In Transit (written on Tuesday somewhere over the Atlantic)Now that I’ve finally settled into my comfortable seat on the 15 hour flight from Houston to Luanda, Angola I actually have time to really start thinking about returning to Africa. Of course I have been planning logistics for the past month or so, but then I took a much-needed relaxing vacation in the Pacific northwest with […]

Of Mangroves and Manatees Thanks to Tom Reinert for passing on a well-written news article discussing the importance of mangroves, which also mentions their importance to West African manatees. Infact, the very first West African manatee I ever saw was eating red mangrove when we spotted it. I’m daydreaming about returning to Gabon’s spectacular mangrove ecosystems in just a couple months!

Oil Spill News from Gabon Below I’ve pasted an article posted on Bloomberg.com. The lagoon is actually named Fernan Vaz (also known as N’komi) and is the only lagoon in Gabon that is not part of a national park or protected area (and unfortunately it’s also the only lagoon I haven’t surveyed for manatees yet, although I hope to get there next Fall). The spill

And Another!Today Disney Conservation Fund joins the list of Gabon manatee project funders with a new grant. I couldn’t be happier about the momentum this work is gaining. I’m looking forward to giving a talk about African manatee work at Disney’s Living Seas in July. I still have a way to go to reach my ambitious budget goal that will allow me to GPS tag

A New Funder for Gabon! Great news today, the SeaWorld Busch Gardens Conservation Fund has just notified me that they have awarded me a grant for my Gabon manatee research! This is a new funder for this project and it’s the first funding I’ve received this year for the next round of work in Gabon. So I’m thrilled!! I am still waiting to hear about

The Sirenian Population Genetics Workshop Last Sunday and Monday I attended a sirenian genetics conference in Orlando put on by Bob Bonde and others from USGS Sirenia Project and University of Florida. It was a very successful meeting, not only to hear about ongoing work from around the world for both manatees and dugongs, but also because it wasn’t too technical for those of us

Angola Manatee Trip 1 Completed I’m pleased with all the interviews and surveys we’ve accomplished in just under 2 weeks. I leave Soyo with a good undersatanding of the area, the excitement of seeing and photographing a manatee, great information from all the villages I visited, and good ideas for work to accomplish next time. I’m planning to return next summer, dates to be determined

Sereia Peninsula So far I’ve mostly been writing about my trips up the Congo River, and from the interviews I’ve done, manatees do seem to be sighted most often in the deep tributaries off the main river. However, at the mouth of the Congo is the Sereia Peninsula (sereia means mermaid in Portuguese!), which is made up of sandy beach, a few fishing villages and

A Day of Drifting and the Manatee HunterOn Sunday I went back up the Congo River, once again hoping to see manatees. By now I’ve started to get a pretty good sense of the area. We go up the main river for about an hour before turning off into a tributary. Heading up the Congo River from the mouth, in the early morning calmAt the