DIZANGUE: Ever since his first hard-won sightings of African manatees, award-winning marine biologist Aristide Takoukam Kamla has been dedicated to defending the little identified and in danger aquatic mammals.
African manatees are present in contemporary water alongside the coast of western Africa, similar 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 paths of bubbles and, possibly simply possibly, catching two large nostrils taking a fast breath.
“I used to be anticipating to see them like on YouTube: in clear water, leaping like dolphins… a very surreal concept” stemming from publications on manatees in Florida, the 39-year-old Cameroonian recalled, smiling.
Their African cousins, nonetheless, are very totally 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 learnt 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 on the University of Florida — and the rationale he received this yr’s prestigious Whitley Award that recognises 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 big! There are sure locations in Africa the place it is unattainable to see them,” mentioned Farinelli, who’s in her 30s and research the marine mammals in Nigeria.
Much nonetheless eludes researchers concerning the Trichechus senegalensis — what number of are in Cameroon; how lengthy do they reside; when and the place do they migrate.
African manatees are discovered between Mauritania and Angola however “it is a little or no studied species, round which many mysteries nonetheless stay”, Takoukam Kamla mentioned.
Sometimes generally known as sea cows, the massive marine herbivore is listed as “susceptible” on the crimson listing of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
But the Cameroonian scientist thinks that’s “an under-estimation of the actual standing of this species, which is topic to poaching” and whose habitat is “consistently at risk”.
Takoukam Kamla arrange the African Marine Mammal Conservation Organisation which has 5 laboratories together with within the lakeside fishing village of Dizangue.
On Lake Ossa, the animal’s sole predators are human — only some years in the past, manatees had been nonetheless being served up within 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 menace is the positioning of a web throughout the lake to maximise catches because it may “lure 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 reside off this and we’ve got by no means needed to endure prohibitions at dwelling,” the previous man grumbled bitterly.
“If you wish to impose bans on us, you’ll have to pay us each 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 menace 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 all over the place within the lake,” AMMCO researcher Thierry Aviti mentioned.
Three years on, the menacing plant has all however disappeared.
“At one level, we could not cope anymore” however guarantees had been stored, Dizangue fisherman Thierry Bossambo mentioned, marked by the reminiscences of lengthy nights with no fish.
The bridges constructed with the fishermen is one thing Takoukam Kamla is eager to keep up to keep away from “parachute science”, a time period referring to scientists dropping into native communities from their educational ivory towers to undertake discipline work.
And to counter doable poaching, he needs to develop the world’s eco-tourism.
It’s a “precedence”, agreed Gilbert Oum Ndjocka, curator of the close by Douala-Edea National Park, who mentioned “all stakeholders are allies for conservation”.
