Mayumba Diary: May 2006

May is here in Mayumba, and with it we say goodbye to the months of hot weather and torrential rain storms.  Being so far south, the dry season reaches us before the rest of the country, and the effect of the cold sea current pushing up the coast rapidly changes the climate.  The sea temperature is now hovering around 20 degrees Celcius, and we are now totally without rain. Tall savannah grasses that were a lush emerald green in April turn into tawny, dust-coated straw. The sky has become a lot more overcast and there is a very pleasant coolness to the air. Although less spectacular and colourful than the rainy season, the dry season has its benefits. For instance it is possible to work (or should we say, exist?) without immediately breaking into a sweat, and the evenings are deliciously cool. Mornings have a certain calmness to them that comes with the knowledge that the day's activities won't be cut short by blazing midday heat. It's a great time to take long trips, cycling or hiking on the beach are altogether less punishing without the full force of the sun for 12 hours a day.

We have taken advantage of the cooler weather to finish some tasks in the Park. Our prime achievement has been the completion of the coastal observation tower at the Kubula site, halfway down the Park’s coast. Perched on the edge of the dunes, the tower is 10m high, and is equipped with VHF radio, telescopes and cameras, and a radar system. In the first days of June these systems will be field tested for the first time and hopefully pressed into the service of the Park – seeing illegal fishing vessels at night and in haze or fog, creating GPS positions for them, and allowing us to communicate our findings to the Mayumba HQ and the authorities. This in turn will permit the launching of the patrol boat and a cut in boat patrol costs. 

Gaining this extra height has given us a marvelous view out over the Park, which will pay dividends in spotting whales and dolphins in the months and years to come. The ecoguards are particularly excited to finally have a purpose-built platform for their work, and are looking forward to being trained to use the new equipment.  At the same time, we have been working to complete some of the little details of the Kubula camp itself, including the building of bunk beds, furniture for the office, and the installation of a solar power system. We’ll now be able to recharge GPS units, camera batteries and phones, and will also have power for lighting, radio operation, and laptop computer use. Completion of this base will free us finally to turn our attention to the southern base planned for Nyafessa, and hopefully making our surveillance network water-tight.

We have received help and support in our work from the Gabonese Navy in the past, as we share some of the same goals at sea. We were delighted therefore to receive a visit from the Chief of the Navy during the month.  He came to Mayumba to install a new Navy Commander for the town, and to meet the authorities.  During his visit to the Park Headquarters we discussed plans for future collaboration and a communication system between the Park and the Navy.  We very much look forward to working more closely with the Navy and turning Mayumba into a model for State/NGO cooperation in the fisheries, pollution, and coastal security sector.

Other good news this month has been the arrival of a new face in the Park. Anthony Bernard joins us from South Africa, to work as a volunteer looking principally at oyster fishing issues (biology and sustainability). Anthony will be with us for 6 months, and will help us with scientific training for the ecoguards and data collection on marine issues. The high spring tide of May 24th saw the start of the Banio Lagoon long-term physico-chemical monitoring project. The aim of this research is to get an idea of how the physical and chemical properties of the lagoon, the marine environment and the rivers that flow into the lagoon system interact in space and time. It is also hoped that this data will provide insight into the observed distribution patterns and seasonal changes in the mangrove oyster and fish populations of the Banio lagoon.

The preliminary results indicate that on the high tide four distinct zones can be identified from the physico-chemical water properties in the lower 20 km of the Banio lagoon. The first zone, the marine dominated zone, extended 3 km inland from the mouth with salinities and temperature typical of the local marine environment. Zone 2 was characterized by strong vertical stratification with the bottom water having the same salinity, temperature and pH of the marine dominated zone, while the surface waters changed rapidly to match those of the lagoon waters further upstream. Following this, at approximately the 7 km mark, the physico-chemical properties of the bottom water change rapidly (for example the bottom salinity drops from 35 to 20 ppt) in accordance with the surface waters, although a weak vertical stratification can still be observed. This rapid change coincides with a notable decrease in depth and a constriction in the width of the lagoon. From 11 to 12 km upstream the stratification of the water column is no longer apparent, suggesting that the lagoon becomes river dominated from this point on. This location is also the start of the channel that links the Banio lagoon with the Sea of Tiya.

Our outreach team was out in the villages again, with crayons and paper at the ready. We visited six lagoon villages, donating copies of Where There Is No Doctor to the four villages that had not previously received the book, and putting on an interactive slide show about Mayumba's national park and our region's biodiversity in the three villages that have elementary schools. To establish a baseline of children's knowledge about the environment and the Park, and to measure our effectiveness, we conducted pre- and post- tests in each village. Some of the questions posed included: "What is a National Park?", "What does an Ecogard do?" "Name five animals that are protected in the Park." The average number of students who were able to answer the ten basic questions correctly after the presentation rose 42%, but there is still much work to be done. Only half of the students in the lagoon villages know that Mayumba's beaches are the most important nesting beaches in Africa for leatherback turtles, and only 64% are able to name five animals that are protected by the Park.

Schools in the lagoon villages often lack basic supplies- for example, when children in Rina Nzala were asked to take a piece of paper from their notebook for the test, only two of 24 students had a notebook! There are motivated teachers who want to include environmental education in their curricula, but without regular access to information and support, it is difficult to develop informative, dynamic lessons. One of the goals of the Mayumba National Park outreach project is to help these students and teachers to find the materials and support necessary to not only augment levels of environmental education, but also the overall quality of education in the village schools. We are very pleased to have recently formed a partnership with Sea World/Busch Gardens that will help us to acheive this goal.

See you again in June …..