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

15 In addition, eight skin samples will provide ge- netic analyses that reveal the sex of each ani- mal, and will be compared to the knowledge already acquired and centralized at The Uni- versity of Groningen in the Netherlands, in an attempt to show that the “Saint Martin whales” are close genetically to those of CapeVerde. A dozen photos of caudal tail fins, whose char- acteristics define the identity of each hump- back whale, will enrich the catalogue created in 2014 by the Réserve and will be shared with existing catalogues in the Caribbean as well as the United States, Canada, Iceland, and Nor- way, thanks to the support of OMMAG (Ob- servatory For Marine Mammals In The Gua- deloupe Archipelago). As for the songs of the males, intended to seduce the females, they differ from season to season. It is possible to hear a sample on the Réserve’s facebook page. The mission took place aboard a Contender and semi-rigid boat belonging to the Réserve, equipped with a turret used by Mikkel Villum Jensen, a professional whale tagger, to deploy his beacons, and for the staff of the Réserve to take the skin samples. A catamaran served as the logistical base for these operations. In spite of mediocre sea conditions, at least four groups of humpback whales were observed each day and provided beautiful aerial im- ages taken from a drone. The staff of the Ré- serve Naturelle de Saint-Martin; Michel Vély, a marine mammals specialist and president of the Megaptera association; Steeve Ruillet, a member of Megaptera; the Territorial Agen- cy For The Environment in Saint Barth; repre- sentatives from the Agoa sanctuary; and the European Cariman project; as well as sever- al journalists, participated in this exceptional occasion marked by the sharing of knowledge and friendship. MEGARA 4 : a success! Maintenir ouaméliorer lesconditionsd’accueil pour lespopulationsdemammifèresmarins To maintain or improve local conditions for marine mammal populations Réserve Naturelle SAINT MARTIN Leur nageoire caudale est la carte d’identité des baleines à bosse / Their caudal fins are the individual identity for humpback whales © Nicolas Maslach