What do fishers and fish traders from Principe think about our project? During this week, evaluation discussions are taking place in all fishing communities, where we are also showing the video "Omali Vida Nón" made by Dário Paraíso. These fishers and fish traders are lucky to be the first to watch this documentary!
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The video about our project being produced by Dário Paraíso is almost ready! Here is a teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRmPkpAtMEM Within our initiative "Community Ideas", the community of Praia Abade started producing soaps with coconut oil. This week, representatives of this small business took around 100 soaps for sale on the market in Santo António, Príncipe. Besides getting these products more widely known, thus encouraging local consumption, sales were a success ... our products sold out quickly! Watch TV coverage about this event below [in Portuguese]. On Saturday, 9th of March we had the last BRUV sampling day of the project! Since April 2018, 260 hours of video have been recorded over 28 days of field work. We have already identified over 95 species in the cameras, including sharks and rays. For the next two months we will finish analysing all the videos to understand the distribution of fish species around the island, so as to identify priority areas for conservation and management. BRUV sampling will continue for the next years both in São Tomé and Principe!
Another task successfully completed with a total of 516 questionnaires! After visiting the six permanent fishing communities (Abade, Burras, Campanha, Hospital Velho, Lapa and Santo António), we went to Praia Cabinda and Praia Seca to finish our questionnaires and evaluate the impact of our activities.
How are the "Community Ideas" of our project going? We keep supporting the management of these ideas, especially those that generate income (e.g. production of soaps and handicrafts with fish scales). We are really pleased to see the involvement of the communities and the growth of these initiatives, stimulating the local consumption of these products!
Congrats Nuno Vasco Rodrigues, Áthila Bertoncini and Jorge Fontes on your new book "Coastal marine fishes of São Tomé and Príncipe"! We received 20 free copies that we have now started giving out to partners of project "Omali Vida Nón" and other regional institutions. Thanks, Flying Sharks!
What species have we been recording using underwater cameras in Principe? Watch some of our videos available here. This research is led by ExeterMarine in partnership with Fundação Príncipe Trust, and funded by Darwin Initiative, Halpin Trust and Forever Príncipe. Running since 2016, our project is now in its final stretch. In order to assess the impact of our activities, we need to know what the fishing communities have to say about our project. After a training session and conducting a pilot study, we've just started a new phase of social surveys and we have a great team of 7 interviewers! We're looking forward to seeing the results.
In October, we reported the marine habitat mapping work by our volunteer Benjamin Cowburn. We are now pleased to disseminate a report describing his methodology and results. A copy can be downloaded here. This work was possible thanks to funds from Darwin Initiative and the Halpin Trust. Happy New Year!
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