New experiences in Djibouti

My name is Benjo. I am English, 25 years old and a marine biologist. This is a blog about my wandering and wonderings about the world and particularly the wetter parts. I am lucky enough to have travelled to a number of places, diving on a variety of coral reefs and hanging out with a variety of different people in the process. Since the last chapter in my life came to a close recently in Kenya (see benjoinkenya@blogspot.com), I have begun to spread my wings even more and it seems like I am on the cusp of lots of exciting things to come. During this blog I will try and bring you stories from interesting places, a flavour of the people and landscapes and discuss some of the forces at work influencing our oceans and the life around them.  

            This first journey, I’ll take you to Djibouti, a tiny desert nation on the East Coast of Africa. I found out about going there just two weeks before setting off. There was a project, working with IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) for which they needed a dive buddy and research assistant. My supervisor Alex suggested me to Rebecca, the lady organising part of the expedition, I sent my CV to her and half an hour later I got a phone call to say I was going! As she described the expedition to me I discovered that two other people on the project were colleagues from Kenya, including David, who is on my PhD advisory committee. Turns out it is a small world, when you’re an Indian Ocean coral reef biologist.

            Djibouti is located in one of the most politically unstable areas in the world, with Somalia to the south, Yemen to the East and the waters off from it are prime spots for piracy. My primary concern was about my safety at sea, as the project was going to be based on a live-aboard boat. Most people I told were more concerned about ebola, but no, in fact the UK is technically closer to the ebola outbreak as the crow flies than Djibouti. David and Rebecca ensured me it was perfectly safe and on arrival in Djibouti I was amazed by the enormous international military presence in the country, with Americans, French, German, Japanese and several other nations all being represented in this little known, but strategically placed country.

            The project in Djibouti is centred around identifying and mapping the wildlife of the country with a focus on wildlife-based enterprise for Djiboutians to make sustainable income from their marine resources. Our expedition was to spend two weeks in the Gulf of Tadjoura mapping and recording the biodiversity of the reefs on this section of the Great Rift Valley where this chasm cutting across Africa meets the Indian Ocean. Aboard the good ship Deli we set off following the coastline, mapping the reefs, making species lists and collecting key data about the ecology of the area.

            For me this trip was the first high-level research expedition I had ever been invited on, and I was so really enthused to be invited to work at that level. It was also especially nice to get back in the water and be hanging around East Africans again. However, after the first couple of days the heat began to sap me. Afternoon temperatures could be well over body temperature and into the 40s, and living on a boat without air conditioning all you could do to cool down was jump in the sea. Data entry would often take all evening and periodically people would stand up from their computers when the heat got too much and without warning leap off the boat. A mid-expedition stop over in an air-conditioned hotel was heaven and necessary to keep out brains from boiling!

            Much of the coastline we surveyed was completely uninhabited, with dramatic cliffs and lava flows, especially toward the end of the gulf, where the forces pulling the African and Somali plates are ripping the land apart. There is a small inland sea, called the Ghoubet, connected to the main gulf by only 500m or so of water, which had the most dramatic scenery both above and below water. Dramatic cliffs plunged into the sea, and continued as vertical walls into the abyss, along with unusual ‘reefs’ which were little more than corals growing on the black lava rock underneath. The best day diving we did was at the tip of the Ghoubet where one can actually dive the crack between the two plates. We descended down between the two vertical walls, with only 2-3m between them, swimming through tunnels and seeing the sunshine streaming down through gaps above. Absolutely amazing.

            In general I was very impressed by how healthy the marine life was. Most reefs were teeming with inquisitive grouper and large numbers of parrotfish and surgeonfish, all types of fish that are sensitive to overfishing. In addition the coral cover was extremely high and I had never seen such large or dominant table corals, some up to 4m across. David told me how when he began his research in the late 1980s, these sensitive corals were seen in many parts of the Indian Ocean, but the combination of climate change and other local human impacts had wiped out most of these giants. It was really great to get a feel for how reefs should look and see them with so little human impact.

I had also never been in an area of sea with quite so many jumping things! We would regularly see shoals of flying fish all break for the surface simultaneously, bait ball boiling the surface, a few sportfish, such as sailfish leaping into the air and once, a flying squid (I kid you not! Genuinely happened). So prolific were flying sea creatures that after a dive my dive buddy, Candace, was hit in the face by a needlefish!

The trip to Djibouti was filled with so many unexpected experiences, the extreme heat, Martian desert landscape, and just crazy marine life. It just goes to show how much there is to see in this world. I definitely rediscovered my travel bug! Next stop, the Maldives…

Deli

The Crew

Morning in the Ghoubet

Me on Mars

The Crack!

Friendly grouper says hey