Our First Nautilus!

In 2011, our team traveled to the Philippines for our first expedition. The Philippines is "Ground Zero" for nautilus fishing - fisheries here have been going on for nearly 50 years. It was my first time in the South Pacific and my first field work experience. From the wonderful mangoes to the not so wonderful mosquitoes, the trip was significant. The bad news was that we were correct about nautiluses not being very common here anymore. But this was also good news because for the first time, we had quantifiable data to show that populations here were low. The next steps were to survey additional areas, both fished and non-fished, and return to the Philippines to continue the surveys in subsequent years.