Learning more about the Mansur’s

Elisabeth plans for the next Shushuk Mela event
 (JLewis, TDRF)

Today I spend more time interviewing Elisabeth and Rubaiyat. I also try to film them as a family interacting with their kids. Elisabeth has an incredible ability to see what might be useful as a teaching moment. I can see it through her work for the Bangladesh Cetacean Diversity Project (BCDP) and with her children. She has an uncanny ability to look at almost everything and see not only what might be learned from it, but the best way to get that message across.

One of the large projects the BCDP does each year is called the Shushuk Mela. This is a

News Clipping from Daily Star on Shushuk Mela 

(education exhibit about river dolphin) 

month long event, where a large boat is converted into a teaching classroom. A classroom to educate people about the river dolphin, the issues it faces for continued survival and what can be done to prevent its extinction. This boat is taken along the river from village to village where thousands of people can come to see the floating exhibit. As a result they get the chance to educate a large part of the population that live along the river in this region of Bangladesh.

Rubaiyat is an incredible naturalist and brings to the BCDP team his life long experience studying the species of his country, particularly in the Sundarbans. He now leads the team for both the work in the Sundarbans on the Ganges river dolphin, but also surveys of other dolphin species found in Bangladesh waters (including the Irrawaddy, another tropical dolphin species that is endangered). Because of his efforts, the BCDP team has discovered that near 10 species of other dolphins/whales can be found within the offshore waters of Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal (a significant finding).

Rubaiyat explains his work during an interview at the BCDP Dhaka office (JLewis, TDRF)

Together Elisabeth and Rubaiyat make a great team. Each contributing significantly to the continued efforts to preserve this Ganges river dolphin.