Are you an undergraduate looking for paid research experience this summer??😎 Denise Risch and I have an opportunity for you to gain experience helping us to continue to develop a deep learning detector for minke whale vocalisations 🐳🔊 ➡️Find out more tinyurl.com/3vxmsn89

Productive start of the week getting these pilot whale #ovaries 📸 prepped and ready for MRI scanning UofG MVLS UofG Vet - before they'll be processed for histology and used to develop an #AI model for follicle counts 🫰 UofG SBOHVM Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council funded PhD in action 💪

Very exciting multi-disciplinary work being done by our data manager (+ everything else she does!) Mariel ten Doeschate, using ovaries from our tissue archives to train #AI models. Completely futuristic!🤯💻

Positive results from tests using weighted ropes for creeling to try reduce risk of 'floating' ropes between pots - as shown in this pic we got going over creels recently - that can get caught in baleen & round fins. Good work from SCFF, Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) independent.co.uk/climate-change…

Noel H Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust Bally Mariel ten Doeschate SMASS BDMLR Rob Deaville Mairi Gougeon NatureScot Blue Planet Society Charlie Phillips Images 🐬 It's been a really positive project that shows the potential we have when we all work together to make the future brighter for our fishermen and our wildlife youtube.com/watch?v=7sWPE0… #win_win

Well well well....this is cool. Ovary MRIs coming in, kickstarting some cool UofG SBOHVM UofG MVLS collaborative work, from investigating luteolysis processes in cetaceans to life history indicators and potential post-reproductive life stages 😎 #teamworkmakesthedreamwork Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Proud and honoured to have been asked by Our Seas Open Seas to provide a view on the future of the seas around Scotland for the Coastal testimonials project, among a group of amazing and #inspirational people caring for our oceans. Catch one of the exhibitions this year👇

Arrived on Orkney to examine the 77 #pilotwhales that stranded on Sanday earlier today. Over the next 4 days SMASS will be taking samples and examining the animals involved in this event, helped by a top team of people from UofG SBOHVM ZSL Science University of Aberdeen and others 💪

End of day 1; Small crew, yet ALL 77 animals core sampled, plus full post mortems on four likely key females completed. Investigations continue tomorrow- when our colleagues from ZSL Science arrive for a full day of PMs💪 #strandingsteamassemble #CSIoftheSea

Day 2 done; 16 PMs done by an absolute kickass team 💪 #strandingsteamassemble #teamworkmakesthedreamwork . A pattern is emerging - some animals with fresh stomach contents and others with none; possibly indication we are dealing with a clan aggregation...

Beyond thrilled to report that at the end of today we completed 36 full necropsies - extensively sampled the remaining 41 animals, additional to the core sampling of all of them on day 1. The team has been amazing, the local community has been generous beyond belief. ♥️

Four days with an amazing team of +/- 25 superstars means all 77 animals core sampled, 36 full PMs, 72 jaws, 5 skulls, plus 77 scapulas collected. Broken, and overwhelmed by the generosity of the time and support given by all🙏travel back to base tomorrow SMASS UofG SBOHVM

SMASS has left the building 🐳🌊⛴️ #StrandingsTeamAssemble #OrkneyFerries

We UofG SBOHVM SMASS are HOME. Privileged with the expertise & support of such an amazing group of lovely people, making a challenging difficult job feel like a positive experience. Exciting times of productive #science ahead; but first.. 😴 and a good scrub for the truck🫧

I usually focus on the samples and science that follow stranding events..but that is just one perspective. The The Herald shows the people's side of the response to the Orkney pilot whale stranding - really highlighting it takes a village, or island.. heraldscotland.com/news/24464151.…

Fabulous weekend Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival talking everything SMASS & #citizenscience with a fab team of #BellaWhales ❤️🐋 Rachel Lennon Matt Arnold 🔬 Katie Tunn 🇺🇦 Jo Kershaw Bally Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) BDMLR NatureScot National Museums Scotland SCFF Our Seas UofG SBOHVM

A great weekend at Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival this year with a #SMASSing team! 🎉 We had lots of amazing conversations with so many wonderful people wanting to chat about #cetaceans & give there time to collect valuable data to try & protect #marinemammals 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🐳 🐬 🦭

New publication on Parasite - The Journal on the elusive cetacean #Kogia and #anisakis worms. Our favourite parasites in this super weird odontocetes, what else??!! parasite-journal.org/articles/paras…