
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Happy New Year and more News from the Beach!

Monday, December 3, 2012
Legson Kayira dies.

Legson Kayira dies.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
The Last Fishing Boat

The Last Fishing Boat
Thursday, November 22, 2012
News from the Beach

News from the Beach
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Fly this 27,460 kilometers over Africa

Fly this 27,460 kilometers over Africa
Monday, November 12, 2012
Thoughts on Englund’s Prisoners of Freedom

Thoughts on Englund’s Prisoners of Freedom
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Show times for the The Maru on the Ethical Hedonist
UK 8 November 2012 20h00

Show times for the The Maru on the Ethical Hedonist
Cool pics from the BCA's POTM competition

Cool pics from the BCA's POTM competition
Friday, October 26, 2012
The Maru on the TravelChannel!

The Maru on the TravelChannel!
Thursday, October 4, 2012
We’re Hiring! And other News from the Beach

We’re Hiring! And other News from the Beach
Monday, September 17, 2012
News from the Beach
-Here, here, and here are a few really interesting articles on the history of Mzuzu, the capital of the northern region here in Malawi. Unfortunately they are all gated. They all come from the Society of Malawi Journal. This organization and its journal have been around since early in Malawi’s colonial era and have been producing interesting reads all along the way. You can get access to the journal for a nominal membership fee here.
-It turns out one of these planes was instrumental in the founding of Mzuzu. Machinery and supplies for a Tung Oil Plantation at Mzuzu were flown to Nkhata Bay from Tanzania using one. Besides being relatively close to Mzuzu (about 40 kms) Nhkata Bay is also one of the few ports along the lake that is sufficiently sheltered to allow an G-AHER to “land” in its waters.
-We are only one month away from having a complete year’s worth of data from our “Outer Reef” underwater transect near Kande Island. Every two weeks, weather permitting, we have been going down to do Population and Biodiversity surveys at the Outer Reef. We’ve learned a lot so far about the population dynamics of the cichlid fish there and are really interested to see whether that patterns we’ve indentified so far repeat themselves as we break the one year threshold.
-I’ll be helping out at a U.S. Embassy sponsored College Fair to be held at the Sunbird Hotel in Mzuzu on the 22nd, a Saturday, of this month. Any Malawians, or anyone really, interested in learning about what it’s like to study at an American university is welcome to come on by.

News from the Beach
Sunday, September 16, 2012
The Maru on Youtube
I'll be posting more shortly.

