GVI Kenya

Category: Cetacean research, Humpback whales, Kisite Mpunguti MPA | Date: Jul 21 2009 | By: gvikenya

Our marine research team had an amazing day yesterday! Setting off at 7am in our research boat, we surveyed out to Funzi bay and then back across to the Kisite Mpunguti marine protected area, when, after 3 hours, passing over Nyuli reef, out captain Shafii and Ines called out the phrase that has been on everybody’s lips since our first sighting two weeks ago… “whale”.

The huge blow on the horizon seen erupting from the waters was an unmistakable marker of our second humpback whale group of the season. Our boat motored out to where it had been seen, as the whale slapped its tail on the water’s surface, rolled and dived down. Three whales were seen and the research boat attempted to track a pair, possibly mother accompanied by her older offspring, but certainly not one of this season’s new arrivals. The boat follwed them as they travelled and then they dived once more. We cut the engine and waited… everyoe breathless and alert, scanning the horizon. the dive lasted two minutes and then one of the anmals broke the surface once more, in an incredible breach, the whale’s huge body shooting vertically out of the water more than halfway before crashing down on its side.

Seeing these ocean giants so close is exhilirating, their size and grace never failing to take your breath away. And we got some fantastic photos for you to enjoy!

Tags: Cetacean research, Humpback whales, kisite mpunguti marine protected area, nyuli reef

4 responses so far

Category: Cetacean research, Humpback whales | Date: Jul 05 2009 | By: gvikenya

Hello there! After a rough week of stormy seas and torrential (and somewhat mysterious!) ‘black rain’ brought by the Kusi monsoon winds, Friday left us with something to celebrate… well, a pair of somethings actually.

Monday was a training day for us, teaching our new researchers how to identify different turtle species, dolphin species and their larger cousins the humpback whales. Tuesday was… a total wash out! Torrential rain kept our research boat and research team firmly moored at Mkwiro. Wednesday and Thursday saw us out on the choppy water but the winds kept us confined to the Wasini channel. A brief sighting of a green turtle and bottlenose dolphin were all we got for our efforts and in rough seas following the dolphin sighting and undertaking photo identification surveys proved too difficult.

Friday was looking to be a similar story as the planned survey route to Funzi bay was abandoned and we turned back in to the Wasini channel, however it turned out that we didn’t need to venture as far as Funzi bay… we barely needed to venture off our base in Mkwiro village as it happened. On re-entering the eastern end of Wasini channel the research team were confronted by two seasonal visitors in front of Mkwiro… a pair of humpback whales! We’re not sure that this particular pair was a mother and calf, although one was smaller, it certainly wasn’t a new born and as this marks the beginning of Kenya’s 2009 humpback whale season, we’re expecting mothers to be on their migration north up the East African coastline before they calve.

However it is very exciting for us to see the humpback whales (the fourth largest animal in the world as I learned recently!) return and for those of us here last year, the significance of last Friday, 3rd July, wasn’t lost on us. Last year, the first sighting of humpback whales in the area relayed to us, was on 3rd July! We can’t wait to find out what else we can learn from them over the coming months and if we’re lucky we may have a chance of finding out if any of the individuals we photographed last year have returned for 2009.

 Stay tuned, we’ll be blogging our way through the 2009 humpback whale season for you!

Corti

Tags: Cetacean research, Humpback whales, mkwiro, wasini island

No responses yet

Category: Cetacean research, Dolphins, Humpback Dolphins, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, Turtles | Date: Jun 04 2009 | By: gvikenya

Today we chugged our way along the coast of the Shimoni peninsula all hoping for an exciting day to finish off the marine research week. Not long after leaving the Western end of the Wasini Channel our hopes were fulfilled when Shafii sighted Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins just off the coast. First contact was with a mother and calf but shortly afterwards we spied another group about a hundred metres away and so headed off to check them out… and were rewarded with a group of twelve to fourteen humpback dolphins literally frolicking in the shallow waters.  

