Posters are ready to go! Manatee informational posters in French that I created with Aimee Sanders, a graphic design and outreach speacialist working in Gabon, are now printed and ready to be distributed! These posters were created with funding from my USFWS Wildlife Without Borders grant for training and outreach work to help conserve West African manatees. I’m really happy with the way they turned […]

I received word last week that I have been awarded a grant from Save Our Seas Foundation for manatee tagging in Gabon! I am very excited, I’ve been working to raise money for this for the past 3 years!! The award will fund 2 GPS tags, belt and tether attachments, satellite time, some tracking gear, boat fuel for tracking, a stipend for a Gabonese technician

Thanks! I arrived back in Florida last week and am still catching up with myself. It was a productive but exhausting 6 months in Africa! I am looking forward to unpacking for alitte while and focusing on the next steps for work in Africa, which is basically fundraising. More on that next… Most importantly though, I’d like to extend my annual huge thanks to all

Gabon: Fernan Vaz surveys Unfortunately the first 3 days at Olako were an exercise in frustration. The lodge manager could not seem to organize a boat to take me out on the lagoon and just kept putting me off. The boat drivers were unwilling to talk to me until I finally called the owner, who I had originally made my arrangements with. The staff at

Gabon: Port Gentil to Olako LodgeI’m back in Libreville after 2 weeks working on Fernan Vaz Lagoon. There was no internet there, so here’s my update… I flew from Libreville to Port Gentil on 13 February. On Valentine’s Day I woke up in Port Gentil and went to the fisherman’s wharf to take the boat to Fernan Vaz. It was a small open boat with

Gabon: Fernan Vaz On Friday evening I’ll take a short flight south from Libreville to Port Gentil, a large town on the coast of Gabon. Saturday morning I’ll take a 4 hour boat ride south from Port Gentil and it will snake along inland river channels to Ombooue, a town in the center of Fernan Vaz Lagoon. (photo courtesy of Google Earth) Fernan Vaz is

New article Save the Manatee Club asked me to write a short article about my work in Africa, and it just came out on their website (click here to see it). They produced French manatee coloring/activity books and “Sauvon les Lamantins” stickers for me to use as educational tools in West Africa’s French speaking countries, so I really appreciate their help!

Senegal: Lac de Guiers and Tocc Tocc Reserve After the manatee captures I went to northwestern Senegal, to Lac de Guiers. This huge lake is situated south of the Senegal River in an agricultural area near the town of Richard-Toll and it provides water for many cities in the country, including Dakar. It connects to the Senegal River by a manmade channel. Several years ago

Senegal: PatowelAfter we finished our work at Navel, we took a late afternoon drive to Patowel, near the town of Kanel and another place where manatees are trapped in a tributary. It is about 25km away from Navel, deeper into the desert. Patowel is completely different- the channel is much deeper, several miles long and the water does not completely dry up. There are definitely