Hello,

We would like to announce the following workshop taking place on October 10th before the 18th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals. 

Defining Subspecies: Developing Guidelines for Marine Mammals

The workshop is hosted by Barbara Taylor, William Perrin, Sarah Mesnick (all from NOAA, Southwest Fisheries Science Center), and Dr. Annalisa Berta (San Diego State University).  The organizing committee includes Kelly Robertson, Brittany Hancock and Victoria Pease.

Marine mammals have few subspecies relative to terrestrial vertebrates. The definition of subspecies has been contentious and often ignored and yet those subspecies that have been defined can and have received needed conservation protections. The objective of this symposium is to build on the subspecies definition that resulted from a 2004 cetacean systematics workshop with the goal of a working set of criteria for all marine mammals. A secondary goal is to expand the prioritized list of cetaceans most in need of taxonomic research to include all marine mammals.

The 2004 workshop defined subspecies as follows: In addition to the use of morphology to define subspecies, the subspecies concept should be understood to embrace groups of organisms that appear to have been on independent evolutionary trajectories (with minor continuing gene flow), as demonstrated by morphological evidence or at least one line of appropriate genetic evidence. Geographical or behavioral differences can complement morphological and genetic evidence for establishing subspecies. As such, subspecies could be geographical forms or incipient species.

The proposed workshop will have four sessions:

1. review of subspecies concepts including non-marine mammal taxa,
2. review of the evidence used for description of currently recognized marine mammal subspecies,
3. informative case studies ranging across marine mammals, and
4. discussion of the subspecies definition for marine mammals.

The first three sessions will be a series of invited talks followed by a short discussion of each session. The discussion will be open to all workshop participants. The one-day workshop will focus on discussing revisions, if necessary, to the cetacean definition of subspecies in light of what has happened since the definition was proposed and considering the broader suite of species represented by all marine mammals.

Date: October 10 (2 days before the beginning of conference sessions) - Full Day
Room: 205b
Cost: $30 USD, includes two coffee breaks

Payment details will be provided once you register.

Seating is limited, so please register early.

Thank you,

Kelly Robertson
Workshop Proponent

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Kelly Robertson
Research Fishery Biologist
NOAA Fisheries, SWFSC
3333 N. Torrey Pines Ct
La Jolla, CA  92037

Office: 858-546-7182
Fax: 858-546-5682