Cooperation and Research

Best Practices for Collecting Marine Mammal Abundance Data Aboard Oceanic Surveys Workshop 

The U.S. Government, through the NMFS, the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, and other Federal agencies, undertakes a number of research projects on cetaceans in U.S. waters and overseas. NMFS also collaborates with non-U.S. scientists on a wide variety of cetacean research activities.

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are responsible for developing Stock Assessment Reports (SARs) for each marine mammal stock that occurs in waters under the jurisdiction of the United States.

Under the ESA, NMFS enters into agreements with states that establish and maintain an "adequate and active" program for the conservation of endangered and threatened species. Once a state enters into such an agreement, NMFS provides federal funding through the Species Recovery Grants to States a competitive grant program for implementation of the state's conservation program. States use federal grant funding to support management, outreach, research, and monitoring projects with direct conservation benefits for threatened and endangered species.

Based on the Partnership between the French MPA Agency and the French Austral Territory, this program is aiming at defining important ecological areas, particularly for top predator such as marine mammals, and new MPAs in the Crozet (planning domain 5) and Kerguelen (planning domain 6) areas as well as in the East Antarctica planning domain. A first proposal for a representative system of MPAs in East Antarctica has been presented jointly by France and Australia, since 2012 at annual meetings of the Commission CAMLR.

France is a member state of the International Whaling Commission, the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), the convention on biodiversity (CBD) and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). Beside Pelagos, France is a member state of the ASCOBANS and ACCOBAMS agreements for the protection of cetaceans in European seas, under the Convention for the protection of Migratory Species (CMS). In September 2006, France has signed the Memorandum of Understanding for the conservation on cetaceans and their habitats in the Pacific islands region, also under the CMS.

Cetacean surveys in Gabon have been conducted from five different field sites: Pongara (2012), Port Gentil (2000, 2012, 2014), Iguéla (2001-2005), Gamba (2000 and 2002) and Mayumba (2005-2011). Surveys have also been conducted in partnership with other agencies (including a cooperative COMHAFAT survey in 2011 and the EAF-Nansen project in 2014).

Gabon became a contracting party to CITES in 1989 and became a signatory to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) in 2008. Gabon signed the CMS Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Conservation of the Manatee and Small Cetaceans of Western Africa and Macaronesia in 2008.