We are pleased to announce that a one-day workshop focused on the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) to study marine mammals will be held in Barcelona preceding the World Marine Mammal Conference on Saturday, December 7.

The Marine Mammal eDNA workshop will bring together early-career and established researchers interested in applying emerging techniques in environmental DNA (eDNA) to marine mammal species. eDNA is a tool of recent interest, rapid development, and promising potential for marine conservation. This approach is built on the premise that organisms slough cells containing DNA into the water they inhabit and we can extract organismal DNA from a water sample without ever handling, or even seeing, the organism. Researchers exploring these new approaches to surveying marine mammal distribution and diversity will be invited to share lessons learned from past successes and failures in a series of talks. Invited speakers include Owen Wangensteen, Scott Baker, Maggie Hunter, Kim Parsons, and Kathryn Stewart. All participants will engage in small-group discussion via breakout groups on relevant topics such as challenges in eDNA field sampling, setting up an eDNA lab, eDNA beyond species detection, and others based on a pre-survey of participant interests. Throughout the workshop, we aim to broadly address both the challenges and opportunities that eDNA affords for marine mammal science.

Registration for the workshop can be completed at the WMMC website: https://www.wmmconference.org/wmmcregistration/.  With the generous support of an American Genetic Association Special Event Award, we are able to offer a limited number of reduced registration spots to students interested in attending the workshop.  If reduced registration spots remain available, a discount code will appear when participants logged in as students select the workshop for registration.  This discount code will need to be added to the cart in order to receive discounted registration.

Thank you for considering our workshop, and we look forward to seeing many of you in Barcelona!

Kristina Cammen and Morten Tange Olsen (workshop co-organizers)