Dear Colleagues, I’m writing from a beautiful little hotel in Fougamou, Gabon, which we’re using as a base for an ichthyological expedition investigating the fish fauna of three proposed dam sites, with support and collaboration from The Nature Conservancy and CENAREST (Gabon’s agency for science and research).
I’ve been able to get internet access through the local cellular network, and I’ve been live tweeting the progress of the expedition to the degree possible (the signal is very erratic). The posts include high quality photographs documenting the many beautiful and interesting fishes that we’ve been collecting here in the Ngounié River. Through conversations with people following the posts on social media, we’ve already confirmed the presence of at least two possible new species among the photographed specimens, as well as several endemics. The fishes of the region are stunningly diverse! I invite anyone interested to check out the images, follow our progress, and to weigh in on the identifications. Feedback already received from other scientists has already been incredibly valuable as we work through the collections and select specimens for photography, tissue sampling and so forth. We’ll be in the field for several more weeks. If you’d like to check out our progress, you can follow along on Twitter through the hashtag #TNC_Gabon2017 or at https://twitter.com/briansidlauskas. The posts are also mirrored to my public Facebook site (https://www.facebook.com/brian.sidlauskas). I hope some of you find the photographs to be of interest, and I thank you in advance for any feedback and comments received. Best Fishes, — Brian -- Brian Sidlauskas Associate Professor and Curator of Fishes Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Oregon State University 104 Nash Hall Corvallis, OR 97331 [email protected] 541-737-6789 (office) 541-224-3850 (cell) http://ichthyology.oregonstate.edu<http://Ichthyology.oregonstate.edu> http://people.oregonstate.edu/~sidlausb/ https://www.facebook.com/brian.sidlauskas https://twitter.com/briansidlauskas