The Maru on Youtube
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Fisheries monitoring in practice
collecting some data from the fishing village of Maskahunju which is
just a short walk south of Kande. On the whole the fishermen have
been very accommodating for which we are grateful. Mr. Nyasulu, the
head of the fishing village has been equally so. For the past month
we have been doing two things. First we have been interviewing
fishers and the general population in and around Kande to gauge their
thoughts on the two major actions being recommended by Ripple Africa's
newly initiated Fisheries Conservation Program. The first
recommendation is to extend and broaden a pre-existing (but rarely
enforced) two month closed season to four months starting in November
and ending in February. The second recommendation is that the maximum
length of a gillnet should be 1000 meters and have a minimum mesh size
of 1 ¾ inches. So far villager's and fishermen's responses have been
mixed to these proposals. Our sample size is still quite small, we
have interviewed just over 50 individuals. Roughly half of the
respondents think the actions are a "good idea" while the other half
think them a "bad idea." Asked whether they think the
recommendations, if implemented, would actually be followed, a slight
majority thought they would not be, while the rest were more
optimistic. Somewhat surprisingly the fishers interviewed were
slightly more in favor of the closed season than they were of the net
size limitations while the villagers were the opposite. Until we have
a bigger data set, however, these results are very preliminary and it
would be premature to draw too many conclusions from them.
The second thing we are doing is piloting a monitoring program that we
hope to extend over the entire area in which the Fisheries
Conservation Program is being implemented. For the past month we have
been working out what is feasible keeping in mind that those who will
eventually be doing the monitoring are non-professionals with limited
time. The primary goal of the monitoring program is to collect the
necessary data to calculate CPUEs (catch per unit of effort) for the
various types of fishing occurring in the program area. This will
give us a rough indication of whether or not each type of fishing is
sustainable. We are also collecting information on the market price
of various fish species at the landing sites and the rough species
composition of the catches. So far it has been an interesting
adventure of trial and error.
One of the problems we have run into is timing. The fishermen don't
all come back from their nightly forays at the same time. If the
monitor comes too early to the landing site he/she may not get an
accurate count of the total number of fishers who went out the night
before, while if he/she goes too late some of the fishers may have
already arrived and emptied they boats by the time the monitor gets
there. And yet we don't want to make our monitors wait around all
day. The goal is that the monitoring is a part-time job, a couple
hours per day maximum. Fortunately we think that we have found a
sweet spot that balances all of these considerations reasonably. At
least for Masakahunju, the right time for the monitor to be at the
landing site seems to be between 1 and 3pm.
Another problem we have run into is getting accurate measurements of
the total catch weight of individual fishers' canoes. Most fishers
are amendable in principle when we ask to weigh their catch however
the process by which the fish are pulled from their nets and sold
sometimes frustrate our efforts. The fisher rarely extracts the fish
he has caught from his nets by himself. He is tired after having
spent the whole night fishing and usually hires two people to do it
for him. In payment for this service the "fish-pickers" are allowed
to keep a small portion of the catch which they lay aside separately
from the main pile of extracted fish as they work. So instead of one
pile to weigh the monitor actually has two or three, the main pile and
the "fish-pickers'" piles. The main pile is usually easily weighed
but attempts to weigh the "fish-pickers'" piles often meet with some
resistance as the "fish-pickers" are understandably not eager to make
obvious the exact amount of fish they have set aside for themselves as
a percentage of the total catch for fear of having it reduced by the
fisher. Furthermore the process of extracting caught fish from a net
takes considerable time, often two to three hours. Fish buyers do not
always patiently wait until all the fish have been extracted from a
net before making a purchase and so the catch can be sold piece-meal
before the monitor has a chance to weigh it all. Luckily we do not
need to weigh the total catch of every canoe. At the moment our goal
is to weigh the total catch of a fairly random sample of 20% of the
total canoes landing each day that the monitor is collecting data. At
Masakahunju the number of fishers going out on any given day varies
greatly from none when the weather is bad to 45 when it is good.
These problems notwithstanding we are cautiously optimistic that with
a bit more fine tuning over the next month or so that the monitoring
program will be ready for expansion once the Conservation program gets
into full swing in November. It's been a fun and interesting
experience getting to know the fishers at Masakahunju and we are
looking forward to meeting with other fishing communities in the
Program area.
Stay tuned.

