[MARMAM] Sealcentre Pieterburen Vet internships 2021/2022

[Anna Salazar Casals]

Dear all,

We are pleased to announce:





VETERINARY DEPARTMENT INTERNSHIP – SEALCENTRE PIETERBUREN



The Sealcentre Pieterburen, the Netherlands, has an exciting opportunity
for two Veterinary Interns to work in our Veterinary and Seal Care
Departments. Both positions last one year, one is scheduled to start in
October 2021, and the other in April 2022. Previous marine mammal or
wildlife experience is a plus. The Sealcentre’s Veterinary Department
includes two full time veterinarians and two veterinary interns. We are
looking for a highly motivated and dynamic candidate who will join our team
and will work closely in a team setting with staff and volunteers to assist
with all aspects of veterinary care and husbandry of sick and injured
seals. Other responsibilities include but are not limited to: daily care of
animals, transport of live/dead marine animals, maintenance of daily
nutritional and medical records, sampling for various research projects,
and data entry. Additional duties and projects may be assigned by staff.



The interns must be veterinarians or veterinary students. They are required
to find their own transportation to Pieterburen and we provide housing
(gas, electricity, water, and internet included) and meals. An allowance to
cover health insurance costs is provided. These positions are unpaid. The
interns should expect to be scheduled to cover a variety of shifts
including weekdays, nights, weekends, and holidays. The ideal candidate
should be mature and motivated, and possess a strong work ethic and
excellent observational and communication skills (a fluent English level is
required). Due to Visa requirements we are currently only able to accept
applicants with a European passport.



The deadline for applications is June 30th 2021. Interested applicants
should submit a copy of the CV, an intention letter, and two recommendation
letters. Note that the application materials should be in English.
Applications and questions should be submitted to v...@zeehondencentrum.nl
indicating in the subject VETERINARY INTERN 2021/2022.



For more information about the Sealcentre Pieterburen visit
www.zeehondencentrum.nl
___
MARMAM mailing list
MARMAM@lists.uvic.ca
https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam

[MARMAM] New Publication: Welfare Science in Marine Mammal Conservation

[Isabella Clegg]

Dear Colleagues,


My co-authors Karen Stockin, Rebecca Boys and I are very pleased to be able
to share our new paper in the journal *Animals* on the application of
welfare science to marine mammal conservation.


We found that publications on marine mammal welfare are infrequent but on
the rise, and that there is a need for a common language between welfare
science and marine mammal research to improve the translation and reception
of this cross-disciplinary field.

The paper is open access at https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/6/1596/html,
and you can find the abstract and citation below. Please don't hesitate to
email if you have any questions or trouble accessing it.


Best wishes,

Isabella



Dr. Isabella Clegg

Founder, Animal Welfare Expertise

www.animalwelfareexpertise.com

Twitter: @izziclegg; IG: @thedolphindoctor

AUS: +61 423 973 914UK: +44 7971 101 244



TEDx talk: https://youtu.be/sb_eEPDzgAg

BBC report: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44273624




Clegg, I.L.K.; Boys, R.M.; Stockin, K.A. Increasing the Awareness of Animal
Welfare Science in Marine Mammal Conservation: Addressing Language,
Translation and Reception Issues. *Animals* 2021, *11*, 1596.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11061596




*Abstract*
Integrating welfare principles into conservation strategy is an emerging
synthesis that encourages consideration of individual animals’ quality of
life in research, policies and law. However, these principles have gained
limited traction in marine compared to terrestrial animal conservation.
This manuscript investigates several factors that may be contributing to
this disparity. In order to gauge current understanding of animal welfare
science principles by marine mammal researchers and other stakeholders, a
“Welfare in the Wild” workshop was convened at the 32nd European Cetacean
Society conference (La Spezia, Italy, April 2018). The workshop was
attended by 30 participants who completed pre- and post-workshop surveys on
animal welfare principles. The survey results highlight a range of
different views about exactly what animal welfare science is and how it can
be applied to marine mammals. Specifically, participants’ definitions
appeared to vary depending on the type of employment or research they
engaged in, indicating a need for an interdisciplinary common language.
Secondly, we analysed the peer-reviewed literature in order to ascertain
where marine mammal publications exploring welfare were being published.
>From 1950 to July 2020, a total of 299 articles featured both marine mammal
taxa (one or more) and the word welfare in the title, abstract or keywords.
This represents just 0.96% of the total peer-reviewed published papers on
marine mammal taxa (n = 31,221) during the same period. When examining
articles published within “Welfare and Ethics” (n = 6133) and
“Aquatic-focused” (n = 139,352) journals, just 1.2% (n = 71) and 0.04% (n =
57) of articles, respectively, featured the word welfare when examining
marine mammals. With the aim of exploring how explicitly including welfare
evaluations in marine mammal research and management can benefit
conservation outcomes, we framed our workshop and quantitative literature
review findings to provide practical solutions to the language, translation
and reception issues of this burgeoning cross-disciplinary collaboration.
*Keywords: *animal welfare science
; conservation
biology ; marine
mammals ; wild animal
welfare 
___
MARMAM mailing list
MARMAM@lists.uvic.ca
https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam

[MARMAM] recent publication: an observed decline in mark rate

[Lindsay Wickman]

On behalf of my co-authors, I am pleased to announce our recent publication
in Marine Mammal Science:



Wickman, L., Rayment, W., Slooten, E., & Dawson, S. M. (2021). An observed
decline in the mark rate of Hector's dolphins at Banks Peninsula, New
Zealand. *Marine Mammal Science*, 1– 8. *https://doi.org/10./mms.12826
*



SUMMARY



Capture-recapture analyses on marine mammals typically assume mark rate (the
proportion of individuals with unique, recognisable natural marks) is
constant over time. This assumption may not be true if changes in
management have decreased the frequency of interactions with fishing gear
(a known source of marks). We hypothesized that mark rate in the Banks
Peninsula population of Hector’s dolphins has declined since the
establishment of area-based protection from gillnetting. After filtering by
image quality, our analysis used 2,363 images of 160 groups of dolphins
obtained from 1992 – 1996, and 1,133 images of 163 groups obtained in 2016.
These images were categorised by mark quality, with individuals having very
obvious marks (Cat 1 & 2) retained to estimate mark rate. Mark rate was
estimated for each time period using a hierarchical Bayesian model. The
Bayesian model estimated the mean mark rate of the population as 0.107 (95%
HDI: 0.080 - 0.137) for the period of 1992–1996, and 0.069 (95% HDI:
0.049-0.090) in 2016, indicating a 98% probability that the mark rate in
2016 was lower than the 1992 –1996 period. The lower mark rate in 2016,
along with previous evidence of improved survival rate after area-based
protection, may suggest encounters between dolphins and fishing gear have
declined.



The note may be obtained at
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10./mms.12826, or you may email me
at lindsaymwick...@gmail.com for a .pdf copy. If you’d like to know more
about the methods used to estimate mark rate in this paper, I’d like to
refer you to our recent, previous publication:


Wickman, L., Rayment, W., Slooten, E., Dawson, S.M. (2021). Recommendations
for estimating mark rate of cetaceans in photo-ID research: A critique of
field sampling protocols and variance estimation. *Marine Mammal Science,* 37:
328–343. https://doi.org/10./mms.12723


Cheers,



Lindsay Wickman
___
MARMAM mailing list
MARMAM@lists.uvic.ca
https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam