Gabon: Manatee Capture!The frustration had definitely been building. Eight days and nights around the clock setting nets and waiting, having manatees punch holes through the nets every night, second guessing our decisions about where nets should be set, and seeing manatees near the nets everyday,...Read More

Gabon: Sette Cama SurprisesOn the morning of 3 December, our team left Gamba and crossed the huge N'dogo Lagoon in 2 boats loaded with all of our gear. It took us just over an hour to reach the Eaux et Forets (Water and Forestry) brigade...Read More

Gabon: The long trail to GambaWe arrived in Gamba last night after 20 hours of driving most of the length of Gabon. Of the whole trip, only 6 hours of it was on paved road (albeit with huge potholes), the rest was sand tracks across...Read More

Gabon: On my Way to Tag Manatees!I left Dakar early this morning and am now enroute to Gabon. I'll be there until the end of February and the big plan for this year is to try to capture manatees in N'dogo Lagoon, do baseline health...Read More

Ghana: Manatee Training Workshop 2009I just spent an action-packed two weeks at Lake Volta, Ghana teaching a research and conservation training workshop for the West African manatee! It was great. This is my second year participating in the workshop, and co-teaching it with Patrick Ofori-Dansen...Read More

Senegal: Delta SaloumLast week I spent three days in the northern part of the Saloum Delta, a huge mangrove estuary in central Senegal. It s a beautiful area with salt flats filled with flamingoes, savannah with giant baobab trees, countless mangrove channels and lots of...Read More

Senegal: Diama Dam On our way back to Dakar we stopped at the Diama Dam, built in 1984 near St. Louis at the mouth of the Senegal River. This dam now traps manatees in the river and although they have well over 600 km...Read More

Senegal: To Kanel and Back Our trip last week got off to a rough start. The first day we left Dakar at 6am and our rented car and driver (many rented cars here come with a driver) drove us 3 hours north of Dakar to...Read More

Senegal: Off to the Desert!Since my arrival in Dakar I've been enjoying time with my fiance, Senegalese turtle and manatee researcher Tomas Diagne, and planning logistics for future manatee work here. After 2 weeks of planning we are now ready to go into the field!It...Read More

Building and PackingSome people have the nice but misguided belief that manatee research is all just swimming in beautiful clear, blue water watching the manatees eat and play, and occasionally scratching them. Ummm...Read More