Marine Observer Agency 🐋
Research Expedition
Our intention with this expedition was to promote open science on opportunistic vessels and to develop innovative and easy-to-reproduce protocols.
In Mai 2021 we organized a scientific expedition called Glacialis.
Expedition Glacialis left the Azores in June 2021 for Greenland on board Atlas a 13m sailing boat.
During this 3 months expedition, we recorded every marine mammals, birds, fish, turtles and plastic we encountered. We collected Photo ID, drone images, eDNA, water, acoustic sample and zooplankton. More than 50 partners (scientific and sponsor) were involved in the expedition and 250 people participated to fund the project.
We were also followed by 10 school classes.
You can download the Expedition Report here.
And see the 52min TV5 documentary about the expedition there: "Latitude du Changement".
One of the result was a high number of match (11 humpback whales matches so far) (see poster below)
This adventure, we hope, is the beginning of other surveys in the Arctic and worldwide.
In a way to sustain our volunteer participation, Marine Observer Agency will contribute to the fees of the vessel rental, food and scientific materials.
If you are interested by our data, have a vessel or are someone willing to contribute to futures projects, please contact us.
This poster has been presented at the European Cetacean Society (ECS) in April 2025 in Ponta Delgada, Azores and at the Humpback Whale World Congress (HWWC) in Tadoussac, Canada in October 2025. It is the result of a collaborative team work in between the data we collected on the field and some catalogs from researchers and Happy whales.
During the two Expeditions (Glacialis and Silas) several matches of flukes were made. Some of them with the endangered population of Cabo Verde.
Thank you to Valerie Chosson for writting this poster and to Arnaud Conne for doing the layering.
Virginie Wyss presented it at the ECS, and Mathieu Marzelière and Laurence Tremblay represented it at the HWWC.
Some Videos from Expedition Glacialis
Carnet de bord #1 Preparation
Carnet de bord #2 Crossing
Carnet de bord #3 Greenland
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