Hello northwest marine mammalogy students! We are pleased to announce that the annual spring meeting of the Northwest Student Chapter of the Society of Marine Mammalogy (NWSSMM) will take place on the weekend of May 2rd - 3th 2020, 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. Please indicate your preference for presentations on the registration form, and we will do our best to accommodate everyone’s wishes! Oral presentations and poster sessions will take place on Saturday May 3rd on the WWU campus. We are also happy to accept guests that are not presenting, but who are interested in the research being done in this region! Saturday presentations are scheduled to take place from roughly 8:00AM-5:00PM. On Sunday May 3rd we will be 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 $20/person). Shannon Point is ~50 minutes south of Bellingham in Anacortes, WA, so if you would like to attend this activity, keep that in mind for your return trip home! Please indicate on the registration form if you would like to participate in this cruise, and the method of payment as well as departure times will be announced later. There is no registration fee for attending the conference! We will be providing a light breakfast followed by lunch at the University dining hall 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. 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 1st 2020. Registration/submissions will be done via Google forms (link below). If you have any questions or would like any clarification about the upcoming meeting, please do not hesitate to contact the planning committee via Nathan Guilford at guilfon@wwu.edu<mailto:guilfon@wwu.edu>. We look forward to seeing you all in Bellingham very soon! REGISTRATION LINK https://forms.gle/cbiPjPXVmfZESCya6