Dear Marmam subscribers, Marine Conservation Research are offering an exciting opportunity for participants to join the Song of the Whale team on a marine research expedition, sailing on R/V Song of the Whale from the Falkland Islands via Uruguay, Brazil and the Azores to Portugal, departing in early March 2018. This is an 8-9 week voyage. The team will be undertaking visual and passive acoustic surveys for cetaceans, to contribute to ongoing conservation focused research on the presence and distribution of various species, as well as marine plastics trawls and other studies which are part of ongoing marine conservation projects being undertaken by the SOTW team and collaborators. Participants who joined the team for the trip south to the Falklands at the end of last year had a fantastic trip, combining exciting offshore sailing, port stops in remote locations, with a wide range of cetacean sightings and detections, from southern right whale, sperm and humpbacks, to rough toothed and southern right whale dolphins. It was described as 'the trip of a life time'. To read the teams blogs from the last voyage, see http://www.marineconservationresearch.co.uk/expeditions/uk-to-falkland-blogs -201718/ For further information about the forthcoming expedition, see http://www.marineconservationresearch.co.uk/expeditions/falkland-islands-to- portugal-via-the-azores-expedition-spring-2018/ Several berths are still available for people interested in joining the team for this voyage; Please contact <mailto:MCRinfo@mcr-team.org> MCRinfo@mcr-team.org for further details. Thanks and best wishes, Anna Anna Moscrop Song of the Whale team Marine Conservation Research International t. +44 1376 573071 m. +44 7801 613 539 e. amoscrop@mcr-team.org www.marineconservationresearch.org