Fisheries monitoring in practice
Thursday, July 5, 2012
News from the Beach by Campbell
Center for going on 4 months now. I am in the fortunate position to
study and dive with the cichlids in their natural environment daily
and find these amazing fish more interesting with every dive. The
mating behavior of the cichlids are fascinating and I thought I would
share with you some of the interesting things we have been seeing on
the reefs around Kande Island recently.
Female Chambo (Oreochromis karongae) are often seen in loose shoals in
many areas of the lake and the females are commonly seen around the
island and on the outer reef, the females are also most commonly
caught by fisherman and males are not commonly seen (see the below photos for
a map of dive sites around Kande island and pictures of mentioned
fish). According to the literature the breeding season for chambo runs from July to
March, peaking around September and again in February. Like other
Oreochromis, they are maternal mouthbrooders. Males dig large spawning
platforms, they construct a slightly raised bowl-shaped central
spawning cone inside the larger pit, we refer to these structures as
nests. On the dive map there is an area named 'crater nests', in this
area there are a lot of the big nests created by the male Chambo, this
area was deserted when I arrived at Kande (March), but from middle May
until late June we suddenly saw many male Chambo that moved into this
area, with fish clearly favoring specific nests. They have disappeared
again over the last 2 weeks. We are planning to construct survey
transects in this area to monitor nests and fish in this area in order
to accurately pin down the Oreochromis karongae (Chambo) mating season
in this region, this data can be used to make recommendations towards
a chambo closed season in the area.
The small nests most commonly found near the mooring buoy (see map)
are constructed by Aulonocara "blackfin" males. I have noticed one of
these fish building a crater nest on the back seat of the jeep wreck
(see island map). I found this interesting since the fish could not
dig a spawning platform since the area it was constructing the nest on
was solid, it could only construct the bowl shaped crater by carrying
sand on to the seat. I have seen the fish carrying sand from the
surrounding areas to the jeep. We found a couple of fish mouthbrooding
at very convenient spots for us to watch them protecting their fry
during the last week. A Nimbochromis polystigmata with fry in the jeep,
a Tyranochromis "sp" in the dug out canoe at the outer reef transect and a
Scianochromis niassae into the small wreck at the island. I will keep you
updated as to what is happening in the lake.

News from the Beach by Campbell
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Story time

Story time
Friday, June 22, 2012
Necessary secrets
The fishing village with which we have been most involved, let’s call it Chamboville, is a collection of wood and mud huts, most very makeshift and shabby looking. One might think that the owners of these shacks are truly destitute, eking out a precarious living without the time or capability to think about, let alone implement, a fisheries management system. But this is wrong and only the most obvious of many other mistakes that a cursory assessment of Chamboville might make. The reason that most of the houses are ramshackle is because they are also temporary and a sign of Chamboville fishers’ thrift rather than their destitution. Most of them are not permanent residents of the area but rather seasonal migrants. They are at Chamboville to make and save good cash in order to support their families back home. Fishing can be a lucrative industry.
Chamboville also has a political infrastructure. There is a president, vice-president, secretary, and accountant. The current president is also the founder of Chamboville. He came to the area 6 or 7 years ago, made a good catch, and decided to stay. The local chief assented to this for reasons that are unclear but which may be connected to the fact that the president’s older brother is a fairly senior government official. Since then Chamboville has grown. Migrants from the founder’s home region have poured in and Chamboville is now home to roughly 70 dugout canoes and enough fishers to operate them. Anyone who wants to live and work in Chamboville must receive permission from the president. It is usually given. From time to time when disputes arise between fishers then the president and his representatives will arbitrate and in extreme circumstances can expel a fisher from the village. This has happen recently.
And it is such a shame that I can’t talk about it.

Necessary secrets
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Cool photos

Cool photos
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Who is this?

Who is this?
The data is not enough
And so far I fear that the Maru is having a harder time in this “Stage 2” of the science-making process. Certainly it isn’t from a lack of trying. We have sent out dozens of “cold-call” emails to prominent cichlid ichthyologists, Lake Malawi limnologists, and others who have worked on Lake Malawi, but have received very little response. To those who have responded I thank.
We have also applied for a grant to train up some students from Mzuzu University in underwater observation techniques and cichlid fish identification. It was an interesting process but I’m not optimistic. We will know in July.
We have also signed a formal MOU with the fisheries department at Mzuzu University and are hoping to receive a few of their students as interns to do some field research.
We are also working with another NGO called Ripple Africa on starting up a Fisheries Conservation Project. In conjunction with the Malawian Fisheries Department and local Beach Village Committees (BVCs) we are trying to implement a more effective management system in Nkhata Bay District. Ripple is handling the community organizing and legal aspects of the project and the Maru is setting up the monitoring and evaluation system meant to see what impact, if any, the new community-based regulatory regime is having.
And finally we are inviting international volunteers and interns to research with us. Currently we have one student from Amsterdam University doing research on soil erosion. Hopefully many more students come and through them the Maru will be able to build institutional relationships with their respective universities.
But frankly right now these efforts seem rather tenuous and even a little tedious. The naïve side of me wants to cry out “Isn’t the data enough?” while the STS side of me knows that nothing lives in a vacuum, not even science. If a tree falls in a scientific forest without anyone to hear it, it falls very silently.

