Dear All The 2011 report of the ICES Working Group on Marine Mammal Ecology (WGMME) can be downloaded at http://www.ices.dk/workinggroups/ViewWorkingGroup.aspx?ID=32 A number of Terms of Reference were addressed during this year's meeting in Berlin including: a) Review and report on any new information on population sizes, population/stock structure and management frameworks for marine mammals; b) Outline and review the effects of tidal farms (construction and operation) on marine mammals and provide recommendations on research needs, monitoring and mitigation schemes; c) Outline marine planning practices that could take account of the presence of cetaceans, and what information ICES might be able to feed into that process; d) Catalogue the Marine Protected Areas for marine mammals in the ICES area and evaluate the efficacy of MPAs for cetaceans; e) Finalize production of the Cooperative Research Report on the framework for surveillance and monitoring of marine mammals applicable to the ICES area; f) Update on development of database for seals, status of intersessional work; g) Review the outputs of the ICES SIBAS Workshop on 'Biodiversity indicators for assessment and management' and report on: What data, information and marine mammal science are you aware of that would contribute to biodiversity advice, with an emphasis on the trade-offs between fishing and conservation that are relevant to ICES client needs as described in the ICES SIBAS report? The ICES Annual Science Conference 2011 will be held in Gdańsk, Poland from the 19th to 23rd September. For further information see http://www.ices.dk/iceswork/asc/2011/index.asp. Best wishes, Sinéad Murphy Chair of WGMME ******************************************************************************* Dr Sinéad Murphy Marie Curie Research Fellow Coastal-Marine Research Group Institute of Natural Sciences Massey University Private Bag 102 904 Auckland 0745 New Zealand Phone: + 64 (0) 9 414 0800 ext. 41524 Fax: +64 (0) 9 443 9790 Email: s.n.murphy@massey.ac.nz<mailto:s.n.murphy@massey.ac.nz> Courier address: Massey University, Building 5, Gate 4, Old Albany Highway, Albany, Auckland and Institute of Zoology Zoological Society of London Regent's Park London, UK NW1 4RY Email:sinead.murphy@ioz.ac.uk ***********************************************************************