Christophe Guinet

Christophe GUINET – CNRS research director, Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (UMR 7372 CNRS- La Rochelle University).

Doctor in oceanology from the University of Aix Marseille II, Christophe GUINET studied the behavioral ecology of orcas during a one-year stay in British Columbia in 1986, then three years in the Crozet archipelago as part of his doctoral thesis that he completed at the Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC). A center that he now directs. Christophe is responsible for a program to study the polar oceans through the study of marine mammals such as elephant seals or, more recently, hooded seals. These species are used as biosamplers of oceanological parameters using tags specially designed for this purpose (www.meop.net). This program assesses how climate and ocean changes are altering the behavior at sea and the demography of these marine predators. In addition, it studies the interactions between fisheries and cetaceans, particularly between orcas and sperm whales and the toothfish fishery in the French Southern Territories.