Dear MARMAM members, I am a PhD student working on the elaboration of a management support tool software. This tool aims at helping managers of the St. Lawrence Estuary marine protected area (MPA) and the Saguenay St. Lawrence Marine Park (SSLMP) in their decisions for marine mammals’ conservation. My specific project is to model the dense maritime traffic in the study area. I follow a cognitive approach (versus mechanistic) and consequently I need to conduct interviews with pilots of whale-watching vessels and commercial ships. To the extent of our partners’ knowledge from both Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Parks Canada Agency, no such study has ever been conducted; another experienced colleague who worked along the Brazilian coasts for the account of NGO Brazilian Humpback Whale Institute has never heard of anything similar. An advanced personal search in the scientific literature didn’t reveal anything more. If somebody has some information about a similar project (particularly interviews and/or questionnaires with “pilots population”), please let me know; among other things, that would be very helpful to justify the need to imply human beings in my research for University Ethics Committee. Thanks in advance! Sincerely, Clément Chion, M.Eng. PhD student LIVIA – École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS) 1100 Notre-Dame Ouest Montréal, Québec H3C1K3 Canada Tel: (514) 396-8800 ext.7674 Website: http://www.livia.etsmtl.ca/?LANG=en Complex Systems Laboratory Département de géographie – Université de Montréal C.P. 6128 succursale centre-ville Montréal, QC H3C 3J7 Canada Tel: (514) 343-8064 Website: http://www.geog.umontreal.ca/syscomplex/eng/mainframeset.html