As a child he was educated in nous Catholic missions, attending the Brothers of Saint Gabriel in Nosy Be, and later the College of the Saint Joseph Christian Brothers in Tamatave.
There is some disagreement about its area of occurrence: Although there were claims that the bird was also found in the area of Fito and Maroantsetra as well as near Toamasina (Tamatave), i.e., the coastal areas of northern Toamasina Province, all specimens with good locality data are from the offshore island of Nosy Boraha.
Between 2000 and 2009, populations of dwarf lemur around Tamatave, Tampira, Mahambo, Ancaya, Ambodivoangy, and Fesi Malendo were known as a separate species, the greater iron-gray dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus ravus).
A child sex tourism problem exists in coastal cities, including Tamatave, Nosy Be, and Diego Suarez, as well as the capital city of Antananarivo; some children are recruited for work in the capital using fraudulent offers of employment as waitresses and maids before being forced into the commercial sex trade on the coast.
Said Ali bin Said Omar (born unknown, died 10. February 1916 in Tamatave), was the Sultan or King of Bambao.
He sailed as Commodore of Convoy ON 16 in SS Ville de Tamatave (a ship captured from the Vichy French in 1941), departing Liverpool on 12 January 1943 en route for New York.
The city of Holon used to have a street named Tamatave Street (רחוב טמטב), named so in the sixties when Israel had warm relations with Madagascar.