Had a blast organising this year’s marine mammal conference in our very own Plymouth! @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social

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

A gorgeous morning to kick off #UKIRSC26 and what a view from the Plymouth University Marine Station! 🐬

Wonderful infographic on my paper showing that "flight" species of baleen whales generally call too deeply and quietly to be heard by hunting killer whales, unlike the "fight" club. By A Haddock & C.A. Gallagher, SMM Education Committee Paper here: doi.org/10.1111/mms....

PhD position - Changing Ecological Role of Coral Reef Marine Protected Areas. One of the new @exageo-dla.bsky.social advertised projects: www.exageo.org/phd-student-... - deadline for applications 9th January. International applications welcome. Come and join us @lec-reefs.bsky.social

Reminder that registration closes this week! Follow the link in the thread to sign up 🧵

Some EXCELLENT leaping by spinner dolphins in an atoll lagoon 🐬 (Super scientific video commentary includes ‘there’s loads of them!’ and ‘woo-hoo!’) #indianocean #science

Farage: epic grifter

Big news from the Indian Ocean! First sighting of the incredibly rare Omura’s whale, confirming previous acoustic recordings in the Chagos Archipelago. Project to determine cetacean 🐋 diversity by @iomarinescience.bsky.social @zslofficial.bsky.social @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social Photos by me 🧪 🌍 🧵1/5

Another landmark moment in the ongoing fight to end this senseless slaughter.

🐬 Registration is now OPEN for the UKIRSC 2026 Marine Mammal Conference hosted @plymuni.bsky.social 🎓A FREE event bringing together students from across the UK & Ireland to share research, connect, and learn from leading marine mammal scientists. 👇Link below #UKIRSC2026 #MarineMammals

Counting turtle tracks 🐢 👣 #fieldwork #addocean

Jane Goodall’s legacy: three ways she changed science

Noddies! Can someone help me out though - brown or lesser?? & any tips for differentiating 🙏 #birds #indianocean

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

Very cool new #seabird paper showing no difference in breeding success between healthy and black-eyed gannets, but a worrying overall decline in productivity following the #avianflu outbreak. 🦠🐣 Read the paper here 👉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #seabirds #ornithology

Obsessed with red-footed boobies, which have the most colourful bills and sometimes perch on the front of the boat to keep us company at sea. They are unafraid of humans so giving them their name (original meaning = stupid, poor things)

Good morning from the (slightly stormy) Indian Ocean where I’m spending the next two months as marine mammal observer. Will be sharing pics of birds, cetaceans & other sea life as I go! 🐬 🪸 🧪 🌍

yo #cetacean biologists, #whale scientists, wildlife/remote sensing nerds -- what's the track record of attempts to use satellite imagery to spot whales? eg www.spacewhales.de. Null results don't get shared; I'm trying to understand how much of a fool's errand this is vs no it's possible now! 🌊🦑

Fishermen & divers of the UK we need YOU! Our #octopus bloom surveys have been extended to Sept 21st. If you haven't already done so, please fill out the fishermen's survey survey.alchemer.eu/s3/90884550/... or divers survey survey.alchemer.eu/s3/90886025/... Thank you! Please share widely! 🐙

It’s been a joy to see bluefin tuna in the UK for the first time in recent years. Now of course we have to ruin it (with no basic understanding of stock recovery or fishing impacts) 🎣

Interesting analysis showing just how much of a problem bycatch is for common dolphins in the southwest, which will only increase as their numbers rise with climate change and changing prey distributions 🐬🥅

RISSO'S DOLPHIN CALVES!! We had a beautiful encounter with a nursery pod of Risso's Dolphins off Levenwick and Clumlie here in Shetland last week. Check out some of those tiny calves - some are only a few days old at most! #MarineLife #MarineMammals #CetaceansUK #UKWildlife

As global #shipping expands, our #oceans' #biodiversity faces growing threats. Our new study maps the critical hotspots where #marine #life needs protection from vessels and identifies priority areas for urgent #conservation action. #Ecology #Wildlife #Sea 🧪🌐🌎🌊 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Are you an early career marine mammal scientist? We've created a list for you! Ask to be added ⬇️ and follow to keep up to date with marine mammal research, boost your science and connect with other PhD students/ECRs 🐬🐋🧪🌍 (If not - please still share widely!) bsky.app/profile/did:...

