Never had the volcanic lake been so full, a feast of fish chanted by the birds. The hippo pod was larger than ever remembered. I stayed there from dawn to dusk, unable to capture all the new visions constantly created around the hippo skull by the wealth of light and reflections. The hippos approached at dusk and their startling shadows danced in this lavish setting. A year later most of them had been killed. Oloidien Bay is an officially recognised Ramsar site but poachers operate here in broad daylight trapping animals with impunity and heavily overfishing the lake, thus depriving hippos and migratory birds of their natural resource. (Anne de Carbuccia)