Fieldwork is my passion and I have a long and succesfull experience in organzing fieldwork in Africa (Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), the Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey) and in various European countries including Russia and Ukraine. Furthermore, I have spent 10 month in Vietnam organizing and conducting fieldwork for a Vietnamese-Russian-German collaboration project funded by the Volkswagen foundation.
A short visit to Coorg’s rainforest streams
Western Ghats snail Intrella ampulla
In October 2013 I had the great experience to speak about BioFresh and FREDIE at the “International Conference on Ecosystem Conservation and Sustainable Development” in Thiruvananthapuram, India. After the conference and many discussions with regional colleagues I took the chance to follow the invitation of FFSG South Asia co-chair Rajeev Raghavan to visit some streams in the Western Ghats.
FREDIE Expedition to Romania 2012
The Danube is not only the largest river in Europe, it is also the home of the most species rich fish fauna of our (sub)continent. When it comes to fish diversity, Romania is the hot spot within the Danube drainage. Therefore, Romania was a "must" in the FREDIE project. After many arrangements, in October 2012 we were ready to go!
Easy fishing for Zingel and Romanogobio in the Somes river.
FREDIE Expedition to Great Britain 2012
As a part of the FREDIE project, Matthias Geiger and myself went to Britain to collect snails and others and also to met some friends, who provided fish for FREDIE.
Fieldwork in Iraqi Kurdistan in June 2012
The freshwater fishes of Iraq are very poorly known. Reason enough for a visit. Since long I was so keen to go there, but too many well known problems made Iraq to a difficult destination. In 2012, a dream came true, I could first visit Iraqi Kurdistan which turned out to be a fine place for freshwater biodiversity.
The Litttle Zab river at Altun Kopri, hot as in an oven but an excellent place for fishes.
FREDIE Expedition to Greece 2011
Fieldwork is the real fun in the project FREDIE and it was a fantastic opportunity to go to Greece in late 2011. Together with Greek friends and colleagues Roberta Barbieri, Maria Stoumboudi and Eleni Kalogianni we visited almost all species of Greek freshwater fishes at home.
Fieldwork in Algeria 2011
After field expeditions to Tunisia in 2010 and to Morokko in 2011, Algeria was the last country to be visited to complete the freshwater fishes of the Maghreb. It turned out to be the most difficult.
Lousy weather but nice fishes at Oued Boughzazene in Kabylie