Cétacés - Fondation de la Mer

Enriched family-office · Found: 2026-03-11 08:12

Pour protéger les cétacés, la Fondation de la Mer soutient divers programmes scientifiques afin de mieux les connaître et de les protéger notamment par le ...

Source: https://www.fondationdelamer.org/nos-programmes/cetaces/

Funding Details

Funder

Fondation de la Mer

Funding Goal

Support scientific programs and field operations to protect and better understand cetaceans, including population surveys, acoustic studies, and conservation interventions in French and Mediterranean waters.

Funding Amount

No specific grant amounts published; €1,600 cited as the cost of one sea mission

How to Apply

Apply via the foundation's research grant application page (https://www.fondationdelamer.org/nos-programmes/postuler-a-une-bourse/). Contact via https://www.fondationdelamer.org/contact/

Target Region

Mediterranean, France (Atlantic coast), Caribbean

Contact

Contact form: https://www.fondationdelamer.org/contact/ | Social: LinkedIn, Twitter/X (@fondationmer), Instagram, Facebook (@fondationdelamer)

Last Checked

2026-03-11 16:39

Application Checklist

Eligibility

• Project must focus on cetacean conservation, research, or protection
• Applicants should be NGOs or scientific research teams with field capacity

Project Scope

• Projects should target cetacean populations in French, Mediterranean, Atlantic, or Caribbean waters
• Activities may include population surveys, acoustic monitoring, stranding response, or public awareness

Required Documents

• Submit application via the foundation's research grant portal (postuler-a-une-bourse)

Constraints

• No explicit geographic restriction to France but current funded projects are French/Mediterranean/Caribbean
• No published funding caps or minimum grant size — scale of support not publicly specified

Summary

The Fondation de la Mer's Cetacean Programme funds scientific and field-based conservation initiatives aimed at protecting whales, dolphins, and porpoises. The foundation supports partner organizations conducting population censuses, acoustic monitoring, stranding response, and public awareness work. Active funded programs include Miraceti's Risso's dolphin photo-identification work in the Mediterranean, the AL LARK project protecting marine mammals in the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel (Loire-Atlantique), the Caribbean Cetacean Society working with sperm whales in the Caribbean, and biodiversity assessments in the Gulf of Lion. The program is driven by the urgent conservation context: 26% of cetacean species are threatened with extinction (IUCN 2021), approximately 300,000 cetaceans die from bycatch annually, and 2,449 strandings were recorded on French metropolitan coasts in 2023 alone. The foundation frames cetaceans as critical ecosystem contributors — functioning as ocean fertilizers enabling phytoplankton growth, and as significant carbon sinks. Funding appears to flow to NGOs and research teams through grants and direct project support. The foundation also operates a research grant scheme ("bourse de recherche") accessible via its website, suggesting structured application pathways exist beyond this program page. A donation of €1,600 is cited as the cost of a single sea mission, giving a sense of the funding scale involved. The program is primarily focused on French and Mediterranean waters, with some reach into the Caribbean and Atlantic. It is not an open competitive grant round with a published deadline on this page, but rather a standing support program through which the foundation solicits and funds cetacean-related projects.

Historical Context

The foundation has active funded projects with reported 2023 and 2025 impact metrics (e.g., 729 Risso's dolphins photo-identified in 2025; 58h of acoustic recordings in 2023; 320 people sensitized in 2025), indicating a multi-year ongoing program.

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