West African Adventures

Following a publication in the Guardian recently, I no longer need to keep my West African adventures under wraps. Last year in October, we set off from Madeira and spent six weeks monitoring fishing activities off the coasts of Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal.

Shooting mostly from a distance out of a helicopter, but also from unlit boats in the middle of the night with only moonlight for illumination, we obtained plenty of evidence of illegal practices in one of the world's most productive fishing grounds. With the large majority of observed boats being from China and the Far East, it was astounding to see the casual disregard for the environment they were operating in: oil and waste being dumped over the side, trawling in shallow waters and sometimes inside the 12-mile nautical borders, we quickly established that this fishing bonanza is literally a free-for-all who venture there.

Whilst Ebola dominated the news agenda, weak or absent monitoring by the coastal countries of West Africa enables fishing companies to keep large fishing fleets pillaging the ocean off West Africa, outnumbering local boats and their catch.

But it wasn't all bad, we also saw jumping dolphins, whales and stunning weather and here's a little slideshow from the expedition:

She's called Daphne...

In February, I spent a few wonderful days in the small town of Fowey, Cornwall - I was accompanying eminent French writer Tatiana De Rosnay on the footsteps of novelist Daphne Du Maurier, whom she had written a an impassioned biography about. The longer we talked and walked, and the more details we uncovered, the more Tatiana's persona began morphing into Daphne's...a fascinating process to observe. Here are the results: a nice spread in Le Parisien Magazine, and a few of my favourites...