Planning

I’ve now been working at the WCS office in Libreville, Gabon for the past 2 weeks, finishing reports and setting up logistics for fieldwork at Fernan Vaz and N’dogo Lagoons south of here. On Saturday I went up to Cap Esterias, a small fishing community north of Libreville on the edge of Akanda National Park. I talked to a few fishermen about manatees and distributed copies of the manatee coloring book in French. They haven’t had any new manatee sightings since I spoke to them a year ago and still say they are quite rare there.

Aerial view of Libreville

Field staff porch desk at the WCS office in Libreville. It’s a great office location with a nice breeze!

On Friday I’ll travel south to Evengue Lodge, my base for the next 2 weeks while I survey Fernan Vaz. This is the only lagoon system in Gabon that I haven’t surveyed yet, and possibly an important use areas for manatees, although it has the highest human population of any lagoon in Gabon and was the site of an oil spill last winter. So it is likely to be the most compromised system I’ve surveyed so far but I’m interested to learn more about it. More soon once I start fieldwork!