#MeetOurPartners: Ana M. Garcia-Cegarra

Ana M. Garcia-Cegarra is a marine scientist from Spain. She arrived in Chile in 2014 to pursue her PhD at the University of Antofagasta, focusing on the conservation of cetaceans along the southeast Pacific Ocean.

When she first arrived in Mejillones, her advisor told her that sightings of fin whales occurred occasionally during the summer, and that the bay had intense marine traffic, with seven major seaports supplying the mining industry.

At that time, there were no studies on whale presence, abundance, seasonality, behavior, or the potential risk of collisions with vessels.

Anna then applied for funding from the Rufford Foundation to purchase a total station - a geomeasurement device typically used by architects and engineers for land-based construction. She adapted it for marine research by using it from the top of a cliff to observe whales and record their geographic positions, without needing a boat, which she could not afford at the time.

As a result, she spent an entire year on top of the cliff, using the total station to record whale movements, positions, and the activity of ships navigating the bay. Through this work, she developed the first distribution maps of fin whales and other cetacean species in Mejillones Bay, as well as their co-occurrence with shipping routes.

Ana was also able to measure vessel speeds, which were often above 10 knots - the threshold above which whales are generally unable to avoid collisions.

During this period, she engaged with local fishermen in Mejillones, who expressed interest in learning more about whales and developing whale-watching tourism. Together, they founded an NGO called CIFAMAC.

She completed her PhD in 2019, including a research article (among others) demonstrating a significant potential collision risk between whales and large cargo vessels in Mejillones Bay, with a habitat co-occurrence of 67% between whales and shipping routes.

Unfortunately, in 2020, the first humpback whale death due to a ship strike was recorded in Mejillones. In response, they coordinated efforts with Sernapesca (Chile’s National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service), the Chilean Navy, the mayor of Mejillones, and local industries to perform a necropsy. The results confirmed that the cause of death was a ship collision.

They recovered the whale’s skeleton, and two years later, we were able to assemble and display it in the main square of Mejillones as a symbol of whale conservation.

In 2022, with the guidance of Michael Fishbach from Whale Guardians, they signed a voluntary code of conduct with the Chilean Navy. This included a traffic separation scheme and speed restrictions aimed at reducing whale-ship collisions in Mejillones Bay.

Currently, Ana is working with authorities in Antofagasta to replicate this voluntary traffic separation scheme and extend protection to more bays in northern Chile.