Humpback dolphins are meant to be ’shy’ but this group were anything but as they spy-hopped, breached, swam around the boat and generally showed off, posing for the paparazzi on the boat.  Most excitingly, there were four mother and calf pairings - baby humpbacks are particularly cute with their little humps and tiny dorsal fins and they gave our two photo-identification photographers plenty of opportunities while the rest of us ooh-ed and aah-ed at the display. It can’t be a bad day when you are sat on a boat in the sunshine watching a group of dolphins at a time of day when you would normally have been arriving at the office to start work! We had a spectacular snorkel in the warm waters off Kisite Island then spied a turtle swimming on the surface as we headed back to base.  

Tags: Cetacean research, dolphin research, indo-pacific humpback dolphin, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, photo-identification, Turtles, wasini island

3 responses so far

Category: Cetacean research, Dolphins, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, Turtles, bottlenose dolphins | Date: May 26 2009 | By: gvikenya

As I mentioned before, the Kusi winds and rain make life difficult for dolphin research on the open seas. Yesterday our efforts on the water went unrewarded again… although I stick with my little mantra that “no data is still valuable data”!

Today however the team aboard ‘Lampard’ started with a promising early sighting, a group of four bottlenose dolphins sighted around the eastern end of Wasini Island. But the rough seas made for tough conditions under which to follow the small travelling group, let alone try to take the photos from which we would be able to try and identify the individuals.

So the search continued, rounding the end of Wasini Island in to Mpunguti marine reserve, cruising between the two Mpunguti islands and on in to Kisite marine park. The destination was Kisite Island where we hoping that the sheltered side would allow us at least to look for turtles in the water along one of our snorkel transects.  However before we ready to jump overboard, another group of four bottlenose dolphins approached the boat as the wind and waves subsided… leaving us with good conditions and a perfect opportunity to get back to what we had been trying earlier, photo-identification.

Besty with her distinctive dorsal fin notches 

Both Andy and Jamie were armed with cameras in a photo-ID duel. It was the two adult dolphins that were our key target, as they would hopefully be individuals catalogued over the past 3 and a half years that we could recognise. And in fact they both were, Nene (or individual 083) and Besty (individual 017 - the 17th individual we formally identified, from 2006). Besty was accompanied by her calf and the fourth individual was a sub-adult. With the local dolphins having been elusive for much of the last few months, it was pleasing to enjoy these four showing off in the calm waters around Kisite Island. The calf in particular seemed to be in playful mood, posing for the camera with ’spyhops’ - holding the head vertically out of the water.

 Nene with Besty’s calf spyhopping

No turtles on the transect, but the day was far from disappointing and seeing Besty again is like meeting up with an old friend.

Tags: bottlenose dolphins, Cetacean research, kisite island, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, marine mammals, turtle research, wasini island

No responses yet

Category: Cetacean research, Dolphins | Date: May 22 2009 | By: gvikenya

Hi there,

We’ve been a little quiet on the dolphin front lately, but we can blame it all on the weather… and power cuts! Our research boat ‘Lampard’ has been going out, but with rains keeping us anchored for hours on end, and the Kusi winds stirring up the seas, we’ve not had much luck finding dolphins lately. After all, they have a lot of ocean to swim around and when you rely on fleeting glimpses of dorsal fins breaking the surface, choppy waters can easily hide them.

Yesterday, after 5 hours at sea in a fruitless search for both humpback dolphins and bottlenose dolphins it was looking to be another frustraing day when conditions were against us. But technology has a role to play, even in out at sea and friendly phone call alerted us to dolphins that had been sighted so we headed over to look for them before heading home for lunch.

And, finally, we were not disappointed… not just a large group of bottlenose dolphins, up to 30 individuals, but in playful mood too. Males getting a little excitable at times, females with calves, and sub-adults enjoying themselves - or to be less anthropomorphic, leaping and turning over! Out of the spectacle we were able to identify some of our best known individuals, inlcuding ‘Besty’, ‘Freshy’, ‘Sawa’ and ‘Stima’ with her calf.

Besty and Stima, both identifiable by distinct notches in their dorsal fins

Very satisfying to know they are all out there still a definite incentive to keep braving the rain and wind day after day!

