Feedback meeting on actions to improve interventions on strandings of marine protected species

The Permanent Secretariat of ACCOBAMS went on January 17^th to Casablanca (Morocco) to take part in the meeting organized by the National Institute for Fisheries Research (INRH) for the end of the project “Strengthening the network of strandings of cetaceans on Moroccan coasts, training in their management and creation of a tissue bank “. This project was conducted by INRH and funded under the ACCOBAMS Additional Conservation Fund.

The objectives of the project to establish a scheme of organization of the stranding network include:

• scientific aspects (recovery and storage of samples)
• administrative aspects (identification of actors and distribution of their role),
• information and management of the public, prices in account of MEDACES procedures,
• and a special intervention procedure for the management of strandings of large species.

This project was set up from a tissue bank, for Morocco, to collect samples and disseminate, where appropriate, the national and international level for scientific research, as well as a solid basis National Stranding Network for the monitoring of strandings. All the present stakeholders defined for future collaborations and a national consultation on the activities to be set up in the near future to formalize this surveillance network.