Ghana: Manatee Training Workshop 2009

I 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 from the University of Ghana. It's funded by Earthwatch and coordinated by Nature Conservation Research Center (NCRC, a Ghanian NGO). As always, it was a wonderful experience that left me energized and hopeful for the future of West African manatee conservation.

This year we had 28 applicants for 16 spaces in 2 workshops; the second one will be taught in mid-November. Most of the applicants have already started manatee work in their countries, and Earthwatch funds participants to attend, so it was a very competitive selection process. This team ended up with participants from 7 countries: Mali, Guinea, Angola, Gabon, Cameroon, Benin and Senegal. And over the past three years this program will have trained researchers from 18 countries. Not bad considering the range of the species is 21 countries! For quite a few countries we’ve also trained more than one researcher, so I think we have achieved a lot of capacity building. Aside from helping train people for field research, my greatest hope is to build a cohesive network for manatee research and conservation in West Africa, and I plan to continue to work with these dedicated folks long after the training workshops have ended.

On October 18 we packed ourselves and all our gear into a mini bus and left Accra. After a 4 hour drive and a short ferry ride, we reached the Afram Arm of Lake Volta. We stayed in a campground that was created especially for this program and is staffed by people from a nearby village. The camp has a dining and classroom hut, a kitchen, storage and bathroom huts. We stayed in tents under several large trees. Over the next 2 weeks we combined classroom lectures with an introduction to field sampling equipment and techniques. Participants also gave presentations about research in their home country, and in the evenings we also had “social sharing” where each person told their personal life story. So in a very short time everyone became close friends, there was lots of joking and laughing and comraderie. This team was different from the group I worked with last year in that it was all men, and almost everyone was from a Francophone country, and so most conversation was in French. I really enjoyed being "one of the boys!"

Here's a glimpse of the participants, where we were and what we accomplished:

The ferry that took us across the Afram Arm of Lake Volta

Ladies on the ferry, I just liked the way the sun lit up their colorful dresses
Pius from Cameroon and Cece from Guinea. Pius works with gorillas and will start manatee research in northern Cameroon for Wildlife Conservation Society; Cece is a veterinarian who has already begun manatee surveys in his country.

Abdoulaye from Mali works for the Niger River Basin Authority. Here he's laying a transect line for aquatic plant sampling in Lake Volta.
Mr. Ansah (in the crazy hat) is the class assistant and teaches the participants about environmental sampling equipment and water chemistry testing. Momar from Wetlands International in Senegal and Mendes from Angola record data. Boat trips are used to practice sampling methods.
This is Mendes doing cranial measurements on a manatee skull. Mendes works for the Angolan Ministry of the Environment and accompanied me in the field during Congo River surveys last year. He's eager to start manatee research in central Angola, where human impact is high.
Chris from Benin learns water analysis techniques from Ansah. Chris has been studying manatees in Benin for several years and is hoping to publish his data soon.
Stephane from Gabon is seen here giving a presentation on his work of the past two years: assessing the manatee bushmeat trade in central Gabon. Since he knows most of the hunters, he has been able to collect some of the most accurate data on manatee hunting anywhere in Africa.
And of course "Prof"! He's been studying manatees in Lake Volta since 1998. This was a discussion at the beginning of the workshop, to introduce the participants to all the sampling equipment: GPS, secchi disk, dissolved oxygen meter, depth sounder, etc.

Once on the water, everyone got a chance to use the equipment and record data.
We also went out very early one morning hoping to see manatees feeding. Unfortunately we didn't spot any, but we did get a beautiful sunrise.
Local fishermen

Did I mention it rained almost everyday? Camping in the mud loses it's novelty quickly! But luckily the ground dried quickly once the sun came out.
Abdoulaye from Mali in traditional garb
Enjoying the boat with Stephane and Momar...

And this is the whole team! Momar, Martin from NCRC (our awesome logistics coordinator), Ansah, Mendes, Stephane (with arms raised), Prof Patrick Ofori-Dansen, Pius, Abdoulaye, Lucy... and in front: Cece and Chris. Congratulations to the newest members of the manattee research community!

Senegal: Delta Saloum

Last 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 fishing boats. I had a chance to talk to many fishermen about manatees there and to distribute informational posters, which they eagerly took. People were very curious to learn more about a creature they consider spiritual and mysterious. Manatees are still hunted in this area, although they are rare now and only one or two are caught per year.