 Hopefully they’ll give us some more news to pass on to you soon!

 Corti

Tags: , bottlenose dolphins, Cetacean research

No responses yet

Category: Cetacean research, Dolphins, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, Turtles | Date: May 01 2009 | By: gvikenya

Keziah gives us the news from yesterday’s marine research:

I woke up 6am in Shimoni, waiting to find out when the boat would come to pick me up at the jetty. With the rainy season, start times of marine surveys become a wee bit unpredictable - with one eye on the rain clouds you just have to wait for the opportunity! However, the sun was shining, there was no sign of rain and a phone call later I was jogging through Shimoni village to the boat.

We headed out towards Funzi Bay, across Nyuli Reef and to Upper Mpunguti Island when we had our first sighting of dolphins, something that has also become less predictable with the season. At first we thought there were eleven Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, but soon realised this was an underestimation. Ten on the port side, ten on the starboard side, we didn’t know quite where to look, excitedly swapping sides with a chorus of gasps and squeals from our team, and splashes and blows from the dolphins.

Several individuals were identified immediately, including one of my favourite pairs; Besty and her calf. I had the pleasure to be on the boat when we spotted Besty and her newborn calf for the first time, adorably small with the foetal folds still showing! Others including Twende and the yet to be named individual ‘063’ were also identified.

The group were at first travelling fast in a southerly direction, then their pace slowed, with a couple of individuals approaching the boat to bow ride. This enabled us to get good shots of the dorsal fins, which will be used for photo-identification in our mark-recapture study. Unfortunately we also noticed an adult and juvenile that appeared skinny compared to the rest, with their ribs visible. We hope this wasn’t a sign of illness in the population or lack of food in the area… After taking enough photos we left them to continue south to the open sea.

The dolphins had done us a service, leading us to the start of the snorkel transect our survey leader had selected for the day, by Kisite Island… and it turned out to be the perfect day to pick this transect! As we climbed out of the water to board the boat post-survey, everyone’s face was an absolute picture: 3 hawksbill turtles, 5 green turtles and 1 moray eel! Ruth and I even had the pleasure of watching one of the green turtles swim slowly to the surface, stop for a few seconds and then continue to raise its head out the water, beak open for a gasp of air. This was closely followed by us both surfacing and giggling hysterically with joy having witnessed a behaviour in full that we had only seen before from above the surface as a turtle’s head appear and disappear in a second!

With the weather being on our side, we decided to return towards Funzi Bay again, but the sea was just a little too rough, so we diverted in to Wasini channel. Within 5 minutes of turning the boat around there was a shout from Katalin at the front, “DOLPHIN”, followed quickly by “HUMPBACK DOLPHIN!”. We had to wait 10 minutes for the individual to reappear, a very large Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin that seemed curiously darker than usual. We put this down to the glare of the sun, and waited for what we thought was a lone individual to resurface.  Then two individuals surfaced riding a wave, both smaller than the first. Several more minutes of waiting and we were shocked to see not only the three individuals from before, but another two adults and calf!

We continued to watch them for 20 minutes as they were feeding, coming up for several breaths before peduncle dives took them under for several minutes.  After surfacing for the third time, in unison, they formed a compact group, changed direction and headed south, crossing the channel towards Wasini Island. We were able to compare the colouration of the first individual and yes, he was distinctly darker, not something we had seen before. The mother of the calf had a deep scar around her neck, possibly from a fishing line. Only 2 weeks ago an individual was spotted with a huge chunk out the back of his dorsal fin, the shape suggestive of a boat propeller injury. Both these wounds emphasize the humpback dolphin’s vulnerability to fishing activities, boat traffic and marine debris around coast lines. But fortunately also an ability to recover from significant injury.

All in all it was quite an epic day for our research team and for me one of complete brilliance!

Tags: bottlenose dolphin, Cetacean research, dolphin research, funzi bay, green turtle, hawksbill turtle, humpback dolphin, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, turtle research, wasini channel

2 responses so far

Category: Cetacean research, Dolphins, Kenya Wildlife Service, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, Turtles | Date: Apr 27 2009 | By: gvikenya

Jon “JR” Olson is a U.S Naval Attache based in Helsinki.  He has come to the south coast of kenya for two weeks to join GVI in its marine research project in the Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Protected Area.  He has kindly written this blog about his first day as part of the research team.

