On the past February 2, 2020; Fundação Príncipe's trip to Tinhosas was covered by national television. Fundação Príncipe has been sampling seabirds and monitoring marine biodiversity using BRUVs at the Tinhosas Islets since 2017.  You can watch the full interview here!

Last week we finished the first BRUV sampling round of the Blue Action Fund project in São Tomé! During the last two weeks we successfully sampled 75 points in the south of São Tomé. Baited Remote Underwater Video surveys (BRUVs) are a non invasive technique that use an underwater camera with a bait in the front, which sits on the seafloor and records uninterruptedly for 90 minutes. We are using BRUVs to understand species distribution around the island and identify priority management areas for the design of a network of Marine Protected Areas.

The first week of training of the extension workers of the project Kike da Mungu/BAF has just finished! Twice a week, they will be working with the fishers during the landings to collect information about their fishing activities -including catch and fishing effort- using the smartphone app ODK. This activity will happen in 10 communities of southern São Tomé. We visited the ten communities of the project, where the extension workers, who are from the communities themselves, presented the activity to the fishers. It's been great getting to know the communities in the south of São Tomé!

We are still analysing the BRUV videos from the last sampling round in december and some cool footages are coming out! Check out this hungry snapper trying to eat the bait cage!

I was interviewed on March 1, 2019 to talk about the biodiversity monitoring currently being done in Príncipe Island using Baited Remote Underwater Videos. You can listen to the whole interview here!

BRUV video of the week! It is always fun to find moray eels like this Enelychore nigricans in the BRUV surveys. We are currently analysing the videos recorded in the last sampling round of Omali Vida Nón's BRUV surveys!. We are using Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUVs) around Principe Island (São Tomé and Príncipe) to understand the spatial patterns of fish distribution and inform management.

This octopus' meal got a bit dramatic by the end (turn the volume on!). We have started analysing the videos recorded in the last sampling round of Omali Vida Nón's BRUV surveys! We are using Baited Remote Underwater Video around Principe Island (São Tomé and Principe) to understand the spatial patterns of fish distribution and inform management.