into the spinner dolphins of Peros Banhos, using whistle characterization to understand this remote and unique population. 🐬 #UKIRSC2026

Nikolina Sokcic is diving into the acoustic cues that drive
humpback whales to interact with herring fishing vessels in Norway. Are they
eavesdropping for a free lunch? 🐋🐟#UKIRSC2026

Presenting from afar is Udayanga Sampath @udayanga-sampath.bsky.social ! He’s talking about using passive acoustic monitoring to
detect and classify dolphin whistles in the remote Chagos Archipelago 🐬🏝️
#UKIRSC2026

Kicking off our Acoustics session is Rosie (Christina) Day-Reader!
She’s exploring how to descibe the whistle repertoire of Scottish west coast
common dolphins 🐬🔉 #UKIRSC2026

Delighted Luis Huckstadt from @exetermarine.bsky.social was able to make it for his fascinating plenary talk on lessons learned in his career (including the struggles of academia) and Antarctic seals 🦭 and collaborative science 🧪 #UKIRSC26 #marinemammals

Getting lots of amazing advice from this year’s career panel! We are very grateful to Dan Jarvis (BDMLR), Nicola Harris (Seiche), Dr Simon Ingram @plymuni.bsky.social, Dr Clare Embling @plymuni.bsky.social , and Emily Cunningham (WWF) for their open and honest discussions 🐬🐋🦭