Agoa acts in favor of marine mammals

The third council for the management of the Agoa Sanctuary for the protection of marine mammals was held in Guadeloupe on April 27 & 28, 2016,

Presided over by Yvon Combes. Saint Martin was represented by Ramona Connor, vice president of the territorial council, Kate Richardson, director of the Tourist Office, Bulent Gulay, president of the association Métimer, Nicolas Maslach, manager of the reserve of Saint-Martin and Romain Renoux, correspondent for Agoa in Saint Martin. The council elected Maurice Bonté as vice president of the sanctuary, who attends in his capacity as president of the mayors’ association of Martinique. The assembly studied, among other topics, the consequences of the CASEIS seismic campaign on marine mammals. The goal of this campaign is to find the traces of large earthquakes in the Antilles archipelago, in order to better understand seismic cycles in the region. In 2015, the Agoa office was asked to provide its assessment on various projects (seismic research, enlarging port zones, oceanographic campaign) that have a potential impact on cetaceans, in order to eliminate or reduce this impact as much as possible. Created during the first management council in Martinique, the international cooperation committee has defined a strategy for cooperation throughout the Caribbean and beyond: the idea is to extend the protection of marine mammals along their migratory routes, which sometimes extend for thousands of miles from the North Atlantic to tropical waters. Additional information: www.sanctuaire-agoa.fr