Born Free

Category: Sea Sense | Date: Nov 10 2008 | By: bornfree

We had a rare occurrence a few weeks ago when an enormous sperm whale washed up dead on the west coast of Mafia Island. This incredible marine mammal measured 16 meters long and attracted huge crowds of people which gave us a great opportunity to raise awareness about sperm whales and about marine conservation in general to a captive audience. Sperm whales can grow up to 20.5 meters and weigh 41 tons!

It seems as if the whale swam through a gap in the reef and became stranded when the tide went out. The carcass is now being protected so that the bones of this enormous animal can be collected and hopefully reconstructed.

Next week we continue with a marine conservation and recycling primary schools’ competition which we started last month. Kids from 10 schools are competing with each other to produce art / sculptures and teachers are competing to make teaching aids, all from flotsam and jetsam washed up on the beach. The competition also includes singing and drama and will culminate in a colourful ceremony on 22 November when the winners will be announced and prizes given out.

At the end of next week I will be travelling north to a coastal town called Tanga where we will soon be expanding our marine conservation activities. 

We always need more funds for our ongoing work with turtles and dugongs in Tanzania, please do think about donating and helping us to continue our work protecting marine life in Tanzania.

More on that and the competition next week!

Thanks, Catharine

Tags: Mafia Island, Sea Sense, sperm whale, Tanzania

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Category: Sea Sense | Date: Sep 17 2008 | By: bornfree

Last week we went to Saadani National Park, the only protected area in Tanzania which includes terrestrial and marine wildlife – where bush meets the beach! Our aim was to check the status of conservation activities as well as tourism issues. This area is situated north of Dar es Salaam and is sandwiched between the two historical towns of Bagamoyo and Pangani. The area has lots of wildlife including elephant, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and lion. It is also an important area for nesting green turtles. This year, we have recorded 16 nests on Madete beach, which is protected within the park boundaries. 

During our trip, we visited Maziwe Island to check for turtle nests. This island was once vegetated and there were records of olive ridleys nesting. However, the island is now completely inundated during spring tides and many nests are washed away, due to removal of the vegetation.  While there, we saw the tracks of a large green turtle. However, we didn’t manage to find her eggs. We will now be monitoring the island every neap tide. If we find eggs, they will be moved to the mainland beach for protection.

We also received reports from local fishermen that 3 green turtles and 1 leatherback turtle were found washed up on the beach with injuries to their heads, presumably having been hit by local fishers as they struggled to recover their nets.

Tags: Saadani National Park, Sea Sense, Tanzania, tourism, turtles, Wildlife

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Category: Sea Sense | Date: Sep 08 2008 | By: bornfree

Last week we went to Mafia Island, just south of Zanzibar, to check the progress of conservation activities along with tourism affairs. We (me – John Mbugani, together with two field officers and two University students) stopped first on Juani Island (which means island of the sun in the local language), a satellite island that sits on the east side of Mafia. This is probably the most important turtle nesting site in the whole of Tanzania. On just a few small sandy coves, we have already protected a record 136 turtle nests this year, of which 85% have already hatched with thousands of babies making their spectacular way to the sea.

One threat facing green and hawksbill turtles on Juani is predation by monitor lizards. We saw a nest that, moments before we arrived, had been predated by a monitor lizard. 25 hatchlings died as a result.

Another threat is beach litter which acts as a barrier to nesting turtles. We came across huge piles of litter brought by ocean currents far away from Mafia washed up on the eastern side of island. These have been blocking the beaches making it difficult for nesting females to access suitable sites for depositing their eggs and for babies to get to the sea. Many tourists have been put off by the rubbish discouraging them from donating to the project.

While there, we also visited Juani Primary School which has received support from the Born Free Foundation for some years now. Funds have been used to repair classrooms and to construct a new water tank which is on-going. Now the kids and teachers are enjoying an inspiring studying environment and soon they will get fresh water.

More from Mafia soon!

Tags: Sea Sense, Tanzania, turtles

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Category: Sea Sense | Date: Jul 09 2008 | By: bornfree

I recently returned from a trip along the coast south of Tanzania’s capital Dar es Salaam. This stretch of coast is about 65km long and most is ideal turtle nesting habitat. We normally record about 100 green turtle here nests a year. Because it is so close to Dar es Salaam it is very disturbed and we are doing all that we can to minimize disturbance to nesting turtles and hatchlings from hotel development, fisher camps and illegal fishing activities, especially dynamiting. This is achieved mainly through education, public awareness and production of guidelines for tourism building (e.g. lights). While down there, we spent some time with the managers of two luxury hotels with whom we are promoting turtle tourism. We relocate some nests that are at risk from inundation to their beaches and in return we receive donations (modest unfortunately) from their guests. In this way, turtle protection in this area is becoming sustainable as these funds help pay for the community Conservation Officers as well as small nest incentives that are paid out when a turtle nest is reported.

Our main problem at the moment is nest predation by mongooses and red ants. The latter attack the young turtles as they come out of the eggs deep in the sand. We are minimizing the risk from mongooses by surrounding the nests with chicken wire and covering them with fishing net (this is removed a few days before hatching). For the red ants, we are trying a variety of things such as placing cold ash at the bottom and top of the nest.

Next week we are back off to the south coast to do some training with hotel staff. We have 4 University of Dar es Salaam undergraduates with Sea Sense for the next 2 months and they will be helping us with the training and with protecting turtle nests.

More next week!

Tags: illegal fishing, poaching, protection, Sea Sense, Tanzania, turtles

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Category: Sea Sense | Date: Jul 02 2008 | By: bornfree

I am Catharine Muir, Director of Sea Sense, a Tanzanian community-based NGO that I set up in 2001. Sea Sense helps to protect endangered marine life including turtles and dugongs with a view to improving the lives of local people and protecting biodiversity. My job is essentially to coordinate our dedicated team which is comprised of 3 in the office and a network of 65 local Conservation Officers who collect data and raise awareness along the coast.

 The kinds of activities Sea Sense is involved in include: protecting nesting turtles and their eggs; tagging; monitoring sightings and strandings of turtles, dugongs, dolphins, whales and whale sharks; conducting socio-economic and biological surveys to collect information on values, beliefs, perceptions and trends; and raising awareness through village meetings, competitions and distribution of educational materials. Aside from the field work, I am also responsible for fund-raising and report writing and dissemination of our work through local and international media and publications.

I work closely with John Mbugani the Education / Field Officer who is Tanzanian and who graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam in 2007 with a BSc in Marine Biology from the Faculty of Aquatic Sciences & Technology. John spends the majority of his time in the field, either in villages raising awareness, training Conservation Officers and organizing campaigns or on the beaches or at sea monitoring turtle nests, reports of dead marine animals or illegal activities.

We have just completed a dynamic primary schools’ competition centered around dugongs for World Environment Day and have many more exciting activities planned for the rest of 2008!

Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be reporting on the work of Sea Sense, I hope you enjoy reading about the work which we are so passionate about!!

Tags: community, dugong, marine, poaching, Sea Sense, Tanzania, turtles, whale, whale shark

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