Excellent article on the International Whaling Commission 2010 (April 2010)
Hello, I invite Internet users to read the excellent article on the truth of the "CBI" (in anticipation of the meeting) from June 2010!
Category: General blog
The killer whale? (March 2010)
The death of the trainer in a water park in Florida has made many people bounce! But why? Are you surprised?
A year and a half in Polynesia (February 2010)
That delay for the update of my website since the last two months! The reason is simple, the connection on my island is reduced and difficult.
The NGO SOS Grand Bleu celebrates its 20th anniversary (December 2009)
I've been a member of the S.O.S Grand Bleu association since 1997. Its office is located in the beautiful village of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (France), not far from Nice and Ville franche sur mer. It has just celebrated its 20th anniversary.
All against captivity and the massacre of dolphins with the film -The Cove-.
Mr. Rick O'Barry is the hero of a documentary filmed in Taiji, Japan, entitled -The Cove-, which refers to the annual slaughter of thousands of dolphins. It opens in cinemas today.
Departure for Canada (October 2009)
Change on my side. Finally my employer is going to sell his company on January 1st 2010. He wanted to do it for a while.
Swim with a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)!
Dear visitors,
There are days when life reserves us surprises...
I left with my group of six people. The captain, our boat, to make as usual a descent of the Tiputa pass in PMT (fins, mask and snorkel). Honestly, seeing the group, I had a feeling that it would be a difficult trip.
As soon as we arrived on the ocean side channel, the captain shouted "Whale" ! At first I thought it was not serious and yet the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) was there, in front of us.
We followed her into the ocean and then she went to the edge of the atoll near the reef. We jumped into the water with all the fear it could bring. Only one person wanted to follow me and then finally everyone jumped in the water.
The captain stayed at a good distance and let us swim slowly towards the animal. It was playing on the surface, alone, very calm and in a depth of only 20 meters. I held two tourists by the hands and the others stayed behind. As we approached, the whale remained stationary at the surface, two bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) were playing in front of it and we had many fish around them. She looked at us, approached the group in an oblique way and then slowly left. A few magic minutes. We could still follow her but she started to want to go away towards the open sea.
We followed her by boat and then returned to Tiputa Pass. I had a hard time concentrating for the next few hours. In the evening, I celebrated in a nice restaurant on the atoll.
I had seen it in Canada but never underwater. All the books I have read about it and seen so many photographs. A deep dream comes true.
One of the tourists had a diving camera, he should send me his pictures and his little movie at the end of August 2009. I will come back on it.
Have a good week. Best wishes.
Rangiroa - French Polynesia - August 2009.
Julien Marchal
Report, cetaceans and manta ray (July 2009)
Quite a few delays this month, as the season got off to a fast start. Bearing in mind that from July to December 2010, we have the peak tourist season throughout French Polynesia.
Is visible pollution the most harmful (June 2009)
In my 2002 report entitled "Pollution and its effects on cetaceans", written in collaboration with Stéphanie Raynaud in Montpellier (France), I had already largely exposed the problem. But I wanted to provide further explanations of other general problems.
Very good report on killer whales in the Strait of Gibraltar (in english, April 2009)
I was sent a report (in English) dated 2007, about orcas (Orcinus orca) hunting tuna in the Strait of Gibraltar.