UKIRSC Marine Mammals
@ukirsc.bsky.social
UK & Ireland Regional Student Chapter of the Society for Marine Mammalogy @marinemammalogy.bsky.social Bringing together postgraduate students studying marine mammals. 🦭🐳🐬🦦🐻❄️ Follow for PhD/post-doc alerts plus funding, grants & jobs!
Here’s the other one!
Joshua Wilson@oshuwilson.bsky.social · last mo.The first paper from my PhD has just been published! Feels amazing to get this out there. To give it a read check out the link below doi.org/10.1016/j.ec... Huge thanks to my funders, and all of the supervisors, co-authors and data providers that made this possible.
Not one but TWO new papers from ex-UKIRSC committee member Josh! Ok so they’re not technically mammals… but useful insights for top predator foraging 🐧 🐟
Joshua Wilson@oshuwilson.bsky.social · 3w agoJust two weeks after my first chapter was published, the second has come out too! Amazing month for PhD! Thanks again to my funders and all my amazing supervisors and co-authors, check out the paper on the link below: doi.org/10.1016/j.po...
Committee member Ellen Hayward recently published a paper on cooperative feeding strategies in killer whales - picture tail slaps from a killer whale’s perspective as well as slurping sounds when they eat! 🐬
Ellen Hayward@ellenlhayward.bsky.social · 2mo ago🎉 Excited to share our new paper on cooperative feeding in killer whales . Using animal-borne audio and video data, we investigated tail-slap feeding, found evidence of role specialisation, and developed a novel acoustic method to estimate group-level feeding rates. 📖 doi.org/10.1098/rsos... ⬇️
A final introduction to our committee members this year, all PhD students studying marine mammals! 🦭 🐳 Starting with Myriam Widdman, a PhD student at the University of St Andrews, studying acoustic communication and behaviour of North Atlantic herring-eating killer whales
Two part-time consultants are needed to provide technical support, including the preparation of written inputs and analyses, as well as the organization of online meetings. If you have an advanced relevant degree and two years of relevant work experience, apply here: https://www.ipbes.net/vacancies
🦭Introducing our new committee members for #UKIRSC27! 🐬 First up is Thomas Stone, a PhD student at the University of Oxford. His research aims to develop & apply novel methods & technologies to help monitor seal populations. He's excited already looking forward to next year’s conference!
Great job @jessmontabaranom.bsky.social! Important findings about seal behaviour around tidal turbines monitored with multibeam sonar @seamammalresearch.bsky.social #ECS2026 🐋🦑🧪
Super excited to share that the first article from my PhD has been published! Taking 60 years of research, we looked at how long distance vocal communication in aquatic and land mammals has evolved and why. Read here: tinyurl.com/3eydkwwc The Conversation article: tinyurl.com/mryr7sme
🦭 We have a new paper out! We developed an accessible framework for assessing the risk of collision between seals and operating tidal turbines. ⏭️ We found that most seal tracks moved near the turbine without collision. Read it here: doi.org/10.1002/aqc.... @seamammalresearch.bsky.social
Super excited to have presented today at Ocean Science Meeting in Glasgow on some of my PhD work 🌊🧊! Was so much fun to talk all things polynyas and sea ice 🦭❄️ thank you to everyone who came to have a listen! #OSM26
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!
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
