Opération Delphis for loggerhead turtles

The marine conservation team of Nature Trust Malta is partnering with Rimmo Réserve Internationale Maritime en Méditerranée Occidentale and the local authorities to hold Opération Delphis for the second consecutive year in Malta.

This year, Opération Delphis is scheduled to take place on July 4, locally and in all the designated areas of the Mediterranean.

The success of the project hugely depends on the collaboration of volunteer boaters who can all observe and collect data.

Since safety is paramount, this event will only take place in suitable weather conditions, that is, wind force three or less.

Should conditions be unfavourable, the event will be postponed to July 11. If weather conditions remain unfavourable it will be cancelled.

Every volunteer will be given a full briefing and receive a Rimmo kit, including a flag to fly from the ship’s mast on the day.

Last year, Malta’s first participation gave many volunteers the chance to be part of this project, with nearly all participants recording sightings of loggerhead turtles.

Opération Delphis commenced in 1996 at the request of dolphin and whale enthusiasts, who had already signed petitions and given their support to related associations. Now they wanted to get personally involved in a cetacean protection project.

Since then professional and amateur boaters have been invited to join an exceptional day out at sea to identify and count dolphins and whales, including participants from France, Italy, and more recently Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Malta.

Activities on the day also include the collecting of plankton and sea water samples for scientific analysis.

Each participating boat follows a precise scientific protocol on an individually allotted square of four nautical miles by four nautical miles.

The adjoining squares form a wide mesh covering a very large area at sea.

To ensure the accuracy of the data gathered by the volunteers, the Rimmo teams meet the participants to train them in identifying different cetacean species and how to use the plankton net.

For the last 16 years, Rimmo has organised the annual international conference on cetaceans of the Mediterranean in Nice every November, to which scientists, policy makers and Opération Delphis participants are invited.

The latest data and results on marine mammals and marine biodiversity are exchanged and Mediterranean scientists define future research programmes. The results of the year’s Opération Delphis are presented, discussed and compared with those of previous years.

Further details from Nature Trust (Malta), e-mail: delphismalta09@gmail.com , tel: 21313150.

www.rimmo.org