Dear Marmamers, with great pleasure I want to make you aware of a current article reflecting on marine mammal conservation in a more holistic manner. This article is based on my talk at this year's Annual Conference of the European Cetacean Society (ECS), which many of you have encouraged me to publish "poperly". Luckily, /Advances in Marine Biology/ accepted the article to be included as an editorial to its latest volume: Ritter, F. - _Marine mammal conservation in the 21st century: A plea for a paradigm shift towards mindful conservation. /Advances in Marine Biology/, ISSN 0065-2881, https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.amb.2022.09.001 _ _Abstract:_ Marine mammals are regarded in high esteem by the general public, and are recognized as flagship species for conservation, while at the same time they suffer from anthropogenic impacts on a global scale, and often in extreme ways. It seems there is a huge discrepancy between how we humans think about our fellow creatures in the sea, and how we behave to impact and/or conserve them. Here, I examine why the purely scientific and thus intellectual approach to marine mammal conservation has had limited success over the past decades. While there are some obvious success stories in cetacean conservation, the situation today is, for many species and populations, more dire than it has ever been. The idea of ‘we need to know more’—a credo of the scientific community—often is politically misrepresented to postpone necessary conservation decisions. To adapt our path towards more profound and, importantly, more effective marine conservation, as conservationists we need to go deeper and change the narrative of separation, i.e., the concept of humans being set apart from the rest of nature. Instead, there is a need to create a narrative of connectedness, i.e., the consciousness of humans being an integral part of the planetary system. Rather than telling horror stories about the plight of marine mammals, conservationists also need to trigger positive emotions about them in ourselves. More holistic aspects of conservation need to be incorporated in our future efforts, including the fuller integration of traditional knowledge and indigenous wisdom, recognizing ecosystem functions of marine life and protecting the processes they sustain, respecting ‘holiness’ of nature while focusing on the animals’ individuality, personhood and the cultural identity of distinct cetacean communities. Effective marine mammal conservation will be possible only on the basis of a profound change of our own values and a fundamental change of the societal system(s) we are living in. This link will bring you to the website where the article can be _viewed and downloaded freely until 06 December 2022_. No sign up, registration or fees are required. https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1fx38Es4JKUCb Best wishes to all, Fabian -- _____________ Fabian Ritter President M.E.E.R. e.V. Bundesallee 123 D-12161 Berlin T +49-(0)30-644 97 230 ritter@m-e-e-r.de www.m-e-e-r.org "The dolphins were having a great relaxed time and there were no major answers they wished to have the questions to." -after Douglas Adams-