Wedgies

It's been a while since I last bestowed news of my Asian adventures upon you all. Since many of you are probably now sat at home listening to grandpa regale stories of how he single-handedly won the second world war, here is a little something to distract you.

I am sad to say that my two wonderful research assistants (Sarah and Simon) have now abandoned me. I want to use this opportunity to tell them how missed they are, and how they a largely responsible for the fact there is still an ounce of sanity left in me. To Sarah, thank you for your invaluable advice and support, your incessant chat about extinct rhinos (which I still haven't quite figured out how it fits in to my PhD), morning cups of coffee, mutual love of Cheetos which made them the single most important component of our weekly food shop, useful tip on the use of farting for crowd control in over-populated villages, and mutual love of winding up your husband. To Simon, thank you for allowing Sarah and I to pick on you when we felt grumpy, for taking my constant abuse about your ginger beard, for your enthusiastic and incessant chat about additional things I could do for my PhD (even at 5am when I had bugger all interest in what you had to say), for leaving peppercorns all over the apartment which will only serve to remind me how filthy you are, and for managing to impart some of your birder knowledge on me which now makes me a sad birder loser too. You guys are awesome and the last two months wont be the same without you. I feel safe in the knowledge that whatever you work on next has a great chance of survival. Good luck and see you in May for that Prosecco and parma ham!

So 198 mosquitoe bites, 49 days of vomiting/upset stomach, and 2 dead dolphins later and I have now successfully completed 400 interviews with fishers. Phase 1 of the PhD is nearly complete. The data I have collected through these interviews shall be used to help me better understand the interaction between river dolphins and riverine fisheries i.e. which nets in particular are most likely to catch dolphins and at what times of year. These data can be used to help inform local conservation practitioners on how best to minimise fisheries-related mortality. However, as an interdisciplinarian I never underestimate the power of local knowledge. The locals have been an invaluable source of knowledge for me: I have learnt that, a) dolphins are supposedly fish (quoting the fisheries department), b) dolphins die because they get too fat, c) "dolphins are stupid" (quote local fisherman), d) and dolphins look like combs. On a more serious note, there have been some valuable but sad discoveries in the last three months: the large population of river dolphins that occupied the lower reaches of the Sangu River appears to be no more. Our interviews reveal that this is one part of the range where there is intentional killing of dolphins. Local communities use the oil of the dolphin to treat pregnancy pains (locally known as "lady disease"), and to fatten cattle. There is also wide-scale use of illegal fishing gear in these areas which are more prone to dolphin entanglements. I hope in the next 3 months to come I shall have a far clearer idea of what can be done to overcome this sad situation.

On a sad but also positive note I have now carried out necropsies on two dead dolphins. Dead dolphin number 1 was found on November 13th floating on the river in the pitch dark. Given that it was late at night and the river bank was a long stretch of knee deep mud, the necropsy had to be carried out while hanging over the side of the boat. Dead dolphin number 2 was found on December 13th hanging from a concrete post in the middle of the river: it had been intentionally hung there to drain the oil. Unfortunately because the dolphin was not mine too move, necropsy number two was carried out with me tiptoeing on the edge of the boat hacking lumps of flesh off with an incredibly sharp blade while trying not to get a face full of intestines. The output from these necropsies shall hopefully be a better understanding of the level of pollutants in these dolphins, and a technical report on necropsy Kama Sutra.

The next phase of my PhD shall start in January when I plan to return to the field and complete my data collection with a range wide boat survey from which I aim to obtain an up to date estimate of population size of these dolphins. I have also invited a Japanese colleague over to join me who shall be assisting me with an acoustic survey. In simple terms we shall be looking at the population estimate obtained from the boat survey and the population estimate from the acoustic survey to see which one performs better. I shall also be making a short trip to the Naf River on the Burmese border to conduct a few interviews and work out if river dolphins still exist there.

Life in the field has been a mix of some major highs and some major lows which I am told is true of most PhD field seasons. The lows are what I call my 'dysentry days' and involve bed, the toilet, and a lot of saline solution. My highs are those days when I come across those wonderful villages where everyone is happy to discuss their highly illegal activities and thus provide me with plenty of great data for my PhD. Life in Bangladesh has provided me with any number of emotional revelations resulting in tears of happiness, sadness and frustration. However, without a doubt, my single biggest revelation is that in a country of 170 million people with an area of 130,000 km squared it is physically impossible to pull out a wedgie without someone stood behind staring at you.

