Saving the mysterious African manatee at Cameroon hotspot – Newz9

DIZANGUE: Ever since his first arduous-received sightings of African manatees, award-profitable marine biologist Aristide Takoukam Kamla has been dedicated to defending the little identified and at threat aquatic mammals.
African manatees are present in recent water alongside the coast of western Africa, akin to in Cameroon’s huge Lake Ossa the place the researcher first noticed them greater than 10 years in the past.
But they’re shy creatures recognizing them requires setting out earlier than daybreak when the lake is glassy and tranquil, all the higher for following the trails of bubbles and, possibly simply possibly, catching two massive nostrils taking a fast breath.
“I was expecting to see them like on YouTube: in clear water, jumping like dolphins… a completely surreal idea” stemming from publications on manatees in Florida, the 39-12 months-previous Cameroonian recalled, smiling.
Their African cousins, nonetheless, are very completely different and the then University of Dschang apprentice researcher needed to row for a very long time earlier than being rewarded.
Thanks to native fishermen, Takoukam Kamla has now realized learn how to spot African manatees extra simply inside the darkened depths of the 4,500-hectare (11,000-acre) Lake Ossa, a part of a sprawling wildlife reserve in southwestern Cameroon.
They are his “favorite animal”, the topic of his doctorate at the University of Florida — and the motive he received this 12 months’s prestigious Whitley Award. that acknowledges groundbreaking biodiversity work by grassroots conservationists.
endangered habitat, poaching
American scientist Sarah Farinelli was moved to tears after seeing 5 African manatees, together with a feminine along with her calf, whereas out on the lake with Takoukam Kamla.
“Its huge! There are certain places in Africa where it’s impossible to see them,” stated Farinelli, who’s in her 30s and research the marine mammals in Nigeria.
Much nonetheless eludes researchers about the Trichechus senegalensis — what number of are in Cameroon; how lengthy do they stay; when and the place do they migrate.
African manatees are discovered between Mauritania and Angola however “it’s a very little studied species, around which many mysteries still remain”, Takoukam Kamla stated.
Sometimes often called sea cows, the massive marine herbivore is listed as “vulnerable” on the pink record of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
But the Cameroonian scientist thinks that’s “an under-estimation of the real status of this species, which is subject to poaching” and whose habitat is “constantly in danger”.
Takoukam Kamla arrange the African Marine Mammal Conservation Organization which has 5 laboratories together with in the lakeside fishing village of Dizangue.
On Lake Ossa, the animal’s sole predators are human — only some years in the past, manatees have been nonetheless being served up in the village restaurant.
Manatee looking is now outlawed and the dish has vanished from menus. A blue statue of a manatee has even been erected of their honour.
But threats stay.
Takoukam Kamla, standing on the shores of the lake, factors to an artisanal palm oil refinery whose waste is dumped into the water.
Another risk is the positioning of a web throughout the lake to maximise catches because it may “trap a small manatee in its mesh”, he complained, getting right into a heated dialogue with a fisherman in his dug-out canoe.
“We’re indigenous, we live off this and we have never had to suffer prohibitions at home,” the previous man grumbled bitterly.
“If you want to impose bans on us, you will have to pay us every month.”
Biological fight
Relations between the scientists and the native communities whose fishing traditions have been handed down the generations are difficult.
But an environmental risk that struck three years in the past introduced their two worlds collectively.
Half of the lake’s floor turned coated by the invasive large salvinia — Salvinia molesta — a free-floating plant that has made the lake uninhabitable for each fish and manatees.
To fight it, scientists used a microscopic insect that feeds solely on salvinia and referred to as on the fishermen to assist.
“They used to take the salvinia infested with weevils and put a bit everywhere in the lake,” AMMCO researcher Thierry Aviti stated.
Three years on, the menacing plant has all however disappeared.
“At one point, we couldn’t cope anymore” however guarantees have been stored, Dizangue fisherman Thierry Bossambo stated, marked by the recollections of lengthy nights with no fish.
The bridges constructed with the fishermen is one thing Takoukam Kamla is eager to take care of to keep away from “parachute science”, a time period referring to scientists dropping into native communities from their tutorial ivory towers to undertake subject work.
And to counter potential poaching, he needs to develop the space’s eco-tourism,
It’s a “priority”, agreed Gilbert Oum Ndjocka, curator of the close by Douala-Edea National Park, who stated “all stakeholders are allies for conservation”.