Journal de La Réserve Naturelle Nationale de St.Martin #34

14 Réserve Naturelle SAINT MARTIN Six beacons deployed, eight skin samples taken, a dozen photos of tail fins, and numerous recording of males singing. That recaps the positive results of Megara 4. MEGARA 4: A Success! Maintenir ouaméliorer lesconditionsd’accueil pour lespopulationsdemammifèresmarins To maintain or improve local conditions for marine mammal populations Launched in 2014 by Nicolas Maslach as a scientific mission to study humpback whales, the fourth edition of MEGARA was held March 16-30 in the waters of Sint Maarten, Anguil- la, Saint Barth, Saba, and Sint Eustatius, with proper authorization from these islands. The goal remains to develop a better understand- ing of the biology of these Caribbean hump- back whales, notably through the deploy- ment of Argos beacons, doing skin biopsies, recording the songs of the males, and taking photos of caudal fins for individual identifi- cation. Funded by the Réserve Naturelle, the association Megaptera, the Territorial Agency For The Environment in Saint Barth, and com- panies Nagico and Teria, at least one beacon was implanted in the fatty tissue of each of six humpback whales, and satellites are currently following the movements of four of these ma- jestic mammals. This reveals that one of the whales is heading toward North America, and another is heading to Europe, but also that two females accompanied by their calves are mov- ing around the neighboring islands, perhaps waiting for their babies get a bit bigger before starting the long migration toward summer feeding zones in the North Atlantic. The Argos beacon makes it possible to follow this whale (view April 4th 2019) La balise Argos permet de suivre cette baleine (visuel du 4 avril 2019)