Morigenos’ participation at ECS 2026 in Dundee, Scotland

Nearly 800 marine mammal experts and students from institutions from different countries attended the 37th Annual Conference of the European Cetacean Society, held in Dundee, Scotland (UK), from 20 to 24 of April. The conference, titled “From Basics to Benefits”, highlighted the importance of connecting basic scientific knowledge to conservation outcomes for marine mammals and their environment, fostering expert discussion on key challenges and practical solutions. Our president, Dr. Tilen Genov, kicked-off the meeting with his welcoming message as the chairperson of ECS.

On photo: Elena Pazhenkova (DivjaLabs), Urška Kajtna (Morigenos), Shakira Quiñones (Morigenos)

Two of our researchers presented posters. Our researcher and PhD student, Urška Kajtna, presented a poster titled “Identifying common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) prey using photographs collected during focal follows”, which demonstrates a non-invasive approach to studying cetacean diet based on rare images of surface feeding events. While this method is insufficient in describing the overall diet of bottlenose dolphins, it can provide useful insights in a well-studied population. Her attendance at the conference and the presentation of the research was enabled by the Interreg IPA ADRION SAMESEA project.
Dr. Shakira Quiñones presented a poster titled: “Friendly transboundary collaboration enhances understanding of bottlenose dolphin movement ecology in the northern Adriatic Sea”, where she showed the results of our collaboration with Dolphin Biology and Conservation under the Interreg Italy-Slovenia SeaInsights project, reporting on the movement of our dolphins between Slovenia and Italy, and the overall population estimates.
Our team had a fantastic time in Dundee, and we are looking forward to next year’s ECS conference.

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SAMESEA project is co-funded by the European Union through the Interreg IPA ADRION programme. https://samesea.interreg-ipa-adrion.eu
The SeaInsights project is financed by the European Union as part of the Program VI-A Italy-Slovenia. https://www.ita-slo.eu/en/seainsights