Behind the scenes of the third annual Street Whale Festival in Cameroon
July 2023
Cameroon is incredibly rich in biodiversity. It is best known for its terrestrial wildlife, which includes gorillas, chimpanzees, drills, and elephants, for example. But what is less well known is that this country also has an incredibly rich marine biodiversity, with many cetaceans, turtles, fish, but also sharks and rays in its waters.
In this context the African Marine Mammal Conservation Organisation (AMMCO) has created the annual Street whale event in 2021, to bring together scientists, government, artists and experts together to highlight the wonders of oceans, to make it known by the public, and to have everyone contributing to the protection of the aquatic wildlife in Cameroon. This event comes in parallel with World Ocean Day, which is celebrated annually on June 8.
Workshop at the Street Whale Festival, Kribi Cameroon © Ghofrane Labyedh
The Manta trust and AMMCO has been working together since 2021, when a group of the Manta Trust researchers visited Cameroon to spend a month working with AMMCO to learn about shark and ray fisheries in Cameroon and hold a knowledge-exchange and training workshop in data collection and methodologies in the 2nd edition if the Street Whale event. Moreover, in the last October, AMMCO became an official Affiliate Project of the Manta Trust.
The 3rd Edition of the Street Whale, from 7th to 10th of June, opened Cameroonian coastline to international experts in the Gulf of Guinea and elsewhere to raise awareness, provide capacity building, and develop strategies and synergies for better aquatic wildlife management.
Participants of the Street Whale Festival, Kribi Cameroon © Ghofrane Labyedh
The Street Whale 2023 event hosted at least 17 countries worldwide, where more than 100,000 people raised awareness through artistic activities, public services and media. More than 120 people participated in the symposium and other scientific activities and more than 1000 participants in sports and artistic activities. These participants represented the government, local administrative authorities, traditional chefs, Universities, national and international OSCs, the press, artists, local fishermen’s associations and coastal communities.
The scientific activities were focused on thematic presentations around 4 themes including AMP governance and Blue Economy, INN fishing, marine biodiversity and coastal habitats. Round tables led to debates on (1) sectorial coordination to ensure the protection of marine biodiversity, (2) the role of communities in the management of IUUs, (3) the conciliation between the development and sustainable management of sea resources, and (4) the strengthening of journalists’ engagement to highlight the IUU fishing threats in Cameroon.
Beach clean at the Street Whale Festival, Kribi Cameroon © Ghofrane Labyedh
Also, the Manta Trust and AMMCO partnered to host the first Gulf of Guinea Elasmobranch Network meeting in Kribi, Cameroon from June 6th to 10th, 2023. It consisted of an informative conference & workshop that was held as part of this 3rd edition of the Street Whale event, in order to develop a joint strategy for the conservation of sharks & rays in Gulf of Guinea, and to share knowledge supporting the implementation of this strategy.
Beach games at the Street Whale Festival, Kribi Cameroon © Ghofrane Labyedh
On the artistic side, following a national call for competition, the public voted through social networks for the construction of the monument of unity that symbolizes the joint efforts to combat marine pollution and other threats to the marine environment. Performances such as dances, paintings, tales and a concert by the Artist X-Malea helped to spread more awareness messages. In parallel, sports activities have been held with the fishers of the Siren network, a platform AMMCO created to allow fishers to record landings of marine species, such as Beach volleyball, boat race and dance competition. Also, a beach cleanup was conducted at Ngoye beach with local associations to ensure the continuity of awareness raising and cleaning. Moreover, the last afternoon of this event, an excursion has been made in the Lobé Water fall to have a lunch together and discover some of the aquatic biodiversity in Kribi, Cameroon.
In fact, the street Whale event is a conservative action where science and art connect to create a better future for the aquatic wildlife, not only in Cameroon but also in the West Africa region.
GHOFRANE LABYEDH
African Marine Mammal Conservation Organization (AMMCO)