WITH the rise in manatee sightings at the mouth of the Demerara over the past few months, the Guyana Marine Conservation Society (GMCS) is calling on marine vessel users to be on the lookout for marine mammals and to take added precautions when traversing the area.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle on Sunday, GMCS President Annette Arjoon-Martins noted that the manatee is just one species among many which either live in the area or traverse it during migratory travel. The other species include the sperm whale and dolphin.

She said the increased sighting is a basis for renewed efforts to bring awareness to these animals.

“The fact that we have manatee sightings very frequently off the Demerara mouth and offshore, we now have to alert the mariners and these oil and gas support vessels that they really need to take caution,” she noted.

Arjoon-Martins added: “There is a whole need for us to create awareness among the mariners using this marine space about the need for some sort of marine management, whether it be zoning or whatever, but that’s where the conversation needs to go.”

Through research conducted by one of its members, Hanan Latchmansigh, the GMCS discovered that there has been an exponential increase in the marine traffic at the mouth of the Demerara River since 2015, when Guyana made its first oil discovery.

“The report was phenomenal in terms of what it shows in the extraordinary increase in marine traffic. So, when you have 10 times increased traffic then these captains have to be on the alert. My whole reason for getting that study was to raise awareness to these mariners, that we have these precious animals in our marine space [and] please be on the lookout for them,” she noted.

Notwithstanding the drastic increase in the marine traffic along the mouth of the Demerara River, there has been little research or marine monitoring of how this has been affecting marine life.

Arjoon-Martins, however, noted that the society has been increasing its capacity to respond to reports about incidents involving marine wildlife, particularly through the recent training of several of its members in drone operation, which has greatly improved its ability to operate.

“For the first time we are now equipped with five marine scientists on our board who are equipped to use drone technology and we see this as the GMCS having an ocean-monitoring unit that will be using technology to not only do monitoring for ourselves, but if any other company needs monitoring in the marine space we can provide that technical capacity to them as well,” she related.

Last month, the GMCS began drone training with six of its members and interns, so that they can become better equipped to handle monitoring across Guyana’s vast coastline. The training is being conducted by Nathan Prince, a licensed drone operator. He is also a second-year Marine Biology student at the University of Guyana (UG) and an intern with the GMCS.

Arjoon-Martins explained to the Guyana Chronicle that this new drone technology will greatly bolster the capacity of the GMCS and help to cut down on the need for an excessive amount of resources when responding to reports at far-off locations.

“In all of my 35 years of doing sea turtle work, whenever someone would report a turtle in distress, I would have to go to the coast guard to request a vessel. Sometimes it would be four hours spent to get to the location of the report. But the reality is technology is now allowing us to do real-time monitoring in a fraction of the time, and with a fraction of the resources, that it used to take to do it in the old-fashioned way,” she added.

She urged members of the public to continue calling and messaging whenever there is a sighting of any marine wildlife in distress. The GMCS can be contacted on telephone number 600-7272, or through its official Facebook page.