Day 20 Big Catch

A pregnant Devil Ray, a Blacktip Reef Shark and a Spotted Eagle Ray were brought up in a single gill net. 

(Photos to follow) 

Day 19

Juvenile Hammerhead brought up at Guinjata

Day 17

Today I met Dr Cival Mills. He has come to stay with us at Guinjata for a few days as he visits his old friends Lynn and Zelda. Zelda and Lynn taught Cival to dive through an organisation called Amaglubglub. Cival has a rare condition called locked in syndrome which prevents him from moving any muscles in his body except those that control eye movement but he is completely aware and communicates by way of keyboard. My dyslexia made our conversations today a little slow but we got by alright!

He is an incredibly inspiring man and I urge you to read something a bit more elequently writen about him: http://www.civalmills.co.za

Day 16 teaching the local kids the Haka

Day 12 Devil Rays

7:23am Guinjata: gill net was brought up by two fishermen. In it were two Devil Rays.

One female 1.09 m wing span with baby (birthed prematurely under the stress of being caught in the net), baby 26cm wing span.
Second ray was male weighing 16.9kg wing span 1.19 m 

Fishermen untangle gill net

Male Devil Ray weighing 16.9kg

Premature baby Devil Ray

Fishermen cutting out a vertebrae for us, we use the vertebrae to determine the age of the ray.

Gill rakers of the female ray.

Day 11 hammer head

Baby hammer head (9.6kg, 1.27m total length) caught by gill nets at Guinjata. A few hours later a reef manta (3.7m) was brought up in the same gill net. 

Day 9 Manta Reef Dive

Day 7 talking to the fishermen on Paindane beach

Day 6 Peaceful day at Coconut Bay

Spoke to a local fisherman we have befriended over the past week. He usually spear fishes but he and his brother also own one gill net (40mx5m). Today they brought up 25kg of Kingfish, which they were thrilled about! 

Other than that it was a quiet day. 

Day 5 fishermen in the shallows

Men chant as they herd small fish into the shallow rock pools of Guinjata for the spear fishermen to catch. The catch was brought up into the beach and split between all the men.

People still returning to the beach to dig up the Manta.  

Photo credit: Zoë Holbrook

Day 4 Manta Ray caught

A pregnant Manta ray was caught by gill net fishermen on Guinjata beach. It's illegal to catch mantas but the enforcement here is minimal. The manta was approximately 5.51 metres from wing to wing, 2 metres from nose to tail tip and 1/5 metre high. Zoë physically pulled the baby out of the womb of the dead animal but it was already dead too. The whole village came down to take their small share of the colossal creature. The only peace we took from this experience was that every last bit of the fish would be used. It becomes increasingly clear to me that trying to change these fishing methods is going to be very challenging, when the people who are fishing are literally doing this to feed their families- hand to mouth. Most of this practice is not out of greed but out of hunger.

Manta Ray caught by gill net, Guinjata Bay Mozambique 13/07/14
Photo credit: Chloe Bentley

Fishermen divide the Manta up with machetes
Photo credit: Chloe Bentley

unborn baby Manta discovered in the dead mothers womb
Photo credit: Chloe Bentley

Measuring the dead premeture Manta for data collection
Photo credit: Chloe Bentley

Villages begin to arrive as the Manta is divided up
Photo credit: Chloe Bentley

Day 3 Quiet Day at Guinjata

Stayed on Guinjata but no nets were brought up. Sadly we got news that a shark was brought up at Coconut Bay but we couldn't get there in enough time to survey it.

Sunrise at Guinjata Bay
Photo credit: Zoë Holbrook

Day 2: Sunrise with the fishermen

Today was an early start for our first day of shark and ray surveying. Chess and I woke up at 4:50am, before the sun was up, to walk the 7km to Coconut Bay, one of our survey spots. We got there just after sunrise around 6:30am. However, when we turned the corner into the bay we saw that it was deserted apart from a few fishing boats piled up on the shore and one lonely vessel, no bigger than a child's single bed, being towed out to sea. We approach the old fisherman and his son and tried, in very broken Portuguese, to ask them if we could record their catch. After a few confused minutes we realised they didn't speak Portuguese but understood a little English. They told us they used lines on rods to fish and that they went out about 11 times a day.  We're surveying gill net and long line fishermen so we left these two in peace for the morning. 

Old fishermen and his son prepare to launch at Coconut Bay

Methodology (what we're doing!)

Methodology

BE CAREFUL CATCH MAY BE ALIVE

Write down the time & date
 

 Sharks

1.     Measure the fork length (nose to V) and the total length

2.     Measure the pre-caudal length (nose - beginning of tail) 

3.     Measure stretch total length – bend down the caudal fin and stretch

4.     Photograph

a.     Place the metre rule next to the shark

b.     Write local name, scientific name, date, location on piece of paper/whiteboard & place next to it.

c.     Allocate specific shark number

d.     Note down the picture name/number

5.     Photograph ventral snout

a.     Take picture of the mouth/nose of shark.

b.     Note down photograph number

6.     Take vertebrae

a.     Use the knife

b.     Take the vertebrae from above the gills

c.     Note down the vertebrae no. (count from the back of the skull)

d.     Cut one or two out, leave plenty of room for trimming down.

e.     Put in plastic bag and then Tupperware

f.      When you get back note the spp, date, location, specific identification number, & photograph number on the bag.

7.     Note the sex of the shark – males can be identified by their claspers which are thin, elongated, paired fins situated behind the pelvic fins. Females do not have claspers but have an opening between the pelvic fins.

8.     Weigh the shark using the hand held luggage scales and the sling.

9.     Record the method of catch, the price the fins will go for and the time.
 

Rays

1.     Identify the species and sex

2.     Weigh it using the luggage scales

3.     Record the time, date, species, local name, location and piece of paper & photograph it with the metre rule next to it as well.

4.     Photograph the jaw ( manta jaws face forwards, different to mobula rays)

5.     Measure the wingspread (tip to tip)

6.     Measure the total length – snout tip to tail end.

7.     Record the method of catch and how much the ray will sell for – which bits sell best etc

Man carries washing machine on head through Inhambane

1st days breakfast on the porch

Picked up from the airport and heading to Guinjata

Tiniest plane from Joburg to Inhambane with Chloe

Goodbye raining England