To maintain or improve local conditions for marine mammal populations

To maintain or improve local conditions for marine mammal populations

To maintain or improve local conditions for marine mammal populations

Piège à rat automatique |  Automatic rat trap
Piège à rat automatique | Automatic rat trap

Action CS21

  • Follow the reproductive success of the brown noddy

An agreement between the DEAL and the management association for the Réserve Naturelle as part of the France Relance project to promote regulations controlling the population of small rodents on the small island of Tintamarre, concluded on December 31, 2022. The project consisted of two phases involving 150 traps (installed, baited, and regularly controlled and rearmed), which covered two-thirds of the island. The total count for the traps was 3,500 incidents, meaning that just about that many of these rodents will no longer impact one of the most fragile ecosystems on the sanctuary for our biodiversity.

However, the operation continues in order to cover more of the island, as well as install a biosecurity system on the beach in Baie Blanche, a busy site, to prevent more rats from arriving by the sea.

If these little invaders are annoying where picnics take place, they are also attracted by all sources of potential nourishment close to points of water, as well as nesting zones for the brown noddies and tropicbirds along the cliffs. When the number of trap incidents decreases on the second third of the island, the traps will be moved to the final third, on the eastern side of Tintamarre to complete the project.

The Réserve Naturelle would like to sincerely thank the numerous volunteers that made the very demanding and time-consuming project possible.

Une baleine à bosse emmêlée dans un filet © Guide MEGAPTERA : Les baleines à bosse du banc d’Anguilla A humpback whale tangles in a fishing net © The Humpback Whaleso f the Anguilla Bank MEGAPTERA guide
Une baleine à bosse emmêlée dans un filet © Guide MEGAPTERA : Les baleines à bosse du banc d’Anguilla A humpback whale tangles in a fishing net © The Humpback Whaleso f the Anguilla Bank MEGAPTERA guide

Professional fishing and marine mammals: what are the consequences?

The Réserve Naturelle participated in a commissioned study by the OFB staff at the Agoa sanctuary on the interaction between professional fishing and marine mammals within the Agoa sanctuary. A case based on the fact that marine mammals get tangled up on lines and cords of a fish aggregating device. After the inquiry, it looks as if the local techniques used around Saint Martin involve no, or few, interactions, but observations at large have provoked numerous meetings around the use of fish aggregating devices.

Permanent Recording Of Whale Songs

On June 9, 2021, like they do every month, the Réserve recovered the hydrophone submerged since February 2021 at a depth of 15 meters to record the sounds that reverberate in “the world of silence,” most notably the songs of marine mammals, as part of the CARI’MAM project. The data recorded on a memory card is sent to researchers at the University of Montpellier, who use artificial intelligence to learn how to recognize the different species of marine mammals. Eventually, this will also be used to automatically handle the hours of recordings, completely autonomously, and produce entirely new kinds of data. The hydrophone is submerged between the small islands of Tintamarre and Scrub, in French waters, where it records one minute every five minutes, 24/7. Its batteries must be changed once a month.

Séance d’entraînement d’immersion d’une balise
Séance d’entraînement d’immersion d’une balise

Listening to marine mammals

The managers of the protected marine areas in the Caribbean met in the Dominican Republic on October 30-November 4 2019, at the invitation of Cari’Mam (see inset). A majority of the meeting was a discussion of the project to install 20 under- water acoustic beacons throughout the Antilles archipelago from Trinidad to Bermuda. These submerged beacons will record the songs of marine mammals within an area of 10 nautical miles (18.5 km) during one minute, followed by a pause of four minutes in order to extend battery life. The beacon specific to Saint Martin was put into place during the first week of January, 2020, outside of the Réserve Naturelle, off the coast of Tintamare. The beacons for Anguilla and Saint Barth will be placed in accordance with that of Saint Martin, in order to cover the largest surface possible. The beacons will record the songs of the marine mammals on SD cards that will be collected every two months by the staff of the Réserve, when they both change the batteries and put in a new card. The cards will be read at a dedicated laboratory at the University of Toulon, where the sounds will be identified. The results will be communicated as a report. Three other ateliers at the meeting focused on best practices for whale watching, as well as environmental education to protect marine mammals, and the creation of a booklet to help the public identify marine mammals at sea. For this project, the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), by way of the Agoa Sanctuary, provided a donation of 11,940€ to the Réserve Naturelle for the purchase of two hydrophones and pedagogical sculptures of marine mammals.

