Hello all,
Since my last email, I've identified three new species of elasmobranchs (cartilaginous fishes (sharks, skates, rays)) in the area of Caravelas, Bahia, Brazil. I continue to measure rays while they're taken off the boat and sold to the distributor. I carry with me at all times a measuring tape, data sheets and my camera. At times I might just be strolling through town when I run into an unknown fisherman selling shark meat. And I'm prepared to take data! Consequently, however, every bag I own has held dirty measuring tape or data sheets with shark guts. My pens all smell like dead shark, my bags all smell, my house smells since there are several shark jaws with meat remnants outside. My freezer/refrigerator contains sharks and/or rays from time to time. There is no escaping it anymore, my entire life smells like dead sharks! I'm pretty sure that means I'm a successful biologist.
Work last week was actually pretty easy since the weather was bad. When there's bad weather, no fishermen are leaving, so I have no worries about tracking down their catches. So I had a nice break during the week and used the time to study a bit. Then the weather turned nice for the weekend, and Thiago and went with a fisherman friend to Nova Viçosa, the nearest town to the South. The crazy thing is, though the town is only 70 km away, to get there you have to travel for 5 hours by bus, or else take a boat for 4 hours through the mangrove. We opted for the boat, of course! Even Vagabundo got to come along.
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The boat rides were awesome, we saw the sun set and the moon rise in the mangrove on the way over:
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Caravelas from the river:
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Then we got to Nova Viçosa in time for the first night of the humpback whale festival. See, the humpback whales migrate to the area in which I live during the winter (remember, southern hemisphere's winter is the northern hemisphere's summer...) to give birth to their babies and reproduce in warmer waters. So Nova Viçosa has a party to welcome the whales, with a short cultural presentation, and mostly just bands and lots of alcohol.
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Giant whale vertebra:
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Thiago and I camped in the front yard of our friend's house, Dudu the fisherman.
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The next day we walked a long distance along the beach, trying to sell Thiago's art:
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What our house looks like with all these boats:
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Unforunately, we were unsuccessful. But the second night of the festival was better than the first, since it had the actual cultural presentation:
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All in all, good times were had. Then we returned to Caravelas via boat and saw the sun rise.
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It was actually quite a cold boat trip. But we got home safe and sound, and now things are back to normal.
Hope all is fantastic with everybody there.
Love, peace, shark guts,
~Helen
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