Out Standing in our Field

Hamjambo!

I've realized that I've covered a whole bunch of cultural things in Zanzibar and Tanzania, but completely neglected to even mention the whole reason why I'm here: STUDY.  Being with the School for International Training (SIT), our whole program revolves around field research and conducting research in coastal ecology and natural resource management.  Our group of 16 American students has been traveling all around Unguja and Pemba (the two islands that make up Zanzibar) learning about different topics in these areas.

We went to Matemwe to learn about the different species of seagrass and their importance to the ocean.  There was also a sea turtle conservatory there with baby turtles!

Matemwe is gorgeous! There's a lot of fishing there too, so we were able to see fish being cleaned.  That actually turned rather depressing since there were a lot of fish that shouldn't be caught like sharks and very large stingrays.

We headed to Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Forest Reserve for a few nights to conduct a mangrove survey and do behavioral analysis on the Red Colobus Monkeys the park is famous for, a species that's endemic to Zanzibar, so they're found nowhere else in the world.

SO. MANY. MONKEYS.

Two days were spent at Pange Sandbank and Reef to conduct an intertidal survey and coral reef survey.

Found Nemo!

A lot was done in Pemba Island (the North island of Zanzibar), but we were able to see how traditional homes are built, how charcoal is made, and we learned about the Pemba Flying Fox, a huge bat endemic to Pemba Island.

Traditional mud-and-stick homes in Pemba

Misali Island, a tiny dot North of Pemba, was visited to learn about Marine Protected Areas.

Can you find the octopus?

Prison Island, a popular tourist destination since it's easy to get to from Stone Town, was visited to learn about tourism impacts and the conservation efforts of their giant tortoises.

Some of these turtles were almost 200 years old!

We went on safari just to go on safari.

I'll let you know how my pictures do in the NatGeo photo contest I entered

And I'm currently working on a month-long Independent Research Project on the groupers that inhabit the Marine Protected Area on Chumbe Island, a little dot of an island Southeast of Stone Town, Zanzibar.  I consider myself pretty lucky!

Chumbe is so pristine, there are a bunch of turtles on the reef (see above), and I was a few feet away from a Blacktip Reef Shark today!  

Asante sana kwa kusoma!
Kim