The 25th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals was held in Perth, WA from 11–15 November 2024, marking the first time that the Society for Marine Mammalogy convened down under in its 50+ year history. The event brought together over 1,400 marine mammal scientists from 73 countries, who collectively delivered 1,000 presentations and 30 specialist workshops covering contemporary marine mammal research, conservation, and management issues with a strong focus on fishing-related marine mammal mortality, in keeping with the conference theme of “Culture and Conservation: Fishing for Change”.

Phil Bouchet from the Offshore Renewables Group at BioSS presented the results of a three-year study in which he developed a modelling framework for assessing the population-level consequences of offshore wind development on critically endangered North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis). The study was funded by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), and conducted in collaboration with several colleagues from the Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling (CREEM) at the University of St Andrews. Phil also co-organised a knowledge exchange workshop on ‘Marine Mammals & Offshore wind; sharing experience across regions’, which brought together representatives from academia, industry, government, regulatory bodies, NGOs, and consultancy to discuss best practices for research and monitoring at offshore wind farms. The workshop was led by Prof. Paul Thompson (University of Aberdeen) and Prof. Doug Nowacek (Duke University), and aimed to (1) identify how research findings are being incorporated into risk assessments and regulation in different regions; (2) explore opportunities for wider sharing of existing data and/or best practice to support developments; and (3) identify key evidence gaps and opportunities to address these through future research and monitoring.