Sorry for the silence everyone, we have been away! It’s good to be home although we are still en route and will get back to the coast on Friday
We have been working with SIFO Fish Organisation in Somalia for some time now because one of the 3 tags from last year came off up there. Mohamed, our kind contact, has been working tirelessly in an attempt to find that tag for us and he recently sent me these photos of his work. He is using this poster as a way of raising awareness about the plight of whale sharks in Somalia and we are really grateful for his help. We are hoping he will come to watch the acoustic tagging programme, set to start next week.

It’s a gruesome picture but it sends a strong message which is important.

It shows how if we work together, we can make a difference.

A big thank you to Mohamed and his team in Somalia

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Here is a picture I have been sent by Aniket who came on Expedition 2008. It is a super picture and you can make out the tag on the right hand side of the shark. It is a black object sticking out of the sharks side just behind the dorsal fin.

We have had a very restful weekend here. We went diving and were entertained by a pod of dolphins for ages. They just swam round and round us, it was amazing! Then it was up at the crack of dawn this morning. Volker left for Zanzibar and I went to a meeting with the KWS and TUI/Pollmans representatives to work the whale shark education project into the Year of the Dolphin education campaign. I am also pushing really hard for an aerial survey of our coast line so that we can start to get a clearer picture of how many whale sharks (and turtles, dolphins, whales, mantas etc) we have along our shores. I think it is absolutely critical to whatever research and eco-tourism is bound to follow this year’s expedition.

 Our accoustic array has now arrived all the way from Rachel, WCS in Belize. We are going to put the tags out at the end of April and I will keep you posted on that. We are planning for the last 10 days of April, weather permitting.

Have a good start to your week!

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It’s back to earth with a bump and back to the real world for us here in Diani. We enjoyed the tagging so much but now it’s back to work!! Simon and David went into schools yesterday to give presentations and generally blow the East African Whale Shark’s trumpet after Expedition 2008!! (Can you really blame us?!!) Volker and I went to a community meeting down in Shimoni on the Year of the Dolphin sponsored by TUI/Pollmans and the Kenya Wildlife Service. It was a lengthy meeting but a productive one. There were various key parties there - school teachers, fishermen, boat operators, local chiefs and projects like ours. We all have the welfare of dolphins and other marine creatures in mind. Last year we adopted a code of conduct for dolphin interaction and this year we plan to build on that. There is a launch planned and other awareness raising campaigns, workshops and projects afoot. This grass roots work is really important and whilst of course we would rather be out there tagging and doing research, nothing can stand on its own hence the need for community meetings so that we can work together. We were glad to be there and Volker is going to run some workshops for the fishermen on how to use echo-sounders. We hope to encourage them to fish away from our precious coral reefs. Echo-sounders will help them find the fish out on the continental shelf and generally make their lives a lot easier. I am going to help start Year of the Dolphin related work in the local schools here in Diani.

Here we are at the meeting. Mr Abdulla Aziz is standing up, next to him is KWS Senior Warden Yusuf, the Assistant Director Philip Mwakio and Dan Schumacher from TUI. You can also see the really impressive wall display in the KWS information centre.

And here is Brent, who will have just about reached home after a monster 48 trip. He is off to tag seals today. We miss you Brent!!

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