‘A manatee is worth more alive’: the mission to save Africa’s sea mammals

Posted on by

Exposing the Big Game's avatarCommittee to Abolish Sport Hunting Blog

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/23/a-manatee-is-worth-more-alive-the-mission-to-save-africas-sea-mammals?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Once branded ‘rogue animals’, the elusive creatures were on the brink of extinction, but hope is rising for their survival

Annika Hammerschlag

A manatee calf tangled in a fishing net. The mammals face many threats, including death as bycatch and entrapment in dams.
 A manatee calf tangled in a fishing net. The mammals face many threats, including death as bycatch and entrapment in dams. Photograph: Courtesy of AMMCO

It is a blistering day in the Senegalese coastal town of Joal and a group of biologists are standing in a motorised dugout canoe, scanning the cyan waters for floating manatee dung.

Suddenly, a bobbing brown mass appears in the distance.

“Look! Over there! Poo!” cries Lucy Keith-Diagne, the lead researcher. But her excitement is quickly stifled when it turns out to be a piece of wood.

For the past 14 years Keith-Diagne has been on a mission to protect the African manatee. There are an estimated 10,000 left, spread across 21 African countries, from the coast of Senegal down to…

View original post 1,242 more words

Leave a comment