Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing joins the Marine Mammal Advisory Group

Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing joins the Marine Mammal Advisory Group © Wildestanimal 2015

Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing has formally joined the Marine Mammal Advisory Group (MMAG), committing to the group's Charter and embedding marine mammal protection into the heart of how the team operates at sea and on shore.

MMAG, established in 2022, brings together a diverse cohort of organizations and individuals across the marine and science sectors around a shared mission: to mitigate marine mammal strikes and collisions in the sailing and boating sector through a common, systemic strategy built on data, education, technology, and collaboration.

"The ocean has given me so much in my life - my passion, my career, and a deep sense of purpose. It's where I go to work most days, it's our life source, and it's the beating heart of our planet. But it's also fragile, and we are responsible for protecting it," said Francesca Clapcich.

"Joining MMAG is about making sure that responsibility isn't just something we feel, it's something we act on, with the right tools, the right knowledge, and the right people to support us."

Ambassadors and a dedicated internal committee

Francesca Clapcich, CEO and Skipper, and Emily Caroe, Director of Communications and Purpose, have both joined MMAG at Ambassador level - the group's highest tier of commitment, which carries enhanced expectations of operational leadership, best practice adoption, and representation of the sailing community within scientific and policy settings.

To coordinate the team's responsibilities within the MMAG framework, Team Francesca Clapcich has established a dedicated Marine Mammals Committee:

• Francesca Clapcich - Chair and MMAG Ambassador
• Emily Caroe - Communications Representative and MMAG Ambassador
• Alberto Bona - Onboard Representative
• Marcella Mamusa - Technical Representative
• Louise Kergomard - Logistics Representative

The committee structure reflects the team's commitment to treating marine mammal protection not as a box to tick, but as an operational priority across every function of the organization all the way from route planning and onboard watchkeeping to logistics and communications.

Before the team goes training in a new area and before the start of each race, the team produces its own Nature Action Plan, which reviews what marine mammals may be sighted using the onboard charts, ensures that all those onboard know how to report sightings using the WhaleAlert app, how to use the Hazard Button system through the onboard Adrena software, and also how to report, confidentially, any incidents on the water.

"By creating a mini-Committee with representatives across all our departments, it ensures that everyone within the organization is aware of not only our commitments to the MMAG but also what we have to do from a practical POV," commented Clapcich.

"Our plan is to produce our own Nature Action Plan for each place we train and also for each race we compete in. We'll share this plan openly with other teams and hopefully by centralizing the resources, we can all draw on each others' learnings and experience and create a central bank of knowledge that is readily accessible to everyone," she concluded.

What the commitment means in practice

As MMAG cohort members and Ambassadors, Team Francesca Clapcich will adopt World Sailing's Marine Megafauna in Sailing Guidelines, including MMAG's six-pillar mitigation strategy:

• Sourcing and sharing information on high-risk areas
• Conducting risk assessments
• Observing and reporting
• Leveraging available detection technology
• Investing in education and outreach
• Actively bridging the gap between the sailing and scientific communities.

At sea, this means enhanced visual watchkeeping, carrying marine megafauna identification resources onboard, and being prepared to adjust speed and routing to avoid marine life. At the organizational level, it means contributing data to scientific programs, reporting incidents transparently, and using the team's platform to drive citizen science and awareness.

Clapcich commented: "The sailing community generates real data every time a boat goes to sea. MMAG is the framework that turns that data into protection. We want to be a team that doesn't just sail through the ocean but actively contributes to understanding and safeguarding it."

For more information on MMAG, visit mmag.world.