An Atlas

I have received some remarks that I do not always say what it is I am doing so today,s blog will give just a brief idea about that. For the past five years I have been involved in a regional project called the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Project which very basically was formulated to investigate the fisheries of our region and better understand the dynamics of the fisheries and the species that are caught. Now we are approaching the end of the project and we want to see as much of the fisheries and species information graphically on maps. This will give managers and scientists a better understanding of the regional distributions of the fisheries involved and how the species are connected across all the borders.

The workshop I am at now aims at setting the basis on how these maps will be collated into an atlas. We are discussing things like was base information should be included (depths, sea surface temperatures, national boundaries in the ocean, etc), which fisheries should be mapped, what are the most important species to include and should we develop fact sheets about the fisheries and the species (yes to both of course). Originally I was under the impression that the atlas would be an electronic product (which just goes to show my way of thinking) but apparently it will be a paper product (shock, horror!).

The discussions have gone really slowly mainly because the two consultants leading this activity were not given all the available information on which to base their own actions. Yesterday they said that we would have to start with a basic species list (literally thousands of species) and from that determine what our priority species are. What they had not been told was that the prioritization of species had been completed a couple of years ago and the information is available in a series of reports. We have gotten through that hurdle and then had to refine the species list even further because the overall list of species was still too long. We have done that now and it will be interesting to see what happens next. I think it will be about the format of the chapters in the atlas which was shown to me briefly before we went off for lunch.

Having our workshop at the hotel means that we are finished with enough time for me to have a swim after work. Yesterday I was lounging in the pool think that for once everyone can envy me. There I was in a beautiful pool looking at all the palm tress framing the area and appreciating just how fortunate I am!

The lovely pool

After my swim, I went down to the beach and sat with Nimo (our administrator and not the fish) and her little daughter and we just chatted and enjoyed the breeze coming off the ocean while we waited for dinner. Dinner was not great but it was edible. I needed sharp teeth to chew through the very old cow that was served up. I thought that maybe I was being a bit fussy but Nimo and Edna (the IT technician) also thought that it wasn't good.

After dinner we were treated to some traditional dancing by members of one of the coastal tribes. It was entertaining and certainly different to how usually I amuse myself (movies and books).