This course covers the evolutionary biology, ecology, behaviour, and conservation of marine mammals: whales, dolphins and porpoises (cetaceans), seals and walruses (pinnipeds), manatees and dugongs (sirenians) and sea otters. Students learn the ecology of mammalian life in the aquatic environment, their role in the marine ecosystem, their behavioural complexity and socio-ecology, and the current threats to these animals in the human-dominated world.