Merry Christmas xxxx

Falling in love with 170 million people

To those of you for whom it is not clear (probably because I have not completed the personal profile section yet) I am a PhD student from London carrying out research on the Ganges River Dolphin in the Bangladesh part of its range. My interests are three-fold: 1) after 3 years of working on the IUCN Red List it highlighted how little we know about southern Asia ecosystems, particularly river systems, and how large megafauna are continuing to disappear with little attempt to address the causes (evidenced recently by the loss of the Baiji and the Vietnamese Javan Rhino); 2) the Ganges River Dolphin is the most evolutionary distinct of all freshwater cetaceans so its loss would would result in the loss of a significant part of river dolphin evolutionary history; 3) my mothers family are Bangladeshi and so I was curious to meet the family I had never met and see where my mother grew up. As a child I was told incredible stories about Bangladesh, "The people are some of the friendliest you will ever meet" my mother used to tell me. Well she isn't wrong.

When I left Gatwick airport 5 weeks ago I was not relishing the idea of 5 months in the field without my dear husband and stupid dog. My first two weeks in the country involved a lot of throwing up, lots of queuing to sort visa problems, and dealing with the streets of Dhaka (a city that proves that total, manic chaos somehow works). Probably not the best way to your first few weeks in somewhere you don't really want to be. So I was pleased when the time came to up and leave Dhaka and head south to Chittagong where I would spend the next 5 months. I immediately moved in to my new apartment which had been arranged for me by a collaborator here in the city. The apartment is in the centre in an area called Lalkahn Bazar. It has a great community spirit where people are beginning to get over the shock of a white person living on the street. I am regularly inundated with questions (in the following order); my name, where I come from, am I married, how many children I have, and where is my husband. I satisfy them with my first 3 responses but my last 2 get a few disapproving looks. My street is a lively bubble of amazing fruit and veg stalls, women in vibrant coloured saris, children showering under drinking water taps, and a constant smell of poo. Annoyances about my road include the local mosque. Please don't get me wrong I have nothing against mosques, except when they are right outside your bedroom window and the call to prayer megaphone is level with your bedroom window and first call to prayer is at 4:40AM!!!!!! On a plus side I am getting up really early to head into the field :)

So after getting settled down in Chittagong I headed of for the Sundarbans to carry out a Western Sundarbans dolphin survey. There are 4 cetacean species in the area; Irrawaddy dolphins, Ganges River dolphin, Indo-pacific Humpback dolphins and the Finless porpoise. I was assisting a local NGO, the Bangladesh Cetacean Diversity Project, with their survey. The BCDP has probably done more for Ganges River dolphin conservation than any other NGO I have heard of. It is run by an incredibly passionate trio. Liz who hails from Switzerland but came to visit Bangladesh about 8 years ago, fell in love with the country and never left. She is an incredible ambassador for the local people and is working to educate local communities on the river dolphin. She married Rubaiyat, a wonderful warm man who lives and breaths the river and sea. Rubaiyat shows his passion for the country through his incredible photography, clever local initiatives, and his beaming smile. Then there is Dylan: Dylan is in charge of trying to call the dolphins to the boat. He has this unique gift where he emits a whole series of very high pitched clicks and squeals similar to those of a dolphin. Dylan by the way is one years old and is the beautiful child of Liz and Rubaiyat. We had a thoroughly successful week in the Sundarbans covering some 700 km of river, counting a few hundred dolphins and documenting every ounce of fishing gear we came across. The week was made more interesting by nights spent sleeping on the open deck under the stars, swimming in crocodile/shark filled rivers, parking next to a boat full or pirates (not the Johnny Depp type), however nothing completed it quite like the people. What beautiful, beautiful people. Have you ever come across a country where people smile for 24 hours of the day, call you brother or sister to make you feel loved and like one of them, hug you within 5 minutes of meeting you, will bend over backwards to help you just to make your life easier (like doing a whole load of GIS work for you for free that takes 2 weeks to complete), won't accept a thank you because it is their duty to make you happy, feeds you the second you step foot in their house (even if they are the poorest of the poor and don't have enough to feed themselves). Thank you to all of you whom I met on the boat, your incredible kindness has helped me fall in love with this country and remember what I am doing here.

I should probably stop there for now. I have lots more to say but I fear I have lost some of you by now. I am back in Chittagong and have now started my interviews with the local people. Keep an eye on the blog for my next installment about the illegal dumping of caustic acid into the beautiful Karnaphuli and resulting declines in fish and dolphins, the ancient hill tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and how to use a local toilet in a fishing village without catching cholera, dysentry, or a host of other diseases.