Interestingly, most of the manatee carcass data that Buddy Powell was able to collect for the species in the 1980's and 90's came from this area. There is a marine protected area in the south of the Delta, but I wasn't able to get there this time. I hope to do more work here in the future.

My internet connection time is limited at the moment, so here are a few pictures to give an idea of the place and what I did there:

Fishermen in Ndangane check out manatee informational posters in French to learn more about the species. They told me that only certain families are manatee hunters and that it is believed these people can communicate with the manatees. They also told me about a number of freshwater springs in the area where manatees come to drink.
Young boys with posters and stickers. Although the manatee is hunted here, it is also revered and there's a general sense of fascination about them. People say they are no longer hunted in the protected area because they know they will get in trouble. It's a start to protection!

Beautiful, brightly colored fishing boats at Ndangane
The view at the place where we stayed- gorgeous!
There are numerous intiatives to re-plant mangroves in the area- some efforts are led by NGOs while others are led directly by the people and their communities. This photo shows 2 species (the ones on top of the sandbar are a different species from the one in the water, I need to get correct species names!). It is great to see environmental initiatives going strong here, hopefully that will lead to awareness and protection for many species. We were able to go to one of the freshwater springs by boat but it was late in the day and I couldn't jump in and check it out. It is hard to see, but it's situated between the two sandbars in the photo below. Manatees generally come at night, and I am sure this is related to hunting pressure.
Flamingoes at sunset on the mudflat
I also met with village elders at Ndangane who had interesting perspectives on hunting techniques

At the end of the trip I met a very cool guy named Doudou at Joal (left). He has worked on fisheries bycatch issues previously and had reports of manatee carcasses going back many years. Here he shows me a manatee bone he took from a carcass in 2004 (that's his wife in the middle). As we drove along we came upon this sign purely by chance! Of course we searched for and found the place and met the owner, Anne-Catherine, who is a neat lady. After working in the pharmacutical industry for many years she decided to start an ecotourism venture that includes both environmental and cultural awareness. Eventually she hopes to open a hotel there, but for now there is a nice restaurant, a library and a beautiful lodge overlooking the water. We had a great conversation about manatees and I hope to plan future work together. This manatee trap was at Source Aux Lamantins and shows how hunters set traps in mangroves where manatees feed. They sit on top of the trap at night and when the manatee bumps the trap, they harpoon it. Luckily this one is no longer in use, it's only for educational purposes.
This morning I arrived in Accra, Ghana, and tomorrow I head out to the Afram Arm of Lake Volta to co-teach a manatee research and conservation workshop for African biologists. We have 8 participants from 8 different countries and I'll write lots more about it when I return to internet in 2 weeks!

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 of river to use, as well as Lac de Guiers and much more area during the rainy season when the river floods the plains, these manatees are isolated here with no way to leave or breed with other manatee populations. In the dry season, food plants can be scarce, and although there doesn't seem to be much targeted hunting, manatees do get caught in fishing nets and drown fairly frequently. And of course they get caught behind smaller dams near Matam and Kanel. At the southeastern end of the river they are hemmed in by a hydroelectric dam in Mali. So there are many challenges for this population.

The dam in Mali provides power far into the interior of Senegal; these power lines near Kanel are over 200 km away from the dam.

But there's good news too. There is very good habitat in Lac de Guiers (a huge man-made lake which provides the drinking water for all of Dakar and water for farm irrigation for hundreds of miles surrounding the lake) with lots of the manatees favorite food plants. Dams keep the water in Lac de Guiers high year round and the manatees have learned they no longer need to migrate back to the river during the dry season.

Lots of water lilies and grasses in Lac de Guiers

And as I mentioned in my previous post, they have lots of food on the flood plain during the rainy season. From what I've seen so far, I think the Senegal River supports a fairly healthy manatee population, and I'm happy that many people, government agencies and private organizations here are interested to conserve them.

Downstream and seaward of the Diama Dam is the Senegal River delta, and it is unknown if manatees still use this area as well. It will be interesting to try to find out!

Water flowing out of the Diama Dam towards the ocean.

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 the colonial era town of St. Louis. We had breakfast there and afterward expected to continue on the long trip to Matam. However, at this point it became clear there was a misunderstanding. The driver had been told we only wanted to go as far as St. Louis. Many calls ensued between the driver and the owner of the car, and after a heated discussion it became apparent we had no choice but to return to Dakar, because the car’s owner did not want us taking the car further into the desert. So we then spent another 3 ½ hours driving all the way back to Dakar, then there was a heated discussion with the owner who did not want to refund any of the money we paid for 5 days of rental, and finally the search for another car. At that point it was too late to begin the long trip again, so we tried again the next day.

