RAPPORT MESOMAY 1
The MesoMay program aims to carry out a first non-exhaustive faunistic inventory of certain sites located in the mesophotic zone on the slopes of the reefs of Mayotte. Fauna inventory missions to deep marine areas have already taken place in the southwestern Indian Ocean area and around Mayotte). These missions concerned several islands (Mayotte, Comoros, Glorieuses, ...), shoals (Zélée, Banc du Leven, ...) and the samples taken by dredge or trawl were often taken beyond in the mesophotic zone (> 150 m), rarely in the mesophotic zone and on the reefs of Mayotte (see appendix). The inventory carried out as part of this study is made, in its first phase, from underwater images taken by divers with rebreathers and gas mixtures between 50 and 150 m. This program brings together participatory science, with diving associations, and researchers and faunistic experts from different phyla. The discovery of the biodiversity of ECMs in Mayotte will thus be able to gain a better knowledge of the habitats and organisms that evolve there, and to initiate initiatives for the conservation and management of this biodiversity.