megaRA |Sanctuaire pour les mammifères marins Agoa

Since 2014, the National Nature Reserve of Saint-Martin has been collaborating with the Megaptera association, the Agoa Sanctuary and the Greenland Institute of Denmark, to organise Humpback Whale monitoring and tagging campaigns within the Anguilla Bank, particularly off Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin.

The objective is to develop a better understanding of the biology and behaviour of Caribbean Humpback Whales. Several techniques are used:

setting up of Argos tags, satellite tracers implanted in the blubbery tissue of the whales and enabling the tracking of individual movements
skin sampling for genetic analysis, used to compare the Humpback Whales in the waters of Saint-Martin to those of Cape Verde
acoustic recordings, particularly the songs of males
photo identification by comparison of the tail flukes with worldwide photo identification catalogues

The production of knowledge resulting from this program thus contributes to the specialised scientific literature, which is an indispensable basis for the conservation of these species.

Les rapports de mission megaRA

Consultez les rapport des différentes missions MegaRA dans les Antilles.

Date de la documentation :

décembre 2019

Rapports et études