GVI Kenya

Yesterday we had an incredible blue day out in Marine. The days start quite early, by 6:00am we are all taking our breakfast, while the sun is still half asleep. At 7:00am we are already in the boat, searching for some animals in the blue pristine waters of the Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Protected Area.
Just as we went off, we saw this beautiful African Fish Eagle, just staring at the water, resting in a tree by the water. This big eagle is commonly found in this area and nests in high trees, especially acacias, figs or euphorbias and feeds mainly on fish, but also water birds and carrion.

The magestic African fish eagle (Haliaetus vocifer) 
After surveying the beautiful Funzi bay, we changed course and headed to Nyuli Reef and the Marine Reserve. In the shallow waters of Nyuli, we had another interesting sighting; two big green turtles were mating just about 30m from our research vessel. We turned off the engine and witnessed the courtship and mating behavior, while we recorded the coordinates on our GPS. Hopefully all went well for this pair and soon enough the female can lay her eggs in the sandy beaches of Funzi Island. Green turtles can lay more than 100 eggs, which take about 60 days to incubate and hatch. In Funzi, the Local Turtle Conservation Group, helped by KESCOM (Kenya Sea Turtle Committee), and GVI Conservation interns, patrol de beaches and provide environmental education to local people to help to conserve and protect this endangered species.

 The mating turtles

A turtle surfaces and is caught on camera
We continued our survey and headed to Kisite Marine Park, when we found a group of dolphins socializing and traveling. Excitement on the boat, while we grab our marine mammal sighting form, GPS and camera for photo-id. Some of the animals in the group are well known to the research team, such as chiizi, as well as two mothers and their calves. The water was so calm that we were lucky enough to see the calf breastfeeding under the water, just next to the boat. Wooohh! The mother and calf association in dolphins is very strong and the baby dolphins can breastfeed for more than two years. The mother’s mammary slits are located in either side of the genital slit.

 A mother (catalogue number 37 or “Patsy”) and her calf

“Patsy” and her calf
 

The day went on and we decided to snorkel transect 9. As if it couldn’t get an better, we had two turtle sightings while snorkeling; one juvenile hawksbill turtle and one adult green turtle. This green turtle seems to be resident at this spot, since we have seen her over and over on transect 9. It is very easy to identify her, as she is missing the back right flipper. It might have been caught in a net or hit by a propeller while younger, but managed to survive and heal its wounds. Alongside with the turtle we witnessed the amazing reef fish variety of the Marine Park.

 The turtle spotted on transect 9
 

Hopefully, all the data GVI is collecting will continue to contribute for this ecosystem to maintain its unique characteristics and help to conserve its biodiversity for the years to come!

Hey everyone,

Well I hope you’ve enjoyed the last couple of blogs about our marine team working with the Funzi Turtle Club.  I’m rather jealous I wasn’t able to go along with them!  I have had my hands full here on the mainland, carrying on with our coastal forest research. 

We have been pushing on through the heat and the sweat towards our goal of setting up survey transects in Shimoni west forest.  The last time I spoke about this I think we’d got about 600 metres up our future north / south spine. 

 Andy having a swing

We went in with a GPS a couple of days ago to continue plotting our progress, and to our delight we found that we had gone 1037 metres!  We’ve broken the kilometer mark!  By our estimations the north / south spine is going to be approximately 1.8 – 2 km long, allowing for up to 10 survey transects! 

This highlights how far we have yet to go, as each transect is going to be longer than the spine, but we are not backing down!  Our panga (machete) arms are bulging and our hands are blistered, but the future of research in Shimoni’s beautiful and unique coastal forest is in our hands, and every hour we spend in there takes us closer to assessing the conservation status of Shimoni west.

 Andy and Chelsea

Once we’ve uploaded the GPS points onto the map, I’ll stick them up on the blog so you can all have a look for yourselves!

On Sunday we were rewarded with yet another amazing sighting of Humpback Whales. It has been the sixth sighting since the beginning of 093 Expedition. This time, a mother Humpback Whale and its young calf were socializing in the channel between Mkwiro and Shimoni, so close to our Base Camp that we were able to see them from the land.

 The mother

It didn’t take us too long to prepare the cameras and GPS and jump into the boat to spend some time watching the pair as they slowly cruised in the channel. They seemed very relaxed in this calm and shallow waters; the young calf was lying on its back showing its distinctive white pectoral fins, while the mother rubbed her body from underneath. We were just overwhelmed by the beauty and the magnificence of the moment!

The calf showing its pectoral fin  

But the main show was yet to come…after a short diving period, the calf breached more than half of its body clearly out of the water just about 30m away from our boat…Whoww! Sunny Sunday Mornings at GVI’s Mkwiro Base.  

The pair together

During the last year (2008) we had a total of 6 sightings of 15 Humpback whales inside our study area. And from the start of July 2009, GVI has already seen 14 Humpback whales in 7 sightings. We are now sharing this data with other organizations collecting data on Humpback whales (a network that involves almost 100 whale-watchers along the East African Coast, from southern Mozambique to northern Unguja Island, Zanzibar) and contributing to have a better understanding of the migration pattern of this species.