Dear all. We would like to announce that the annual meeting of the UK Regional Student Chapter of the Society for Marine Mammalogy will be held at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), Oban from the 28-29 January 2013. An Icebreaker will be held on the evening of the 27th of January. We encourage all students registered in Universities across the UK and Ireland that are interested in marine mammal research to attend. The atmosphere of the conference is relatively informal, giving students a platform to discuss their research with other students. Postgraduate students are invited to submit abstracts for oral presentations and posters. For planning purposes, we have divided presentations into 5-minute speedtalk and 15 minute slots. We encourage new postgraduate students to talk about their future research plans using the 5-minute slots and for those further along in their studies to present for 15 minutes. Undergraduates with an interest in the field are also welcome to attend. The talks traditionally vary in content: from talks by new students discussing their future plans or the basis of their project, to students whose Ph.D’s are near completion. Our guest speakers include Dr David Lusseau (MASTS Senior Lecturer in Marine Top Predator Biology, University of Aberdeen) and Lindesay Scott-Hayward (Research fellow at The Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling). Dr Ben Wilson, Dr Steven Benjamins and Miss Marie Porter will hold an interdisciplinary workshop based on the facilities and expertise available at SAMS. The final deadline for presentation abstracts (max 300 words) will be the 5th of January 2013. There is no registration fee and you don’t need to be an existing member of the Chapter. You can register for the Chapter at the same time as registering for the conference. Registration forms can be downloaded from our website. Please visit our website for updates http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~ukrscgrp/ or visit our facebook page UKrsc - the Society of Marine Mammalogy <http://www.facebook.com/UKRSC#>. Please submit your registration form by e-mail attachment to ukrsc@st-andrews.ac.uk by 5th January 2013. If you have any further questions regarding the meeting, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Hope to see you all in Oban in January, With best wishes, The committee of the UK Regional Student Chapter for the Society for Marine Mammalogy This year meeting will be kindly sponsored by Chelonia Limited, http://www.chelonia.co.uk/