Panama’s Guna Yala local fishers become champions for marine resources management
“We are scared of lionfish, they will kill us if we eat them!” This local fisherman’s testimony was echoed by his fellow fishers during a knowledge exchange workshop with Mexican and Belizean counterparts organized by MarAlliance in Guna Yala. MarAlliance’s ongoing lionfish and marine megafauna project in Panama’s indigenous Guna Yala region answers a real […]
Markets developed and driven by fishers: a solution for sustainable fisheries?
Small scale fisheries represent a chain with a variable number of links that includes the fish, the fisher and the buyer, often with additional links such as markets, resellers, wholesalers, stores or restaurants and the final consumers. Each link sets up demand that can undermine the sustainability of vulnerable coral reef-associated fisheries. In small communities, […]
New light shed on little known night sharks
Monitoring large, mobile and little known species requires a lot of work and dedication, and not a small amount of luck. We’ve all had days, and even weeks where we just can’t catch a break (or a shark), despite all factors – good weather, ideal location, great crew – being in our favor. And then […]
Mnine d’Mar: Connecting Children to the Ocean
Learning to use a Global Positioning Service device and accurately recording field data are some of the many skills that students receive during the Mnine d’Mar course. It’s dawn when Mohammed wakes up in the Barraca (Portuguese for slum) where he lives in the back of Sal Rei, the capital of Boavista, Cabo Verde. He can […]
“How old are you?” is not a straightforward question for sharks
When we are asked the question “How old are you?” we can usually answer with a degree of accuracy. Things are somewhat more complicated for fish and very much more for sharks – and not just because they can’t literally tell us how old they are. The ageing of fish is believed to originate from […]
Contrasting artisanal fishing communities in the Azuero Peninsula, Panama
High fishing effort coupled with unsustainable use and destructive practices such as nets, has resulted in the loss of marine biodiversity and in the deterioration of marine ecosystem services since the middle of the 20th century. One of the most important of these services is the provision of food, which implies that the loss of […]
Sharks and rays: Our gateway to tackling urgent marine issues
Engaging students and the public about sharks and rays, and the need for greater understanding and conservation measures, has created an unexpected space and platform with schools and the public to talk about other urgent issues impacting the sea, notably plastic pollution. Like many island nations, Cabo Verde has a problem with waste disposal. […]
A shark is not always shark in Panama…
People are remarkably fascinated by sharks. Whether they evoke fear, love, or pure curiosity, it is usually not very difficult to get people excited about sharks, especially kids. This has been clearly evident during our education and outreach events in Panama this year. Since the beginning of the year we’ve been able to engage […]
Zooming into the things that define the big animals
Sometimes it’s not just the big things that inspire awe, it’s the little things too. The really small, microscopic things. When we educate students about fish, notably sharks and rays, we tend to talk about the whole animals, their diet, behavior, form and function. And yet to demonstrate the phenomenal diversity of each species, […]
Monitoring a large shark aggregation that feeds wildlife tourism
Tourism focused on encounters with sharks and rays has increased dramatically worldwide as people increasingly seek out the animals they once feared, and are keen to experience the thrill of meeting large marine wildlife up close. Successful wildlife tourism is predicated on predictability, and one way of increasing the possibility that visitors will […]
Exploration with Monaco in Cabo Verde
Our team of conservationist scientists and fishers loves boats. We love them. Big or small, but preferably trustworthy. They are a key vehicle to our objective of finding, studying and conserving fish. We usually work out of rather small boats 6-7 meters long outfitted with outboard engines that one can only work in during […]
How old is that fish? You’d be surprised.
An increasing number of studies are revealing that fish are far older than we ever thought. You may ask why this important: sound management of a fishery requires a good understanding of how quickly (or slowly) individual fish in a species grow, at what age they begin to reproduce, and how long they live. […]