The 30th Conference of the European Cetacean Society Organizing Committee is pleased to announce the following three keynote speakers for the 2016 Conference: - Professor Hal Whitehead of Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, will be giving a talk entitled “Sperm whale societies of the Atlantic and Pacific: why so different?”; - Dr. Robin Baird of Cascadia Research Collective, Washington, USA, will speak on “Oasis in a desert sea: development of island-associated populations of open-ocean odontocetes in the Hawaiian archipelago”; and - Dr. Mónica Silva’s keynote talk is entitled “the ecological importance of open waters and oceanic islands for baleen whales”. Monica Silvia is a researcher at Mare and IMAR, Azores. The conference will take place in Funchal, Madeira, from 14 - 16 March 2016, hosted by the Madeira Whale Museum The theme of the conference is “Into the Deep: Research and Conservation on Oceanic Marine Mammals”. For further information on the conference visit: http://europeancetaceansociety.eu/conference/30th-annual-conference-funchal-... The abstracts submission deadline is *23 October 2015* (23:45 CET). The abstracts may be submitted online at ECS Conference page: http://europeancetaceansociety.eu/conference/submit-abstract Workshops proposals are also welcome. Workshops will run on 12-13 March. Workshop proposal forms can be downloaded here: http://europeancetaceansociety.eu/conference/workshops-0 and should be sent to ecs2016conference@gmail.com by the *23 October 2015* (23:45 CET) deadline. Looking forward to meeting you at Madeira in March 2016, Conference Organising Committee