In partnership with Suffolk University (SU), the Atlantic Ocean (AO) regional office at the Huntsman Marine Science Centre (HMSC) recently expanded the NaGISA program to the shores of West Africa to fulfill the eastern Atlantic component of the AO mandate.  After lengthy considerations, including an exploratory trip to the region in March 2008 by Principal Investigator Dr. Gerhard Pohle, the coastline of Senegal was chosen as the representative area for NaGISA. Deciding factors included the fact that Boston’s Suffolk University, through Dr. Tom Trott, is not only an established partner with Huntsman for NaGISA work in nearby Cobscook Bay, but also has a campus in the Senegalese capital of Dakar, with facilities and staff ready to assist. Also, Senegal is located in the most western part of Africa, within the transition zone of tropical and subtropical environments that result in relatively complex biological assemblages compared to other regions.

Apart from Drs. Pohle and Trott, the remaining Africa mission members included two volunteers, one each from the US and Canada, represented by Christina Kulfan and Joseph Hunt, respectively. Miss Kulfan brought her experience from Cobscook Bay work in 2007, while Mr. Hunt provided his life-long expertise as a naturalist and professional diver. In Senegal, Suffolk’s Mohamed Manga proved to be a man of all trades and problem solver extraordinaire, as he not only engaged in all activities but, most importantly, was instrumental in overcoming the many logistical and negotiating challenges the team faced locally.

Thus, while a long-planned collaboration with National Park staff did not materialize, Manga, with SU Dakar’s Managing Director, André Sonko, made it possible for work to proceed on all fronts.  Sampling took place within both NaGISA priority habitats, consisting of rocky shore and soft-bottom eelgrass areas, following the prescribed protocol based on transect lines with replicate quadrat stations. During three very long days, involving 4-6 hrs of daily commuting to an alternate site, field work was successfully completed at a rocky shore site at the southeastern end of the Cap Vert peninsula, where Dakar and surroundings form the most western point of Africa.

For sampling eelgrass beds, the team travelled further afield south-easterly to the Siné-Saloum Delta. Considered to be one of Senegal’s most beautiful areas, it is a region where palm groves sit next to expansive salt marshes, sandy beaches and savannah woodlands. An hour-long boat trip to a remote island-based camp completed the outgoing journey to the destination. From there, the far-flung and secluded eelgrass beds, located during the first exploratory trip, were reached by motorized ‘pirogue’. With the help of two local youths, who also manned the boat, samples from three sites were collected and returned to the ‘camp’ in record time. Despite the lack of a suitable laboratory, the enthusiastic support and improvisation skills of camp-owner Olivier Guerin greatly facilitated the processing of field-collected material. While samples still await detailed analysis here at Huntsman over the next few months, the resulting data represent another piece towards completing the NaGISA puzzle that will no doubt make a valuable contribution to our understanding of global coastal conditions. see Photos