GVI Kenya

Hello again everyone,

Today’s blog has but one purpose.  That purpose is to extend the warmest thanks we here in Shimoni can muster, to someone who we all know quite well, and who has made the most extraordinary donation to Friends of Shimoni Forest.  That man is Kevin Malone.

 Kevin on Kisite Island
 

Kevin is from the United States and was a volunteer with GVI in Kenya for 5 weeks in March / April 2009.  During his time here he joined both the marine and terrestrial research teams, as well as spending time in the classroom in Mkwiro Primary School and out with the community development team in Tsavo West.  Kevin’s hardworking attitude and immediate dedication to the programmes shone from the start, and his sense of humour was infamous within days of arriving.  We were sad to say goodbye to Kevin after so short a time, but unfortunately that is the nature of what we do out here.
I received an e-mail from Corti (who set up the justgiving donations page for Friends of Shimoni Forest) this afternoon, informing me of an ENORMOUS donation made towards Friends of Shimon Forest (FSF).  The money raised on this website goes towards the Friends of Shimoni Forest Scholarship Fund, which pays for local children to go to secondary school, on the condition that either they themselves, or their family, assist FSF in conservation work.  The money will also go towards funding initiatives such as forest patrols, alternative charcoal and reforestation of indigenous saplings.   
From what I hear, Kevin donated £350!!  That has brought the total up to £690!  I cannot even explain how much this means to all of us, as Kevin’s money alone will pay for a child to go to secondary school for the best part of two years.  This money could also pay the wages of someone patrolling the forest for 210 days.  This money could also buy 2100 indigenous saplings to be replanted in the highly degraded areas of the forest.
It’s amazing how far money can go out here, especially when donated in British pounds or US dollars.  A relatively small amount can go such a long way, and really help change things.  And with people like Kevin, who are willing to make such generous donations, we are making incredible headway.

 Kevin preparing to go into the forest
So finally – thank you again Kevin.  You.  Are.  A.  legend.

Best wishes to all
Matt

*if you would like more information about Friends of Shimoni Forest, the work they are doing, or if you would like to make a donation, please visit www.justgiving.co.uk/shimoni   

Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Protected Area (KMMPA) lies south of Wasini Island (south-coast of Kenya) and covers an area of 39 square kilometres. The KMMPA includes the National Park surrounding Kisite Island and the Marine Reserve surrounding the Mpunguti islands. The KMMPA and the marine wildlife it contains are an important tourist attraction and, as a result, an important resource for Shimoni and surrounding communities. The islands within the KMMPA are surrounded by coral reefs attracting divers and snorkelers to the area. Almost every day dolphin-watching companies operating from Shimoni travel through Wasini Channel to the KMMPA. These tourist dhows most frequently encounter Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus), and less frequently, Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis).

Global Vision International (GVI) Kenya’s main working partner is the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). The research conducted by GVI is shaped to satisfy the objectives of KWS, so as to assist them towards better management of the area.  All data collected thus far is made available to KWS to aid in management plans of the study area. The Marine Programme is supporting KWS to collate data by conducting vessel surveys, which was focus on assessing the bottlenose dolphin abundance on the area, during the initial phase.

After three years of cetacean research in Kisite-Mpunguti MPA, GVI has estimated the absolute abundance of bottlenose dolphins around 122 individuals, being the second biggest population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in East Africa. The largest population of the species inhabits in Kizimkazi (south-coast of Zanzibar), and holds between 139 and 179 individuals (estimation made by University of Stockholm in 1999-2002).  

Photo-id and mark-recapture methods were the methodology used on both studies to get the estimation. Photo-ID refers to the identification of individuals by distinctive features (shape, outline, natural markings and scarring) of their dorsal fins, flanks and flukes. Some scars will be retained through life, whereas others will be added and may fade through life. The depth and severity of the wound will determine the length of time this may be used for identification. These features allow known individuals to be re-sighted. The re-sighting rate can be plotted on a discovery curve, the plateau of which suggests population size. Photo-ID can also be used to determine residency and demographic data such as inter-birth intervals, patterns of ranging and mortality.

Mark-recapture methods are used to calculate population size from the proportion of known individuals re-sighted over the study period. Mark-recapture models estimate only the size of marked individuals in the population. Therefore, the total population size has been corrected by the correction factor.

Kenya Wildlife Service applied a code of conduct in 2007 for the tour operators to follow when manoeuvring around the cetacean species; unfortunately it is not being fully adhered to as it has only recently been implemented. The levels of interaction between cetaceans and the tour operators are not being monitored or regulated in any way. The impact these activities may be having is unknown. In particular, it’s not known whether current levels of dolphin tourism are sustainable for the area. The first estimation of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in KMMPA will allow GVI and KWS to measure the levels of tourism impacts, analysing the population dynamics of this species.

Today, our marine team piled onto a tourist Dhow to continue the research we’ve started with them.  We are mainly looking at the routes the dhows are taking, where they get their sightings, how many other dhows are at each sighting and how the animals behave and react to them.  Emily, tells us how the day went;

We boarded Aqua and waited for our “subjects” to come on board. Eventually our boat was filled with 2 Swedish families who were both here for 6 months to adopt their children and 2 Dutch couples on holiday.  After a brief introduction of GVI and our dolphin research methods, we set off in search of dolphins:  Absolute record breaking! Dolphins appeared 2 minutes into the trip! I hadn’t even managed to write the date on to the log form yet! 8 dorsal fins were slowly bobbing up and down in a docile fashion.  It was all excitement on board, kids pointing fingers, adults pointing cameras, Ines pointing at the dorsal fins and immediately identifying the species/age and even their catalogue number. 

 Data collection in the sun

Several of them had perfectly shaped dorsal fins, so undamaged that they could only have been juveniles; a couple of them had distinguishable chips and marks that enabled us to recognise them as the “regulars”.  #027 was spotted (“Melika”). He swam around our boat, surfaced for air a few times and characteristically dove down for a minute or so as dolphins do with the juveniles following one by one; beautifully synchronised, breathing through their blow holes, backs and fins glistening in the sun. A couple more boats arrived and the dolphins lingered on. We left them in peace after 20 min and headed to Kisite Island for spot of snorkelling.

 No. 27 – “Melika”

We mingled with our multi-national guests; Steph showing the kids laminated photos of dolphins explaining their behaviours; Ines sign languaging the direction of Kisite Island to me behind the Dutch as I, in turn, looked very knowledgeable about the geography of the local area.  We arrived in no time and everyone stripped to their swim gear and jumped in with snorkels.  It was low tide and as I gently put my foot, something wriggled under my foot that felt far smoother than sand. I put my head under and saw a blue-spotted stingray burying itself in the sand in a huff: Whoops! Sorry! The water was clear and the entire cast of ‘Finding Nemo’ was there, plus all the extras who didn’t make it into the final cut, chomping on the brightly coloured corals.

 Kisite Island

After a small snack of coconut, bananas and biscuits on the boat, we headed to Wasini for some lunch.  We sat down at a table with flowers scattered all over it. A beautiful steamed crab was placed in front of us along with coconut rice, vegetables, seaweed, chapattis and an assortment of fish! Well worth $8!

We got the tourists to fill out questionnaires before getting picked up by Bardan, our very own research vessel, and headed home.

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.