Honored to have been a part of the collaborative #smartWhales initiative aiming to detect rare and critically endangered #rightwhales using #satellite imagery. Check out our new paper showcasing our work with Hatfield Consultants, AltaML, University of New Brunswick & Canadian Wildlife Federation!

📢 Our new paper is out in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social! A step toward more comparable approaches in bioacoustics! We tested how different acoustic feature extraction and classification methods affect caller ID classification accuracy. Read about it here: 🔗 shorturl.at/F31Pb

We’ve had some gorgeous weather on recent surveys, and some lovely bow riding common dolphins too! ⛵️ 🐬

Free student conference we’re hosting in Plymouth next year, it’s friendly and a lot of fun!

Wonderful example of non-invasive research from land, showing that harbour porpoises have a strong preference for coastal waters (<500m from the shore) in parts of Northern Ireland onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Labour promised to restore nature. ❌ Instead, their Planning Bill contains a licence to destroy it. We offered solutions. We’re done waiting. Part 3 of the Bill would gut the laws protecting our most precious habitats & species. Without significant change, it must be scrapped.

We uncovered the same statistical structure that is a hallmark of human language in whale song, published today in Science. @inbalarnon.bsky.social @simonkirby.bsky.social @jennyallen13.bsky.social @clairenea.bsky.social @emma-carroll.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We had a great time at the #ECSconference2025 hosting a workshop, giving talks or presenting posters, eating some excellent pastel de nata, and topping the week of with a whale watching trip seeing orca, sperm and sei whales!! 🐋

Great talk by PhD student @katie-rapson.bsky.social at the #ECSconference2025 on 3D acoustic tracking of harbour porpoises in tidal environments with some very well explained novel methods 🔉🐬

Some of the committee are at #ECSconference2025 - if you spot us out and about come and say hi!

Here, @westcountryvoices.bsky.social have compiled my thread on the utterly bonkers mismanagement of Dartmoor into an easy-to-read article: westcountryvoices.co.uk/prepare-your...

Bottom trawling is horribly destructive to coastal ocean ecosystems, and deep-sea mining will do the same to the open ocean. #OceanFilm 🌊

Happy Star Wars Day! May the fourth be with everyone out whale watching today! 🌑🐳 #WhaleTales #MayTheFourth

Landowners release 50million pheasants a year into the British countryside - and a new study shows how this is boosting the number of ticks carrying Lyme disease www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...

Today, thousands gathered across the country - from Hastings to London to Glasgow - to say: we will always stand with trans people. Trans rights are human rights. 🏳️‍⚧️

Here are some nice mushrooms

Excited to help organise this brilliant student conference next year in Plymouth!

Ever wondered why seals don't drown? New groundbreaking research from @smruecophys.bsky.social led by @chrismcknight.bsky.social published in @science.org reveals that, unlike other mammals, seals can sense blood oxygen levels. Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Hamdan Ballal, one of the directors of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, has been assaulted & injured by settlers at his home in the West Bank & arrested by the IDF. No trace of him since. The vengeance is clear. Do not let Hamdan disappear. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Something a bit different! Last week I helped out teaching some benthic ecology aka getting very muddy on a boat and looking at lots of worms and things 🪱 🦀 🐚 good fun!

**Join us!** I am looking for 2 new Associate Editors to join the #AquaticConservation editorial team! We welcome applications from researchers and/or practioners in the conservation of (1) marine mammals or (2) freshwater fish More info here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal... 🧪🌎🦑

A few clips from last year of some of the charismatic #wildlife we get locally in #cornwall. #marinelife #marinebiology #ukunderwater #ukwildlife #freediving #ukdiving

This week, leading up to #InternationalWomensDay, we’re celebrating the incredible research led by our female staff & students 🌿🔬🧪 We’ll also be sharing key stats and papers highlighting why continued progress matters. #WomenInSTEM #IWD #GenderEquality

Women & minority groups remain underrepresented in STEM—not by choice, but due to systemic barriers. What’s holding women back? 📌 Career impact of family-care responsibilities 📌 Isolation & exclusion in academia 📌 Lack of supportive networks #WomenInSTEM #IWD #InternationalWomensDay

Stunning view of a #humpback #whale in the sunshine! #BIOPOLE2 has been blessed with #wildlife encounters! @biopole.bsky.social @bas.ac.uk