Assessing the risk of 'Death by Crocodile'

May this be of some use to those of you that wish to swim in crocodile-infested waters. Before simply diving into a river filled with man-eating crocodiles I find it useful to assess the risk of actually getting eaten. Lets face it getting eaten by a croc is not going to be a nice way to go. Crocs have a habit of playing with their food which can make for a slow and painful death. Firstly scan the water for any evidence of movement, or eyes breaking the surface. Secondly, scan the riverbank for any evidence of these huge reptiles. Upon determining that there are no visible crocs in your immediate vicinity (this of course does not mean a whole load when the river only has 2cm visibility), throw a friend in first. Watch your friend swim around for a minute or so and ask them to do lots of splashing. After a couple of minutes of splashing, scan the water and riverbank once again to ensure undesirable attention has not been attracted. Then throw yourself into the river. Relish the coolness of the water on your skin whilst also focusing on any unusual movements of water below the surface. After a minute, start swimming for the ladder of the boat. Ensure you are not the last person to board the ladder as its always the last one out who gets eaten. Climb the ladder and breathe a sigh of relief that you still own all your limbs. Five minutes later the boat moves downstream and you happen across a 4.5 m saltwater crocodile eyeballing you from the river bank. Best not to make any future swims.

Goat train

I have now left the capital, Dhaka, and am in the southern city Chittagong. This is where I shall be living for the next 5 months while collecting my data on the not so elusive Ganges River Dolphin. Sarah, Simon and I left Dhaka on the 7.40am Mohanagar Provati train due to arrive at 2.40pm but actually arrived at 4.40pm. Apparently this 2 hour delay is the norm, which begs the question why not change the published train arrival time to 4.40pm? Bangladeshi trains are a nightmare for a number of reasons: 1) people try to sit on your lap even while you are sleeping, 2) they smell like goat, 3) they commonly de-rail, 4) they move at 2mph which means you are quicker walking, and 5) it is near impossible to buy tickets in any of the reasonable standard coaches because the government buys all those tickets for officials who MAY want to travel. This country is not ready for tourists.

Chittagong, while still a city is a welcome relief from Dhaka. Drivers acknowledge some degree of order on the roads, and there is an abundance of greenery that masks the run down appearance of virtually all the buildings. But most importantly it is nice to now know I am getting ever closer to actually getting some data for my PhD. It feels like it has been a frustrating 9 days up until now with visiting government offices, sorting visas, and of course being ill. Next week Sarah, Simon and I then head to the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove system in the world. We shall be there for 9 days assisting on a boat survey of the Ganges River Dolphin, but hopefully with the opportunity to also spot the Bengal Tiger and Irrawaddy dolphins. For 9 days we shall be living on a boat and navigating these incredible mangrove-lined river systems counting river dolphins and noting habitat characteristics and the presence of fishers. Following this we shall then return to Chittagong to begin our own survey work of these southern rivers. I have chosen to focus my work here as the population of river dolphins down here is cut off from the rest of the global population and there are an estimated 125 dolphins that remain here today. This is a dangerously low number given that fishers still continue to kill the dolphin for its meat which they use as catfish bait. The objective of my work is to determine with these current levels of human-induced mortality are sustainable, and if not then by how much they need to be reduced. To collect these data I shall need to conduct approx 600 interviews with fishers from villages all over the range of this species which I hope to have done by Christmas leaving me only a boat survey to do in January and February.

So as yet, no photos or interesting data collection stories to speak of but these shall come in the next week or so. For those of you who have asked, yes I am still looking for research assistants to come and join me in January and February so do let me know if you are still interested :)

102 hours in Dhaka

Progress on the PhD front has been slow to say the least. My normal level of productivity has been drastically hampered by a combination of bad traffic, 24hrs of national strikes (which involves throwing petrol bombs around so best to stay in doors on those days), and a general 'why do it now when it could be done later' feeling by the locals. My first 102 hours in the country have been spent as follows:

12 hours: attempting to leave the airport and meeting my research assistants
48 hours: vomiting due to what I thought was a bad prawn, but in Bangladesh could be anything
6 hours: trying to explain to a small man that I wanted an internet dongle
6 hours: then getting the small man to fix the broken internet dongle he sold me
3 hours: trying to find the map shop only to discover it was closed
36 hours: sleeping :)

I might leave it another week or so before I send an update report to my PhD supervisors. On a plus note we now have a flat in Chittagong (the city where I am living or the next 5 months). This rather nice 3 bed apartment will cost me a mere £220 a month, but I guess that's the price you pay for living in a landslide zone.

So my plans for the next few days, 1) try and get my visa renewed, 2) try and get some visas for Sarah and Simon (my lovely two new research assistants), 3) stop vomiting, 4) and try to work out how to get to the 'Swatch of no ground' a deep sea canyon 50 km off the coast where you can spot Blue Whales, 5) oh and do some work related emails.

Right I'm off to see if my tummy can handle some mashed potato. Back soon.