Abstract

Our field of research is focused on cetacean observations in order to propose some answers about the diversity, abundance and distribution of this marine biodiversity. Hence, we are leading since 2008 an inventory of cetaceans in Guadeloupe, in the French West Indies, which includes the AGOA Marine mammals French Sanctuary (www.agoa.fr), concerned by cetacean conservation priorities. To complete our scientific purposes we assessed a concept of a passive acoustic permanent observatory. Thus, the use of a fixed buoy as a support for a hydrophone has led to the creation of a customized prototype: GUALIBA I. This system merges the high technology of an autonomous acoustic system with a powerful FAD revised with a new design . The Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) are widely used in pelagic fisheries. The intensifying use of these semi-submersible artificial floating objects in the Caribbean Sea is due to their heavy contribution to fishing activities in coastal areas. In the archipelago of Guadeloupe, their mutualisation through the deployment of a fleet of moored FADs, monitored and maintained since January 2008, aims to ensure reliable and sustainable long term fishing devices. Funded on triptych collaborative skills (Biology - Fisheries - Technologies), our results highlight here the formalization of a new technological answer and preliminary recordings results. The choice of implemen-tation considered priority our cetacean biodiversity first results, environmental features (currents, distance from the coast) and technological constraints (power autonomy, large storage needs data recovery). The system has been deployed at 22km from the Leeward coast of Guadeloupe the 25 November 2010 on a moored FAD at ± 1450 meters of depth. The perspective of this work could be the creation of a synchronized network of FADs as instruments for cetaceans monitoring.

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