Financed by the European Union as part of the Interreg Caraïbes program, the Cari’Mam cooperation project hopes to create a network of managers of protected marine areas in the Caribbean for the protection of marine mammals. Ideas on the table include the development of shared tools for management and evaluation, as well as the development of a sustainable guide for whale watching that fully respects the mammals.
Prise en charge d’un bébé dauphin en détresse
Prise en charge d’un bébé dauphin en détresse

On August 2, thanks to notification from the staff at the Marina Fort Louis and some boaters, the Réserve Naturelle tried to help a young dolphin in distress, injured on its snout and disoriented. Already sighted in the bay at Grand-Case, in a thin, weakened state, this little marine mammal was not yet weaned and died during an examination by veterinarian Dr. Michel Vély. The animal was treated according to the protocol for “marine mammals in distress” established by a national network to which the Réserve belongs. This small animal was kept for an autopsy, the results of which will be used for training purposes at the Agoa sanctuary

Deux baleines à bosse - Two humpback whales
Deux baleines à bosse - Two humpback whales

The Réserve Naturelle of Saint Martin naturally took part in a meeting of 70 specialists from protected marine areas, as well as marine mammal experts in Gosier, Guadeloupe, on May 9-10, 2019. Agoa and Cari’Mam — Caribbean Marine Mammals Preservation— the network for the protection of marine mammals in the Caribbean, organized the meeting. The French islands and Guyana were present, as well as the Dutch islands, Anguilla, The Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominica, Haiti, Jamaica, The Turks & Caicos, and the United States. Various ateliers allowed the participants to exchange ideas about protected marine areas and their management, public awareness campaigns, beaching of marine mammals, and the sustainability of whale watching. Saint Martin, represented by Nicolas Maslach, director of the Réserve Naturelle, and Michel Vély, president of Megaptera, as well as Bulent Gulay, president of Métimer, commanded attention as they presented the latest Megara campaign. This campaign comprised deploying six beacon tags and following the humpback whales on their journey toward North America and Europe, as well as taking eight skin samples, a dozen photos of tail fins, and recording numerous songs by the male whales. The Agoa sanctuary, which offers protection for marine mammals, covers the entire economic zone of the French Antilles, or 143,256 square kilometers.

Magnifique saut de baleine à bosse Magnificent jump by a humpback whale © Steeve Ruillet / Megaptera
Magnifique saut de baleine à bosse Magnificent jump by a humpback whale © Steeve Ruillet / Megaptera

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 ou améliorer les conditions d’accueil pour les populations de mammifères marins 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, Anguilla, Saint Barth, Saba, and Sint Eustatius, with proper authorization from these islands. The goal remains to develop a better understanding of the biology of these Caribbean humpback whales, notably through the deployment of Argos beacons, doing skin biopsies, recording the songs of the males, and taking photos of caudal fins for individual identification. Funded by the Réserve Naturelle, the association Megaptera, the Territorial Agency For The Environment in Saint Barth, and companies 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 majestic 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 moving 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)

In addition, eight skin samples will provide genetic analyses that reveal the sex of each animal, and will be compared to the knowledge already acquired and centralized at The University of Groningen in the Netherlands, in an attempt to show that the “Saint Martin whales” are close genetically to those of Cape Verde. A dozen photos of caudal tail fins, whose characteristics define the identity of each humpback 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 Norway, thanks to the support of OMMAG (Observatory For Marine Mammals In The Guadeloupe 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 images taken from a drone. The staff of the Réserve Naturelle de Saint-Martin; Michel Vély, a marine mammals specialist and president of the Megaptera association; Steeve Ruillet, a member of Megaptera; the Territorial Agency For The Environment in Saint Barth; representatives from the Agoa sanctuary; and the European Cariman project; as well as several journalists, participated in this exceptional occasion marked by the sharing of knowledge and friendship.

Leur nageoire caudale est la carte d’identité des baleines à bosse / Their caudal fins are the individual identity for humpback whales © Nicolas Maslach

 

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