The second attempt was a successful, if hot and dusty, 13 hour trip to Matam in eastern Senegal. On the way we got the first of three flat tires during the trip- the paved road is basically a series of giant pot-holes much of the way, and cars weave between them, coming at each other and missing by inches, driving off the paved road onto the dirt road that borders and continuing at high speed. Every car carries 2 or 3 spare tires. Huge herds of goats, sheep and cows graze everywhere and often stand in the road, we had to nudge the car through them countless times every hour. It was amazing to see how the desert tansformed with the rains; what had been a few scrubby trees in the red sand last January were now lush trees in a sea of grasses, crops of sorghum and melons, with the flood plain of the Senegal River clearly in view (the actual river is normally out of sight from the road). Dashboard view: Koran and prayer beads, dust, small towns, lots of goats and donkey carts!

Once we reached Matam, an air-conditioned room and a cold shower was an absolute slice of heaven. We were also treated to wonderful meals and hospitality by Commandant Seck and his family- he oversees the dams and irrigation for the Matam area and has been extremely interested to help manatees from getting trapped by the dams. He was the person who donated use of a tractor and trailer last January so we could tasnsport the stranded manatees back to the main Senegal River.

For each of the next 3 days we started out at 5am and drove another hour south from Matam to the town of Kanel. Between Matam and Kanel the river had expanded from its channel into an enormous flood plain, approximately 35 km long and 12 km wide. This is only one of many areas along the length of the river that has flooded and covered huge areas with water, flooding trees and allowing catfish and manatees to swim where cows graze in the dry season. For the manatees it becomes a wonderful feeding area, with tall grasses and water lilies stick up through the water. For us it was incredible to see the transformation, but daunting to try to find one tagged manatee in miles of water with only a non-motorized canoe!
Sunrise at Kanel

Egrets fly near flooded trees. The blobs at the top of the tree are weaverbird colony nests.

We went out with three guys from Kanel who in previous years helped rescue stranded manatees when the water dried up. They had seen several mating herds the week before and took us to those places, but unfortunately hours of scanning the water in the scorching sun didn’t turn up any manatees. At the same time we listened for the tagged manatee, who was supposed to be in the area, but we didn’t hear the VHF signal. It was still really interesting to see the area though and to realize the importance of the flooding in the manatee's feeding life cycle.

Heading out in a tippy canoe with all our gear, the air still and hot
Tomas shows the guys how to use the VHF receiver.
Scanning, scanning, scanning...
People from the village were swimming and washing their animals in the flooded plain

On the first evening we went to the Navel Dam, the place where were rescued and tagged manatees last January. It was astounding to see the difference in the water levels:
This is the Navel Dam in November 2008 near the height of the dry season (photo courtesy of P. Fernandez de Larrinoa)
This is the Navel Dam last week, with water level 9 meters higher

This was the Navel manatee rescue site last January. Note the cliff edge in the foreground.

This is a photo taken at the same site last week, with water almost to the top of the cliff.

I brought along the VHF receiver to the dam, because the tagged manatee could be anywhere and the receiver only works at a range of about 3 km. After listening to static for awhile, suddenly we heard the signal! It was incredible luck considering the size of the flooded area. The signal was faint, meaning the manatee was not close by, and came intermittently, meaning she was probably traveling, so the tag was only coming to the surface of the water every few minutes. We listened for 45 minutes before it got dark. It was frustrating not to be able to get closer to see her, but there are no roads along the river's edge and we didn't have a boat to search by water.

Tomas took this photo just as I heard the signal... surprise and happiness!

We tried listening for the signal the following two evenings at Navel, but we didn't hear it again. I hoped she was heading south and that maybe we would hear the signal from the Kanel side during our boat surveys, but the area was too huge and our ability to cover it too limited. However, it was still great to hear the tag at all, to know she's still in the general vicinity of Matam and that the VHF portion of the tag is working.

While in Matam we had nice meetings with many of the people who are interested to help the manatees: Eaux et Forets (Water and Forestry), the Matam and Navel Fisheries Commissioners. After 3 days we started back to Dakar, making a few stops along the way, which I'll write more about next.

