The Best of Tenerife I’m back in Libreville after my productive week in the Canary Islands. I had an extra day there after the meetings ended, because there were no flights to Libreville on weekends, so I rented a car and drove up to El Tiede National Park at the center of the island. Driving up from the ocean I passed through arid countryside full […]

The Manatee Working Group got the job done! For the past two days, the Manatee Working Group that was convened here at the CMS meeting in the Canary Islands has been working on an Action Plan for the species in West Africa. As a framework we used the Conservation Strategy that has been worked on for the past several years by Wetlands International, so that

A Few Pictures of Tenerife The Magma conference center where the first 2 days of presentations (all on small cetaceans) took place. View of Playa des Americas, Tenerife… unbelievable rampant development that has pretty much all happened in the past 40 years Short-finned Pilot Whales The Jardin Tropical Hotel where the rest of the meetings were held.

Manatees in the Canary Islands?Actually, no. Tim and I came here to Tenerife to attend a Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) meeting focusing on small cetaceans and manatees in West Africa. I am incredibly grateful to Wildlife Trust’s Director, Mary Pearl, for donating frequent flier miles so I could attend this meeting, as well as to WCS for paying for my hotel room. This has

On the Move Last Friday night I flew up to Libreville and finally met up with Tim, who had technical issues with getting his Gabon Visa renewed for the past few weeks. I caught up on some office work this weekend, we ate a lot of good food, and met up with some interesting new folks: Andrea (an Italian vet who is in Gabon to

Friday: we went out to find a dead whale but……instead we found an Olive Ridley sea turtle entangled in old fishing line. I went out to the beach at Gamba with Bas V. from WWF and DeDe (who works with sea turtles for a local NGO called Ibonga) to try to get a few samples from a dead humpback whale that washed up about 10

Lac Cachima and the Nyanga River Last Tuesday I left Gamba again, this time in a truck towing a boat. We headed south of town across the savannah (on an actual road!) to the Nyanga River where we launched the boat. DeDe, my guide (who also took me up the Rembo Bongo) and I headed upriver and then turned into a smaller tributary that took

Back from campingI will post a report of my camping trip to Lake Cachimba and the Nyanga River as soon as I can. It was a great trip! I’m back in Gamba and flying up to Libreville this afternoon, but beforehand I’m headed out to the beach here to look for a humpback whale that stranded about 10 days ago. It should smell pretty ripe

Highlights from the past week There’s way too much to describe, so I’m just going to give a few highlights from each day. Tuesday:– For our first morning out, we headed north to 2 lakes off the lagoon well-known for manatee sightings: Lac Sounga and Lac Simba. Each time I come to Gabon I have this secret fear that after all the preparations and time