Hal Whitehead Wins Mandy McMath ECS Conservation Award

Bonn, 22 March 2016 - At the recent European Cetacean Society Annual Meeting in Madeira, Portugal, the Mandy McMath ECS Conservation Award was presented to Professor Hal Whitehead of Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In his laudation, Mark Simmonds of the Humane Society International said “Hal and his various colleagues across the years – because no man is an island – have been pioneers in so much that we now take for granted in our work on cetaceans. This includes photo identification and the deployment of hydrophones, the analyses of social networks and, most recently, the elaboration of a theory of culture in cetaceans which not only challenges the way that we think of them but also our conservation approaches.”

Professor Whitehead and his colleague, Luke Rendell of the University of St Andrews, Scotland provided the principal scientific input into the CMS workshop held in London in April 2014 on non-human culture which paved the way for the ground-breaking Resolution adopted at CMS COP11 in Quito on conservation implications of cetacean culture.

Mr Simmonds also paid tribute to Mandy McMath and Krzysztof Skora, whose passing in 2012 and earlier this year respectively has robbed the world of two passionate advocates of marine mammal conservation.

Last updated on 19 December 2016

Type: 
News item
Country: 
Portugal
Region: 
Atlantic Ocean
Species group: 
Marine mammals