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 seems funny to say we're going to the desert to track manatees! But it's true... In late August the last of the manatees we tagged in the Senegal River this past January moved into a tributary near the town of Wendou Kanel, in easternmost Senegal at the border with Mauritania. Aside from the river itself, this is a very dry, sandy landscape with few trees at the edge of the Sahel. We've received reports that the tagged manatee is part of a big group regularly being seen in the tributary, and that mating activity has been observed (manatee mating is a group activity with many males pursuing a female... usually tails and backs can be seen flailing at the surface of the water as they all clamber to reach the object of their desire!). This is a good opportunity to see manatee behavior and document the number of animals using this tributary, as well as a chance to discuss the situation with the local people.

The rainy season is still in full swing here so there's plenty of water in the tributaries, but as the rain ends next month and the water starts falling, we want to ensure these manatees won't be stuck in this area as they have been before. Like other tributaries, this one has a dam whose gates will be closed as the water falls, in order to hold back water for crops. Unfortunately manatees get stuck behind these dams and are at risk of dying before the next rainy season due to the water drying up and/or lack of food. When the dams were built no one knew the manatees used these tributaries during the rainy season (they are usually very secretive and difficult to see in the muddy water), but it has now become an ongoing problem in this region and manatees have to be moved out of the tributaries back to the main river every year (see my postings from January 2009).

So I'm interested to see this area during the rainy season and to try to get an idea of the numbers of manatees using this system. I'll post photos and a report in a week when I return to the internet!

Building and Packing

Some 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.... no. I wear many hats in this job, most of which I had no idea about when I started many years ago. Plumber, electrician, cartographer, politician, boat mechanic, grant writer, and occasionally... biologist. I almost never see blue water (think chocolate milk filled with crocs and hippos). But I will say I'm never bored. Lately my job has been 100% logistics.

For the past several weeks I've been preparing for the next field season in Africa. Planning travel to various field sites, building manatee telemetry equipment, refreshing my memory about GPS tags (since I haven't worked with them since 2004), buying supplies... everything I'll need for 6 months of training workshops, surveys, captures, health assessments, tagging and tracking. The amount of cables, datasheets, sample vials, bug spray, and other little things needed is daunting. Bob, I can't find my frisbee! (For the rest of you, it's not used for play...)

Manatee tagging equipment is all built by hand. We tag manatees by putting a belt around the tail, which has a nylon tether attaching to a buoy tag that floats behind the manatee. After 4 days of measuring, foam injection, more measuring, gooey marine sealant, pounding, cutting, butane torching, attaching bolts and buckles, heat-shrinking and realizing I glued my flip flop to the floor, the manatee belts are finished and ready to go! They have several nice features: sonic tags that emit a signal underwater so I can hear the manatee with a hydrophone even if it loses the GPS tag, bolts that corrode so the belt will fall off even if we can't relocate the manatee, and best of all- snazzy new programmable release mechanisms that will (hopefully) pop the belt off the manatee at the end of the study. Thanks Margie and FWC for letting me use your telemetry lab to build these!
Now that I've bought and piled up equipment and supplies for weeks, the trick is to get it all in 2 trunks and 2 duffles that each weigh 50 lbs. or less...

On Wednesday I leave the USA for 6 months. I'm headed first to Senegal for 5 weeks, then to Ghana for just over 2 weeks, and then hopefully Gabon for 4 months. I say "hopefully" because there has been a bit of unrest there recently after presidential elections, so I'm hoping it will subside before early November. The plan is to capture several manatees in central Gabon and deploy the first ever GPS tracking tags for the species. Now the fun part begins!

Senegal: A couple more surprises....

Our last tagged manatee in Senegal (the female in the Senegal River on the far eastern side of the country, at the border with Mauritania) made another big move northward again in late July. But this time she left the main Senegal River and entered a tributary in early August. This is not the tributary we rescued her from last January, and as far as we know, manatees have not been recorded in this one before. It looks like she's swimming on dry land in the Google Earth image below, but that's just because the satellite image was taken during the dry season, when the tributaries dry up completely. So it's both interesting but worrisome, because the rainy season will end in a month and we don't want her trapped again. So hopefully someone will get out there to look at the location soon.

The other surprise for us is that the tag is still transmitting at all. The batteries for the GPS are supposed to last about 6 months, but it has now been transmitting for over 8 months! It's great for us to get as much information as possible... and also to know she may have just entered another area where she could become trapped as the water falls. So we're learning alot.

I'm returning to Senegal in a few days, so I hope to have new information about this tagged manatee soon.