Research Fund 26/01 :: Chiara Gambardella
March 13, 2026
Research Fund 26/01 :: Kathryn Ayres
March 14, 2026
We just returned from our very first trip to Chile and what an adventure that turned out to be!
Our destination was Santiago and the mission was simple in theory and slightly insane in practice:
- Find a local partner that would collect and maintain a rather long list of specimens we picked after careful revision on… Google.
- Monitor – and finance – the collection process from 10.000 km away.
- Arrange all the necessary export and import documents, which involved making government agencies talk directly to each other, always a fun job.
- Finally, it was time to fly to Santiago and carefully pack 127 fish and invertebrates in 54 large boxes, before flying them safely to their European destination.
As is often the case with these operations, this was months in the making, together with a fantastic local partner in Chile. Also as usual, the final hours decided to add a bit of spice to the story, hence our witty title.
Just when everything seemed perfectly lined up, our air freight rate suddenly increased fourfold. Yes… fourfold. At that point we placed nitroglycerin tablets under our tongues just to keep our blood pressure within reasonable limits.
But the fun didn’t stop there.
Somewhere along the trip, João developed a rather nasty eye infection – most likely stress-related – which made simple tasks like reading emails, writing paperwork, or staring at fish bags a lot more challenging than usual. Driving the fork-lift at night was also interesting, but the boxes somehow found their way inside the small trucks.
Still, operations like these are never the work of just a few people. Thanks to the brilliant help of young Miguel, Tiago and the fabulous Aquamundo team, a packing plan worthy of a small military operation was devised and executed to perfection.
And in the end – which is always the only result that truly matters – all animals – but one… 🙁 – arrived safely at their destination.
We can only hope this shipment will be the first of many future orders bringing fish from this remarkable and exciting part of the world.
Because if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years, it’s that these journeys always begin with fish…
……but they usually end with stories.
