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Mediterranean Sea : REPCET whale tracking system

Cachalot blessé Sanctuaire Pelagos @ Hervé Bré EnezGreen
Cachalot blessé Sanctuaire Pelagos @ Hervé Bré EnezGreen

In Mediterranean Sea, REPCET system enables real-time sharing of known positions of whales in order to protect them from ships' collisions which are frequent in maritime areas of high affluence. Three new ships have recently joined the REPCET network including two long distance LNG carriers Gazocean and the TLV-TVM company linking mainland France to HyĂšres islands which has equipped one of its passenger vessels . Driven by "Souffleurs d'Ă©cume" association, REPCET network, consisting of 12 mobile units and 3 fixed units, is progressing slowly but surely.

Many cargo ships and cruise ships have to route the Pelagos sanctuary, an area where some 3000 whales and sperm whales come each year to breed and feed, mainly in summer.

Collisions are one of the main causes of mortality of these animals. For forty years, scientists estimate that about 70 whales have died in a collision with a boat in the Mediterranean. But studies have shown that this figure could actually be 30 times higher.

Three additional ships joined the Repcet network

Three additional ships joined the REPCET network in the last months. Convinced of the usefulness of the system since the equipment of GDF SUEZ GLOBAL ENERGY in 2013, ENGIE and its subsidiary GAZOCEAN decided to equip two additional long-distance LNG carriers: GASELYS and PROVALYS. Cruising in the Mediterranean but also in many other seas of the globe, these two ships therefore become the ambassadors of REPCET.

Moreover, the TLV-TVM company connecting mainland France and the Hyeres Islands also wished to get involved in the REPCET system by equipping one of its passenger boats.

The REPCET network is now composed of 12 mobile units and 3 fixed units.

Amendment in favor of Repcet adopted by French Parliament

Two amendments related to ship strikes and the equipment of ships were proposed and accepted in the Parliament these last weeks.

The first one is an amendment to article 46 ter of the “Biodiversity” bill. Examined and adopted in first lecture by the Senate on 21 January 2016, it proposes that “an anti-collision device shall be tested on State ships longer than 25 metres when they do not take part to security or national defence activities and when they sail in the waters under French jurisdiction within the Pelagos and Agoa sanctuaries”.

The second amendment is related to the “Blue Economy” bill. Adopted by the National Assembly on 29 January 2016, it completes the previous article by stating that a “position sharing device aiming at avoiding collisions with cetaceans shall equip pleasure boats and commercial ships larger than 24 metres under French flag when they sail in the Pelagos and Agoa sanctuaries for marine mammals”. This addition to the current bill still needs to be validated by the Senate.

Repcet App available for smartphones and tablets under Android

Building on this success, the association Souffleurs d’Ă©cume just launched the REPCET App that is now available for smartphones and tablets under Android! Developed thanks to the support of the Agence de l’Eau, this simplified version of REPCET mainly targets High Quality Whale WatchingÂź 1 certified whale watching operators and other sea users capable of correctly identifying cetacean species. In order not to increase pressure on animals, the REPCET App only enables to send cetacean observations to members of the network; app users will not receive the observations made by contributors.