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To learn more about how wildlife are adapting to these shifts, two undergraduate students from UNC Chapel Hill, Ben Van Duin and Dylan Smith, as well as my advisor and fellow CMWG member Dr. Paul Taillie, joined me this summer in deploying camera traps throughout marshes, forests, and transitional zones. These motion-activated cameras capture mammals moving through the area, giving us a window into their lives. We used two types of cameras: standing traps for medium to large mammals and baited bucket traps for smaller rodents.

Deep in the pristine fjords of Chilean Patagonia lives a remarkable marine mammal that exists nowhere else on Earth. The Chilean dolphin (Cephalorhynchus eutropia), one of the world’s smallest dolphins.

Chilean dolphins are classified as near threatened by the IUCN Red List with just a few thousand individuals estimated in the wild. This low number could make them highly vulnerable to environmental degradations like for example Chile’s rapidly expanding salmon farming industry (see figure below).

Our findings revealed a marked seasonality in Chilean dolphin presence throughout the year, with summer periods representing peak abundance. During these warmer months, the animals formed larger groups with a higher proportion of calves—a critical discovery that identified Corral Bay as a potential important nursery area for this population. The dolphins showed a strong preference for the deep zone of the bay, where the two main rivers converge. This pattern likely reflects the formation of tidal fronts in this area (picture below), characterized by varying water densities and temperatures that concentrate fish—the dolphins’ primary food source. However, this preferred habitat coincides with the main navigation channel used by large vessels, highlighting potential conservation concerns that need further work.

Along Cameroon’s vibrant coastline, the ocean’s rhythm and the energy of local fishing markets first inspired my passion for marine biology. From childhood, I was captivated by ocean life, but also troubled by how few people shared this love or recognized the threats facing our fragile marine ecosystems. My commitment to conservation was sealed the day I saw a scalloped hammerhead shark caught as bycatch in Limbe, a moment that changed my life.

To deepen our understanding, we’re collecting tissue samples from scalloped hammerheads to study bycatch impacts and pollution. At the same time, we’re empowering communities through “Good Fishing Practices” workshops, interactive sessions where fishers learn practical techniques to reduce bycatch and share their own experiences. Together, we’re co-creating solutions that work for both people and sharks.

This journey is just beginning. Sharks are essential for healthy oceans, and their conservation is key to a sustainable future for Cameroon. We invite you to follow our progress, support our work, and help protect these magnificent creatures for generations to come.

In last month’s newsletter, we were introduced to the Bahia Grande, a large, relatively
protected coastal basin in far south Texas. It is situated in the Lower Rio Grande Valley
(called “the Valley”), one of Texas’ most ecologically diverse regions and a place where
coastal fisheries and ecotourism contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to the Valley’s
economy each year 1,2 . This unique region, however, is exposed to stresses from several
large-scale industrial activities. Commercial agriculture, wind farming, rocket launches
at the nearby SpaceX facility, and the ongoing construction of a liquified natural gas
(LNG) pipeline adjacent to the Refuge are all leaving their marks in the Valley (Figure
1).

Nestled in the ecologically diverse Lower Rio Grande Valley of southern Cameron County, Texas is a 6,500-acre coastal basin called Bahia Grande (“great bay”). Situated near the US-Mexico border on the Bahia Grande Unit of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, it is the primary focus of one of the largest modern coastal wetland restoration projects in the United States. This large basin once had liberal connectivity to the Gulf of Mexico via a network of natural channels and ponds, but several large-scale anthropogenic activities began disrupting this connectivity more than a century ago.