Agoa: update on marine mammals

The goal of the “Kozé Agoa” organized on November 5, 2015 at the Sandy Ground Cultural Centre Sandy Ground was to inform the population about the marine mammal sanctuary in the French Caribbean.

About 200 people attended the lecture presented by Sophie Bedel, who notes that at least 25 of the 31 marine mammal species in the Caribbean visit the sanctuary, including certain little known species such as Gervais’ beaked whale. Daniel Langlois, director of the Saguenay-St Lawrence Marine Park in Canada, and member of the management council, presented a short film about humpback whales that feed in Canadian waters during the summer, in order to gather strength before swimming back to spend the winter in the waters of the Caribbean, where they reproduce and have their young. Jean-Pierre Concaud, a whale-watching operator in Guadeloupe, spoke about this activity that has been expanding, with at least 20 companies involved in the observation of marine mammals in Martinique, and another 10 in Guadeloupe, with an obligation to respect the strict regulations as decreed by the prefecture. The director of the tourism office, Kate Richardson, evoked the necessity to follow a policy of sustainable tourism, especially in the development of eco-tourism, so why not whale-watching? The Saint Martin branch of the association, My School, My Whale, presented a short pedagogical film made by an elementary school class in Grand-Case.