The data is not enough
Monday, June 11, 2012
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Catch shares? A new approach the fisheries management

Catch shares? A new approach the fisheries management
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Cichlid photo competition pictures of the Month

Cichlid photo competition pictures of the Month
Friday, May 18, 2012
News from the Beach by Campbell!

News from the Beach by Campbell!
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Thank God for Science?
Not entirely convinced, but certainly the history of science, scientific discovery, and fact-making, is more human and less cold logic and scientific "method" than most people suppose. Read Bruno Latour's "Science in Action" for more on that.

Thank God for Science?
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Cool Graphs and other News from the Beach
-Male Mylochromis mollis (see the youtube video below) are just starting to get their flashy breeding colors out around Kande Island in preparation for wooing all their dull female counterparts into cozy little breeding craters. It makes for quite a show.
- Our lazy Sunday afternoon Korean BBQ up at the Zoo in Mzuzu was a big success. Thanks to all the people who showed up and to Bernhard from Chipungu Coffee for supplying us with two beautiful little pigs. We roasted one on spit and buried the other one in ground cooking it Maori style.
- We've put up a small photo gallery at the Maru's website. Check it out at here

Cool Graphs and other News from the Beach
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Getting to know the late President Bingu

Getting to know the late President Bingu
News from the Beach...and Mzuzu!
- At the Zoo we are planning a big, lazy, Sunday afternoon Korean Braai/BBQ for next Sunday, the 29th. A bonfire, a whole pig roasting on spit, and a lot of Korean home-cooking with a couple of beers and good friends should make for a great time. Come around if you're in town. The party starts at 2pm and ends when you can't stand up (either from a too-full stomach or the beer, whichever comes first).
-Finally I have just learned about the existance of a great organization called the American Cichlid Association (ACA). These people are awesome cichlid enthusiasts and conservationists and I hope that the Maru Research Center find some good friends among them. They also have a couple Funds that you can apply for for research grants. How cool is that! Needless to say, and even though the deadline for applications is just 7 days away, we at the Maru are going to work our tails off to submit a proposal just in time. Wish us luck!

News from the Beach...and Mzuzu!
Saturday, April 7, 2012
The Maru on the Ethical Hedonist

The Maru on the Ethical Hedonist
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
News from the Beach
So it's been a little while since I've posted so there is quite a lot
of news to relate.
-First and foremost we would like to extend a warm welcome to the
newest member of the Aquanuts Divers and Maru Research Center family.
Campbell Louw, a native of South Africa, is our new Research
Assistant.
-Next the Maru Research Center will be featured on the British travel
documentary series "The Ethical Hedonist" we airs on the Travel
Channel. Filming will start on the 18th of April. It should be a lot
of fun. They will be joining us on one of our underwater population
and biodiversity surveys.
- Over at the Mzoozoozoo Backpackers Lodge in Mzuzu Joy is dishing up
a great Korean food and warm hospitality. We are also excited to host
a Peace Corps orientation for incoming Peace Corps volunteers to the
northern region of Malawi in mid-April.
- The other night a friend and I went to the Key Lounge in Mzuzu to
watch Lucius Banda perform live on stage. He is an icon of the
Malawian music scene and the turn out for him was huge and
enthusiastic.
- And finally a big thanks should go out to Lucas and Ciclia for
helping Joy and I settle into the "Zoo." Check out their charity work
in the Congo and elsewhere at http://www.followrabbit.it.
News from the Beach
Friday, March 9, 2012
A question for Christians.

