Introduction

I have spent most of my life traveling back and forth between the United States and Ecuador. During my last long term stay in Ecuador (1990 to 1996) I obtained a Bachelor's degree in Biology at the University of Guayaquil. I was actively involved with the University of Guayaquil's Natural History Museum, with the Ecuadorian Foundation for the Study of Marine Mammals (FEMM), and with NyMA, a private non-profit children's foundation.

University of Guayaquil
Ecuadorian Foundation for the Study of Marine Mammals (FEMM)
NyMA- Ninos y Medio Ambiente

My work at the University of Guayaquil's Museum of Natural Sciences consisted primarily of helping maintain, catalog, and organize specimens. Initially I worked with mammals, switching later to marine fishes. For my thesis project, I created a catalog of fish species occurring as pests within shrimp aquiculture pools in the province of El Oro, southern Ecuador. Over 40 species were identified, the most common of which were engraulids such as Anchovia macrolepidota and Anchoa spp., juvenile sciaenids such as Cynoscion spp. and Micropogonias altipinnis, the juvenile haemulids Pomadasys macracanthus and Anisotremus pacifici, the Gerreid Eucinostomus califoniensis, and several species of juvenile carangids of the genus Oligoplites.

The Ecuadorian Foundation for the Study of Marine Mammals (FEMM) is a private, non-profit organization, that has as its objectives to study and protect Ecuador's marine mammals and to educate the public of the importance of marine mammals to Latin American ecosystems. I became a member of the FEMM early in 1993. I worked on a dolphin photo-identification project in the coastal town of Posorja (Province of Guayas). We followed a resident population occupying an estuary of the area and individually identified over forty dolphins, including females with calves. The project was carried out aboard small boats belonging to local fishermen. It was financed by taking along tourists.

I also participated in the recovery of materials from marine mammal strandings. The FEMM published several papers documenting trends in strandings of marine mammals along the Ecuadorian coast. Strandings of sperm whales (Physter macrocephalus) were of special concern. Many of the specimens had signs of entanglement with fishing nets. Through the stranding program valuable skeletal materials were recovered and interesting distribution data were obtained. For example, the FEMM documented the presence of migratory male South American sealions(Otaria byronia) along the Ecuadorian coast far from their northern-most mating grounds in Peru.

Finally, I had the opportunity to participate in the FEMM's long term study of migratory humpback whales. They are present along the Ecuadorian coast from May to September, and come to give birth and nurse their young. There are well over 200 whales individually identified from coastal waters of Ecuador.

In 1995, I began volunteer work with a private non-profit children's foundation called Ninos y Medio Ambiente (NyMA). The objective of this foundation is to provide children under difficult circumstances with much needed care and attention, using animals, plants and the environment to reach them. Activities included weekend excursions to "El Centro de la Naturaleza" (The Environment Center) a farm located in the city of Guayaquil designed to educate and entertain children, weekend excursions to a beach house in Ayangue (Province of Guayas), for some learning and fun under the sun, and field trips including dolphin-watching trips and cave excursions to see bats. Through contacts made with NyMA, I carried out a two month internship at Green Chimneys Farm and Wildlife Center in Brewster, NY., working with kids in need from New York City.