Abstract

Sperm whales’ populations has considerably been reduced by whaling and fails to sustainably recover. Since 1984, the work of several organizations, mainly leaded by the Dominica Sperm Whale Project (DSWP), has led to an estimate of 681 individuals in the Caribbean. Those giants are, nowadays, facing a new set of anthropogenic threats which seems to reduce their population by a rate of 6.2% by year. This is particularly alarming since DSWP found that sperm whales’ population in the Caribbean is divided in three main vocal clans, representing different cultures, which are not mixing with each other. Consequently, the population could be even more at risk compared to what we previously thought. In this context, since 2020, the Caribbean Cetacean Society is dedicated to cooperation, research, education, and conservation of cetacean in the Caribbean region. To participate in sperm whale’s conservation, we extended existing studies to all the Lesser Antilles islands from Anguilla to Grenada. We aim to enhance cooperation in the Caribbean between all kind of actors such as scientists, policymakers, whale-watchers, locals, and fishers. To pursue this goal, we established a standardized and reproducible protocol which enabled us to identify 22 new individuals, to get 40 matches with other organizations such as DSWP, thus participating updating the vocal clan distribution, the sperm whale’s movement, and the abundance estimation within the Lesser Antilles. In the heterogeneous context of cetacean’s conservation within the Lesser Antilles, it seems more than urgent to continue this collective effort to protect our giants efficiently