The Agoa Marine Mammal Sanctuary, situated in the French West Indies, is a marine protected area designated in 2010 and recognized under the SPAW (Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife) protocol of the Cartagena Convention in 2012.

A huge marine area

With a surface area of 143,256 km², the Agoa Sanctuary is the third largest marine protected area in France. The Sanctuary covers the entire exclusive economic zone of the French West Indies, i.e. the waters of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy.

The declaration specifies five major principles of action to be implemented over the long term: 

1. Reduce the negative interactions (direct or indirect, potential or proven) between human activities and marine mammals and seek innovative ways to limit the impact of these activities (paragraphs § 5 & 6).
2. Increase the knowledge of marine mammal populations and their habitats, as well as the current or potential anthropogenic pressures and threats affecting these species (paragraph § 7).
3. Disseminate knowledge (information, awareness, education) and raise awareness of the Agoa Sanctuary, marine mammals and the marine environment in general (paragraph § 8).
4. Cooperate with the State services in the framework of mutualizing the means of surveillance and control enforcement within the Sanctuary (paragraph § 9).
5. Cooperate with other Caribbean states and especially with the Contracting Parties to the Cartagena Convention and its SPAW Protocol, as well as with states sharing marine mammal populations, in order to promote the implementation of protection and management measures similar to those of the Agoa Sanctuary (paragraph § 12).

In practice, the Sanctuary translates these foundational statements into four types of actions: 

• Knowledge and monitoring: the Sanctuary monitors marine mammal populations in order to better adapt management strategies for their preservation,
• Exchange and collaboration: the Sanctuary's technical team works in collaboration with other marine stakeholders to limit negative interactions between human activities and marine mammals, and with government services to better control human activities,
• Information and awareness: informing the various users of this vast space and raising awareness among the population and the youth is one of the pillars of the Sanctuary's action,
• Cooperation: marine mammals have large and often poorly known home ranges. Working in cooperation with managers of neighboring and distant marine protected areas allows us to initiate preservation strategies at the scale of these large travellers.

Under the hierarchical responsibility of Laurie Hec, Executive Director of the Sanctuary, the team is composed of:

• an administrative officer
• a scientific coordinator
• a scientific monitoring officer
• a fisheries and shipping officer
• a whale watching management officer
• a data management officer
• a communication and awareness officer

If you want to contact us, please send a message to santuaire.agoa@ofb.gouv.fr