Calling all northwest marine mammalogy students! We are pleased to announce that the 18th annual spring meeting of the Northwest Student Chapter of the Society of Marine Mammalogy (NWSSMM) will take place on the weekend of May 3rd - 4th 2014, at Western Washington University (WWU) in Bellingham, WA. We would like to invite all graduate and undergraduate students in the Pacific Northwest (BC, Yukon, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Northern California and Idaho) doing research on marine mammals to present their work at this conference. The purpose of the meeting is to gather students in a relaxed atmosphere to share research ideas, tribulations, and triumphs. It is an opportunity to meet others across the region, collaborate, and generally have a good time in a supportive and informal setting. **This year we are encouraging those students that are in the planning and proposal stage of their projects to present a poster, and for those researchers with results to give an oral presentation. This will allow each speaker more time to present their work, and provide a chance those in the preparatory stages more time to receive feedback and field questions during the poster sessions. We are also happy to accept guests that are not presenting, but are interested in the research being done in this region. Oral presentations and poster sessions will take place on Saturday May 3rd on the WWU campus. On Sunday May 4th we will be hosting outdoor activities in the Bellingham area. We will be either A) taking a tour of WWU's Shannon Point Marine Center and taking a wildlife-watching trip on one of their research vessels (additional charge of about $20/person), or B) hiking in the beautiful nearby Chuckanut Mountains (no extra charge). Please indicate on the registration survey which activity you would prefer and we will offer the most popular activity. The registration fee for the conference will be $15 USD. This will cover conference materials as well as breakfast, lunch and light snacks on Saturday. That evening we will be hosting a conference dinner at a local restaurant. All attendees are encouraged to attend, but this will not be covered by the registration fee. Free accommodations for the weekend are available with WWU students on a first-come, first-served basis. If you wish to book other accommodations, these arrangements can be made on your own. Registration and abstract submissions for posters and oral presentations are being accepted until April 15th, 2014. Registration will be done via this SurveyMonkey survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J953HN7 If you have any questions or would like any clarification about the upcoming meeting, please do not hesitate to contact the planning committee via Erin D'Agnese at dagnese@students.wwu.edu or Kat Nikolich at nikolik@students.wwu.edu. We look forward to seeing you all in Bellingham very soon!