REPCET

The Mediterranean Sea hosts some of the most emblematic animals of the planet. The fin whale, a 40 to 70-ton whale, is the second largest animal the Earth has ever known. The sperm whale is a 15 to 18-meter predator capable of diving for 90 minutes down to 2 km deep, in complete darkness, to feed on giant squids. At the top of the food chain, these animals are essential to the environmental balances.

Despite their gigantism, fin whales and sperm whales are fragile. Just like us, they have lungs which require them to reach the surface to breathe. Up there, they cross paths with the thousands of large ships sailing in the Mediterranean each day. The terrible and lethal collisions between ships and whales represent one of the main causes of mortality for these whales. Isolated in the Mediterranean, the populations of these two species are seriously threatened by ship strikes.

Captain Frédéric Capoulade, now president of Souffleurs d'Ecume, recalls: "At the helm of cargos of high-speed ferries between Corsica and mainland France, I collided several times with whales. These moments really shook ma career as a Captain and I chose to implement a series of actions to reduce these accidents, first within my company and now as president of Souffleurs d'Ecume".

Very discrete at the surface, large cetaceans are hardly detectable by officers on board. To tackle this curse occurring in the heart of the Pelagos Sanctuary, the NGO Souffleurs d'Ecume has been federating and raising awareness among shipping companies for 15 years. With them, the NGO developed a collaborative computer system called REPCET (for REal-time Plotting of CETaceans). REPCET gives the opportunity to increase the low "detectability" of whales by sharing whale positions between ships in real-time through a satellite communication.

It's a simple principle: each large cetacean observation made by the crew on watch from a ship equipped with REPCET is sent in real-time via satellite to a server on shore. The server stores the data and broadcast alerts to the other ships equipped. Alerts are then mapped on-board on a dedicated screen and dynamic risk areas appear taking into consideration the animal movements. An intuitive display helps rapidly identifying dangers and their nature in order to improve watch on deck or reduce speed for example, and therefore significantly reduce the risk of a collision.

Moreover, the system records the cetacean positions transmitted by ships while it's being used. The database thus created is made available to the scientific community with an objective of virtuous circle: improve our knowledge on cetaceans to improve their protection.

Under the patronage of yachtswoman Catherine Chabaud and supported by the Fondation Nicolas Hulot, the REPCET system is recognised as a pioneer and exemplary project likely to put progress in the service of biodiversity preservation.