Hello, On Saturday 5 April 2014 (afternoon) at the upcoming Annual Conference of the European Cetacean Society, there will be an international workshop on: *"WORKSHOP ON AQUATIC MAMMALS FROM LATIN AMERICA". * Abstract: The workshop (WS) intends to discuss current problems faced by aquatic mammals that inhabit Latin American waters. The perspective of the continent's economic growth and the consequent use and degradation of its rivers and coastal zones constitutes a matter of concern for the conservation of coastal and riverine aquatic mammals. A large set of construction works is planned for the establishment of hydroelectric power plants, harbours, shipyards and industries on Latin American rivers and coastal bays. Many of these aquatic systems have been suffering from a large series of different types of pressure, as well as they have been going through broad dredging and even submarine demolishing. This anthropogenic pressure results in habitat degradation, physical, acoustic and chemical pollution and their consequences. Some Latin American bays seem to be on the same degradation path once followed by one of the most anthropogenically-disturbed estuaries around the globe, the Guanabara Bay (GB), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Guanabara Bay presents a residual Guiana dolphin (*Sotalia guianensis*) population assessed to be around 40 individuals only. The situation of the GB dolphins exemplifies the fact that many populations from species that are not officially regarded as threatened are facing extinction, which may hamper the gene flow. Taking this problem into consideration, the situation of riverine aquatic mammals should be highlighted, since hydroelectric dams may hamper the gene flow as well. Other examples of species regarded as common yet being regionally threatened are provided by bottlenose dolphin (*Tursiops truncatus*) and South American sea lion (*Otaria flavescens*). T. truncatus presents many local populations in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina being small, isolated and declining due to the effects of ever increasing anthropogenic impacts as pollution, overfishing and bycatch. Concerning the abovementioned pinniped species, the situation of the sharp population decline of the Uruguay and northern Argentina stocks should be emphasised. Small and endemic coastal cetacean species, as franciscana dolphins (*Pontoporia blainvillei*) and vaquita (*Phocoena sinus*) are particularly vulnerable to incidental catches in gillnets, and the high levels of mortality are responsible for the critical conservation status of both species. Of particular interest is the La Plata river estuary, one of the most impacted environments in the world, characterized by continental inputs of organic and inorganic contaminants, as well as drugs. Precisely, P. blainvillei inhabits the outer zone of the estuary of the river. Although intentional hunting of marine mammals still exists in a few Latin American nations, most countries have ceased to hunt a few decades ago, using marine mammals in a non-lethal way to increase their socio-economic standards. However, the ever-increasing touristic activities focused on aquatic mammals also raise concern. This is especially important in the north of Brazil, where the artificial feeding of botos (*Inia spp.*) for tourism seems to be insufficiently controlled. In this context, the WS intends to discuss the status of the "Araguaian boto" (*Inia araguaiaensis*), the new species of river dolphin from Brazil, as well as the current situation of the most threatened species of Latin America. For accomplishing this last task, the WS intends also to discuss the recovery of mysticeti and sirenian populations after the hunting period, as well as the conservation status of the most endangered mustelid species, such as the giant (*Pteronura brasiliensis*), the marine (*Lontra felina*) and the southern river (*Lontra provocax*) otters. If you would like to offer a presentation or simply attend, please contact: *Prof. Paulo Renato Dorneles in charge of the organization: * *dorneles@biof.ufrj.br <dorneles@biof.ufrj.br> * Paulo Renato Dorneles Professor Adjunto UFRJ Polo Xerém Laboratório de Radioisótopos Eduardo Penna Franca Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro UFRJ, CCS, Bloco G, subsolo, sala G0-62 Cidade Universitária, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil Looking forward to seeing you at the next ECS conference, Krishna Krishna Das Co-chair of the 28th Conference of the European Cetacean Society http://liege.europeancetaceansociety.eu F.R.S. - FNRS Research Associate University of Liege Laboratory for Oceanology - MARE Research Center Allée de la Chimie 17 , B6C, Institut de Chimie 4000, Liege (Sart-Tilman), Belgium Tel: (+32) 4 366 3321 Website: http://www2.ulg.ac.be/oceanbio/