We wish you, and our beautiful planet, an excellent year 2022!
To close out 2021, here is a brief summary of our work, observations, and actions carried out over the past twelve months.
On the cetacean side, 2021 was...
- 161 days of data collection on bottlenose dolphins.
- 195 underwater video sequences of dolphin-diver interactions analyzed.
- 36 resident, semi-resident, or transient dolphins identified in the Tiputa area.
- 4 dolphins particularly observed: unsurprisingly, Zélie, Câline, Nikki, and Yuki.
- 22 dolphins identified on the single day of September 15, our record for 2021.
- 7 births documented, including 5 calves still present on December 31, 2021.
- 5 dolphins formerly members of the community disappeared between January 2020 and July 2021.
On the human side, 2021 was...
- 28 weekly conferences on bottlenose dolphins held outside Covid periods.
- 10 contributions to articles and interviews for magazines, reports, and documentaries.
- The first results of a sociological study conducted between July and September 2021 on the perceptions and motivations driving us to encounter dolphins, presented at the Geneva Forum at the UN, as part of meetings on sustainable tourism.
- 2 baby dolphins named by students of the "dolphin club" at Rangiroa middle school.
- 1 intervention carried out with 6th, 5th, and 4th grade students at Rangiroa middle school.
- 8 brave eco-volunteers who came to spend six weeks with us in the field.
A huge thank you to them and to all divers, anonymous and identified, who gave their time, resources, or images to help us move forward. Thanks also to our local partners: Rangiroa Diving Center, pension Teina and Marie, pension Glorine, les Relais de Joséphine, Mr. Spannagel and Rangiroa middle school, the Federation of Environmental Protection Associations of Polynesia, the Center for Insular Research and Observatory of the Environment of Moorea, and the NGO Objectif Sciences International for their help and involvement in monitoring the bottlenose dolphins of Tiputa.
In 2022, the adventure continues!