2009 Northeast Regional Stranding Conference

Salem Waterfront Hotel & Suites, Salem, MA March 26-29, 2009

Registration

Full Registration includes Consortium and Business Meetings, Icebreaker, Friday and Saturday Sessions. Registration for Friday or Saturday sessions, Icebreaker, Banquet and Special Symposium available individually.

Note: Online registration is now closed.  Registration will be open at the door

Venue

Salem Waterfront Hotel & Suites, Salem, MA
http://www.salemwaterfronthotel.com/
Standard rooms are available for a conference rate of $109 per night.  You can reserve rooms by calling Salem Waterfront Hotel reservations at 888-337-2536 or the front desk at 978-740-8788.  Be sure to mention that you are attending the NERS conference to receive the conference rate.  The NERS block of rooms will be held until February 16th, so book early to ensure that you get the conference rate!

Travel Information

By car: http://www.salemwaterfronthotel.com/gettinghere/index.htm
By air: The nearest airport is Logan International Airport, Boston, MA
By train: Salem is approximately 30 minutes by train from Boston (on the Newburyport/Rockport Line) http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/rail/
We will provide a shuttle from the Salem train station to the Salem Waterfront Hotel & Suites

Agenda

Call for Abstracts

We invite all Northeast Regional Stranding Network (NERS) members and other interested parties to submit abstracts for oral presentation at the 2009 NERS Conference.  Presentations should be on issues related to marine mammal and sea turtle health, stranding response, rehabilitation or other related issues.

Oral presentations will be 15 minutes long and will take place during Friday and Saturday sessions of the Conference.  There is no limit on the number of abstracts that may be submitted by an organization or individual.  All abstracts will be reviewed by the hosting organizations (The New England Aquarium, The National Marine Life Center and The Whale Center of New England).  Abstracts will be judged on a variety of factors, including relevance of information, scientific or technical merit and presentation.

Abstracts will be divided into sessions based on the following topics:

• Marine mammal disease
• Sea turtle disease
• Case studies
• Stranding trends
• Large whales
• General

Please identify which session you would like your presentation to be included in. 

Abstract Format:
Abstracts should be 300 words or less and provide a concise summary of the presentation.  Abstracts should be a Microsoft Word document in Times New Roman (TNR) font size 10.  Abstracts should also include the following:

• Abstract title (bold, TNR size 12)
• Author(s) listed by last name, first and middle initials (TNR size 12)
• Superscript of each author’s affiliation after their name (TNR size 12)
• Affiliated organization name and location (italic, TNR size 10)
• Email address for primary author (TNR size 10)

Abstract Submission: Please submit your abstract(s) by February 13, 2009. Only abstracts that meet the submission deadline will be considered.  Please send your abstract and choice of session to:
strandingabstract@gmail.com

Poster Session

We invite all interested parties to contribute posters involving topics related to marine mammal and sea turtle health, stranding response, rehabilitation or other related issues.  Posters should be displayed from 8:00am on Friday March 27th until 5:30pm on Saturday March 28th in the scientific session room (Maritime Ballroom).  There will be a poster session at the afternoon coffee break on Saturday in which authors are asked to stand with their posters to answer questions from conference attendees.  Please notify Kate Sardi (ksardi@neaq.org) if you are planning to display a poster.