The 0530 alarm went off next to my head and, at first, I forgot where I was.  Then, the heat and humidity of the early Kenyan coastal morning kicked in as I peeled off the sheet from my sweating body.  While some would be put off by this rather uncomfortable fact, I, personally, felt exhilarated as this was to be my first official day working as a member of the dolphin research project in the Kisite Mpunguti Marine Protected Area.

By 0600 I was showered, had organized by personal snorkel gear, camera, sunscreen, some additional clothes, etc, and was in the kitchen eating a quick breakfast.  I was the new guy and had to prove to the GVI veterans I could contribute to this project.  Contribution started with me helping to fix breakfast, cleaning up the kitchen area afterwards, packing the equipment for the day, etc.  By 0630 our group of nine people was hauling the gear down to the water and loading up SQUIRREL, our shuttle boat.  A few minutes later we were motoring our way across the Wasini Channel bound for Shimoni Village and our moored research boat known as BARDAN.  After transferring our gear to BARDAN, we got underway on our search for dolphins and other marine life.

Within minutes of starting out, we spotted our first pod of bottlenose dolphins, right in the middle of the Wasini Channel.  We spent 45 minutes following a pod of seven dolphins as they transited west down the channel.  We took dozens of photographs, logged the entire event, and ended the sighting around 0745.  BARDAN then turned east and we headed out into deeper water destined for Kisite Island by way of Funzi Bay.  We motored slowly under cloudy skies, which, on this particular morning, considering my still pasty white flesh, was OK with me.  The conditions were absolutely perfect for searching the seas for pods of dolphin and other marine species.  And, as luck would have it, while transiting south from Funzi Bay, we spooked a large surfacing turtle which promptly inhaled deeply and rapidly dove back into the deep.

Photograph showing a bottlenose dolphin feeding on a turtle

Some two hours after we departed Shimoni, we arrived in the channel area of the Kisite Mpunguti islands.   It was not long before we spotted a small group of tourist dive boats and we set course for those boats as it was likely they would be accompanied by some type of marine life.  Once again, we were lucky and as we arrived in the vicinity of the tourist boats, we spotted a number of pairs of bottlenose dolphins, all of them engaged in socializing behaviors, and possibly some feeding.  We tracked these pairs of dolphins using cameras, the event and sighting logs, and maintained contact for approximately 30 minutes.  The dolphins then disappeared and we began making our way toward our snorkeling destination near Kisite Island where we would snorkel a defined path, known as a transect, in search of more turtles.
Once in the water, which, to me, feels like bath water because it is so warm, we started our transect and were not disappointed after sighting three turtles, two of which we were able to specifically classify as Green Turtles. 

A bottlenose dolphin with scars that are believed to be the result of a shark attack

Once back in the boat at the end of our snorkel phase, we logged the information on the turtles in the Mega Fauna log and then proceeded back to the northeast, heading back to base for lunch and afternoon of data entry into the computers and some time spent correlating dolphin photos with individual dolphins.  It was amazing to me to see the truly distinctive dorsal fin marks on each of the local, or resident, bottlenose dolphins listed in the photographic data base.  After expert tutelage by GVI intern Karen, I was able to quickly identify a number of dolphins in the data base with photos taken by other research teams, providing much needed data for GVI to inform the Kenya Wildlife Service about key aspects of dolphin behavior.  This information will allow KWS to develop better policies for protecting the Marine Protected Area, which will, in turn, protect the bottlenose dolphins habitat.

As I finish this blog, I realize it is almost 10PM and I have to get up again shortly after 0500 tomorrow morning.  I get to do it all over again!  I can’t wait!

Tags: bottlenose dolphin, Cetacean research, funzi, green turtle, kisite mpunguti marine protected area, marine protected areas, mkwiro, shimoni, turtle

No responses yet