A question for Christians.
Cichlids and Photoshop




Cichlids and Photoshop
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Going to the Zoo

Going to the Zoo
Sunday, February 26, 2012
An odd mix I am (for an American)
Time for some navel gazing.
So I got caught up in a political conversation the other day and it had me thinking.
One of the most striking differences, it seems to me, between liberals and conservatives is their understanding of how individuals and their societies interact and affect each other. Liberals instinctually tend to believe that individuals, their actions and their thoughts, are heavily influenced by the societies and material circumstances they inhabit and consequently if you seek to change an individual’s behavior you need to work at the societal and economic level.
Conservatives instinctually tend to believe that societal problems are the cumulative result of poor choices by individuals. Consequently if you want to change behavior you need to lay out a clear moral code and then hold individuals accountable to it.
In practice most people, whether instinctually conservative or liberal, however believe the other side’s argument to some extent. This is a good thing. Most liberals still believe that individuals cannot entirely blame society or their poverty when they make poor choices. And most conservatives recognize that economics and societal pressures do, whether they like it or not, affect individual’s choices.
Another common difference between liberals and conservatives is the former’s tendency to have a more inclusive, malleable, and pragmatic ethical worldview and the later to have a more traditional, legalistic, and theoretical one.
I confess that I find my personal worldview mixes this all up however. While generally having a conservative tendency to focus on individual agency I also have a pretty liberal ethical worldview.
This gets me in trouble with liberals because they sense I lack their enthusiasm for fighting against socio-economic injustices and it makes me personally uncomfortable to associate with conservatives who I find to be dogmatic and intellectually lazy.
You might call me socially liberal and fiscally conservative but that doesn’t quite do me justice. I’m not just fiscally conservative ( though I am), I am also socially conservative to the extent that I tend to be believe that people have a lot more agency than liberals give them credit for and yet I also believe that ethical rules are heavily culturally and socially constructed, and in fact should be.
Luckily however the liberal and conservative paradigms as I have outlined them above are really only appropriate for the USA and possibly Europe. Here in Africa and also in Asia the picture is not the same. Liberals and even conservatives don’t really exist and the West’s inability to recognize this has got us into a lot of problems I think. But that’s the topic for a different blog post.

An odd mix I am (for an American)
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
The Gov. responds, back in Malawi, and other News from the Beach
"I have received your email regarding our policy of not allowing pick-up of passports and citizenship documents at the Consulate. We have this policy for several reasons. First, when we did allow pick-ups several years ago an astonishingly large number of Americans never returned to pick up their passports or reports of birth abroad. Some individuals would respond to repeated requests to return to pick up their documents but we do not have the staff to track who had returned for pick up and to subsequently make repeated attempts to contact the individual. Others, in spite of our efforts, never returned and we were left with valid passports and other valuable documents, which presents a security risk.
In addition, admission to the Consulate is by appointment only for security reasons. Therefore, in order to pick up a document, an American would need to book an appointment on-line prior to coming as we cannot leave passports with front desk staff. This presents problems for several reasons. First, it is difficult to know the exact date on which a passport will be ready for pick up as there any many automated checks that need to be completed prior to terminating processing, therefore booking an appointment for pick-up would be problematic for the customer. Second, if many people were booking appointments to pick-up citizenship documents, our available slots for those with initial applications could become congested.
I hope that I have answered your inquiry regarding unavailability of a pick-up option to your satisfaction. I am sorry about the other inconveniences that you experienced while adding pages to your passport. However decisions such as the price of various services e.g. extra pages are set worldwide by the Department of State in Washington DC and we have no discretion to alter these prices based on local circumstances. Our exchange rate is set monthly by a central authority and due to systems issues can only be changed by this central authority once per month. I will follow up with our cashier to see if he can obtain adequate small bills to be able to make change for those desiring to pay with dollars.
Sincerely,
Claudia Baker
Consular Section Chief
Cape Town, South Africa

The Gov. responds, back in Malawi, and other News from the Beach
Monday, February 6, 2012
Government created monopolies, inefficiency and venting from Cape Town

Government created monopolies, inefficiency and venting from Cape Town