“We need to respect the oceans and take care of them as if our lives depended on it. Because they do.” – Sylvia Earle
Welcome to another great episode of the Caribbean Ocean Perspectives Series featuring Jeffrey Bernus, a marine scientist from Martinique. At the age of 10, he started diving, loving the ocean and observing anthropogenic pressures deteriorate Martinique’s marine environment. This led to him studying marine biology having travelled to Canada and France to obtain a Masters degree in Biodiversity Management as well as the Bahamas (Cape Eleuthera Institute) and in Australia (Australian Institute of Marine Science) to gain more experience on sharks, rays and turtles. His studies were focused on diversity distribution and assemblages of deepwater sharks, Hidden Markov Models for megafauna tracking, predators role related to risk effects and the importance of environmental variables on fish assemblages and distribution. ​
Then he decided to go back to his native region and work for the government at the national park of Guadeloupe. This experience led him to be the scientific coordinator of the Caribbean Marine Mammal Preservation Network (CARI'MAM) project for the Agoa Sanctuary (Office Français pour la Biodiversité, European funded project). Wanting to go beyond the governments’ limitations and objectives for marine mammal conservation, he decided to co-create the Caribbean Cetacean Society to ensure the sustainability of this new community created with this network. His dream in the long term is to create an MPA at the Caribbean scale dedicated to megafauna conservation in order to better protect these fragile species who can't understand our frontiers.
In this episode, we dive into the Cetaceans in the Caribbean, discussing the threats they face, the work the Caribbean Cetacean Society is doing to protect these species and the role Caribbean Nationals can take to protect them. To learn more about Jeffrey and the Cetacean Society you can visit their website or follow them on Instagram and Facebook. If you are interested be sure to reach and let them know that EcoVybz sent you.
Be sure to also follow me EcoVybz on Instagram to keep up to date with the Caribbean Ocean Perspectives Project,