(December 29, 2012) Madagascar’s Exclusive Economic Zone covers over 1,140,000 square kilometers of marine habitats, twice the area of the island. The length of the coast of Madagascar is about 6000 km, which represents nearly a third of the coastline of all countries of the Western Indian Ocean combined.Madagascar is the country that hosts the second largest area of man- groves and the largest area of coral reefs in the West- ern Indian Ocean. The Island’s coastal habitats, spe- cifically...

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(December 16, 2012) For the last 10 years a coral reef monitoring program has been active in the northeast to assess the management effectiveness of the four oldest national marine parks of Mada- gascar (Tampolo, Masoala, Tanjona and Nosy Antafana). This is a collaborative program between WCS and Madagascar National Parks (MNP). WCS provided several SCUBA diving and reef monitoring protocol training to MNP field staff of the four marine parks. Also, each year a joint WCS-MNP reef monitoring cam- paign is c...

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(December 12, 2012) Interview surveys with Malagasy fishers, aimed at gathering traditional knowledge and information on hunting and by-catch of all marine mammals, were conducted in 58 vil- lages in 13 locations along the west coast by the WCS Ocean Giants team, during five dif- ferent expeditions between 2008 and 2011. There were a total of 533 reports of dugongs spread across 6 decades, with 318 reports of ‘hunting’, 110 reported ‘by-caught’, 101 re- ported sighted ‘live&rs...

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(December 11, 2012) Coastal dolphins and other large marine vertebrates were assessed in the Nosy Iranja and Ampasindava peninsula region (Ankivonjy MPA) and in the waters of Nosy Be during November and December 2012 by the WCS Ocean Giants team. During the 36-day expedition, 132 hours of surveys were conducted in Ankivonjy MPA and 118 hours around Nosy Be. Ten species of cetaceans were sighted in 58 groups during the surveys (nine species in Ankivonjy alone). Among the Mysticetes (large baleen whal...

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(December 05, 2012) Study Shows Nations at Risk, ScienceDaily, October 17, 2012. A new study co-authored by the Wildlife Conserva- tion Society identifies countries, including Madagas- car, most vulnerable to declining coral reef fisheries from a food-security perspective. "The study identi- fies countries where climate change is likely to be felt first by threatening people that depend on fish- eries," said the study's co-author Tim McClanahan of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "These coun- tries are prio...

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