Migramar Staff
 Sandra Bessudo |
 Germán Soler |
Malpelo and other Marine Ecosystems Foundation (to give it its full name) is a non-governmental and non profit organization, established since 1999, on the Colombian republic law to work jointly and to support to the Government in conservation subjects, preservation, education and investigation of the marine Colombian environment, specially in the Fauna and Flora Sanctuary of (FFS) Malpelo.
Fundación Malpelo has become the leading marine research and conservation institution supporting the work of the Colombian National Government. Our work is accompanied by ample participation of the civil society and the private sector, promoting greater social responsibility and management that will help ensure the sustainability of marine resources.
Why Malpelo?
Located 235 miles (378 km) from Colombia’s Pacific coast, and approximately 225 miles (362 km) from Panama’s coast, with a land area of 0.35 square kilometres (86 acres), Malpelo is home of a unique shark population; swarms of 500 hammerhead sharks and hundreds of silky sharks are frequently seen by diving expeditions, making it a very popular sharkdiving location.
The Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary protect an important marine and terrestrial area for the conservation of its biodiversity. This status of protection allow Malpelo’s inhabitants to have an area where to complete their life cycles or at least part of them with no human pressures. Our goal is to give protection to particularly vulnerable species such as sharks.
For example, the shark populations worldwide have diminished 80% of their original values. Sharks are a key species in this area since the relations between them and the organism that reproduce in Malpelo as well as the commercial important species are very strong.
Work with Migramar
The initial work with Migramar started even before the group was consolidated when we (the Malpelo Foundation) organized the 2006 tagging expedition to Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary. That was the fist tagging expedition conducted to Malpelo and one of the first ones in the region.
During this expedition we invited scientist from Galapagos (Dr. Alex Hearn) and Cocos (Isac Chinchilla). Furthermore, during this expedition Dr. Peter Klimley and his Ph. D. student James Ketchum came along as well to advise us in the techniques for tagging sharks.
This expedition, can be consider the first time the members of Migramar met and the regional work started.
