"The purpose of this expedition is to possibly generate some of the first data sets that have been done on the ocean and riverside of The Gambia." — #NatGeoExplorer Maiyai Taal Hocheimy "If you look at the topography of our country, before you arrive into the capital, Banjul, we're protected by these amazing mangroves. We wanted to bring in something that was very new to the team, which is looking at how the people interact with the mangrove ecosystem. So we brought in a team of social scientists to do ecosystem mapping so they can map the usage of the mangroves to see how we can use science to help develop better conservation and policies." — The mangroves at the mouth of the Gambia River are currently understudied, leaving knowledge gaps about what needs to be done to safeguard them from sea level rise and increasing salinity that is jeopardizing local food security. Taal Hocheimy, along with a group of fellow Explorers and scientists, is working to address this gap by gathering e...