Zanzibar Humpback Whale Research Project 2012
Blog 5: Elevating our survey approach 13/07/2012

This year the survey methods are being broadened to increase our survey area and the type of data we collect to improve our ability to research the humpback whales off Zanzibar and East Africa. One opportunity to do this has come in the form of Makunduchi Lighthouse which provides a unique, 44m above sea level, platform from which to conduct land based survey of cetaceans and boat traffic. The lighthouse sub-team lead by Dr Per Berggren  assisted by Nat and Yussuf travelled to Makunduchi Lighthouse to calibrate the survey equipment ready for a 10 day pilot study which will start later in the season. It was incredibly hot and we soon valued the shade provided by the light housing and the bottled water we had brought.

Yussuf and Nat at the Makunduchi lighthouse 

We use mounted binoculars to allow for tracking of the whales focusing on positioning but also to study respiration rates and behaviour of the whales and how these may be altered by interactions with vessels also using the area.

The views from the lighthouse will hopefully provide the perfect area to survey the passing whales but unfortunately there were no whales to be seen during this first visit. Instead we utilised our research boat to calibrate the method to estimate distance by knowing the GPS locations of both the lighthouse and the boat and the number of binocular range reticles that this distance was equivalent to.

Yussuf calibrating the binoculars, see the boat?
We will provide an update later from 10-day lighthouse pilot study.

Photographs © Zanzibar Humpback whale Project