Arwen, Ella, Lucy & Kiah
On Saturday we completed another two extra dives. The first dive we revisited eel alley as we enjoyed it so much last time. Despite the visibility we still spotted lots of dragon eels again, worked on our photography skills and noticed how much our fish ID skills have improved. It’s very satisfying actually being able to name the species as we dive! After our eel alley dive we did our second dive at a local dive site and 3 of us perfected our buoyancy skills before enjoying exploring the reef for the rest of the dive. For the rest of the day we chilled at the dive centre.
Sunday we headed to the estuary for a snorkelling sea horse safari. There was so much life – spotted lots of adorable juvenile fish, starfish and of course seahorses too. We even spotted a small stonefish (very poisonous!). We ended the day with a nice meal out!
On Monday three of us headed off to the immigration office to renew our visas. Unfortunately what we were hoping would be quite a smooth experience was ended up being much more complicated. For two of us despite having visas there had been an issue in Maputo and so they couldn’t straight away renew our visa. This meant we had to return again on Wednesday to renew them. Sadly though, for Kiah, when she entered the country she had not been given the right documentation so could not extend her visa and she has to leave on Saturday. As we have all grown very close we were all devastated.
Arwen
Arwen having got a 60 day visa had a much more exciting day…
Whilst the others went to Maxixe to collect visas I stayed at Blue Moon (LTO’s accommodation partners) having a chill morning catching up on work from home. Then at 9:30 I headed over to the dive centre to join Chess, Kaush and Maddie on the ocean safari! During the briefing Chess mentioned how if any whale sharks or mantas were on the safari I would slip into the water to attempt to get an ID photo. For the whale shark this is between the gills and their pectoral fin on the left hand side, for manta rays it is on the underside of their body. Halfway through the safari a huge oceanic manta was spotted by the skipper and I attempted to grab an ID photo but by the time I got into the water the ray had changed its course and unfortunately swam away. An amazing opportunity however and my very first manta ray ever! Chess then pointed out several behaviours throughout the rest of the safari with many whales being spotted. We saw a few mothers and calves and unfortunately one being harassed by a male. The whales were so cool and it was so awesome to see so many different behaviours on the boat compared to the ones we log for our whale surveys. After heading back to land we loaded up the paddle boards from the morning and returned to Blue Moon for lunch. I then downloaded two old sets of fisheries data and Yolanda helped me perfect my ImageJ skills over the course of the afternoon. I finished the data just before the others returned for dinner and we ate a delicious meal before heading to bed to get rest before our first day of schools!
Ella
On Tuesday we all headed into Guinjata primary school. This week we are teaching the children about the local marine area and local conservation efforts. We discussed the local geography before moving onto some of the amazing marine life here in the bay. To help engage the kids we played a game of charades where we pretended to be different sea animals and that went down very well! We spent the afternoon working on our painting of the national holidays in Mozambique and were back at base by 4pm. This meant we had some spare time so I (Ella) went for a run on the beach and it was super pretty as the beach was so empty and expansive. It was very freeing (healing after an unsuccessful day at immigration)!!
On Wednesday Lucy and I returned to immigration with everything crossed that this time we would get visas! Thankfully after a short wait we managed to complete the process and we were both very grateful. On our way back we picked up the others from school and heard about how their day had been! Here’s Arwen’s rundown of their day:
Today Kiah and I headed back to schools to teach about coral reefs and mangroves. We started by explaining the relationship between the coral and the fish, making sure they understood what would happen should either the reef or fish die. Then after a game of pretending to be noisy fish on a reef, that got quieter when their coral homes dies, we switched to mangroves. We explained how the root system acts as a nursery for young fish 🐠! They learnt how the big predators cannot get through the roots, and then how the roots can protect us from large waves by breaking them down. One final game of mangroves where some kids acted as little fish, others protected them as mangroves and the sharks circled the outside, unable to get in. Once class was over we sat under our favourite tree for lunch. Then it was back to painting the national holidays of Mozambique. We completed some of the images and Kiah managed to complete all the words, leaving space for a whale shark so we could add fun facts for international whale shark day! Returning back to Blue Moon we met up with the others who finally got their visas! So a happy dinner and an early night before a new lesson to teach the next day.
Thursday Arwen and I were at the schools as Lucy was in town and Kiah spent the day doing some extra science practise before having to leave. She did BRUV collection and did drone training in the afternoon. Both went very well. At school today the lesson went very well, the kids all engaged well when we did a role play for overfishing where Arwen and I were both fishermen and they were fish on the reef. Originally I took all of the fish and left none for Arwen showing them an obvious consequence of overfishing. We then repeated the role play but ask the children how many fish (children) Arwen and I should each take and we repeatedly added a few fish back between each fishing trip to represent reproduction! The children managed to work out that for us to continue fishing we could only take as many fish as were being replaced each time – they nailed the basic principles of a sustainable yield! After our day at school we all headed to ‘Top of the World’ for sunset drinks. This is a super cool spot on the dunes about an hours drive (in a very full car!) from base but was definitely worth it. As it was Kiah’s last night we discussed some highlights and just enjoyed spending time together! Came back for chicken curry dinner before heading to bed!
Lucy
Lucy’s day in town:
Thursdays are one of my favourite days. As an intern, I also have the extra responsibility of heading to town once a week to stock up all of our supplies. For me, this is a pretty fun day, and it’s something a bit different and I also really enjoy the journey and experiences of going round the local area to all the different shops. We try to get most of our things in the local town of Inhambane, including all of our fruit and vegetables being bought freshly from the town market, but sometimes it’s necessary to also go further afield and make a stop of near Tofo to get more western luxuries (like ham, cheese and crisps). I always go with Mercia, who helps cook our food and can get the best market deals and Bento, one of LTO’s field officers, who drives. Town days can be long but they never really feel like it when we’re so busy and can talk to each other in between tasks. We also do any extra bits that are needed in town, like going to the mechanic, the printers and the construction shops. Personally one of my favourite parts is being able to get the Dairy Milk bars here, which come in a much larger range of flavours than the UK! But the whole experience is always a learning curve, as shops often work a little differently here, and I really enjoy being able to immerse myself in a different culture even more than we do on site.
On Friday we had another day at the schools and got to discuss with a local class their role in protecting their local ocean through sustainable fishing, preventing plastic pollution and being stewards of their environment. Over the week the kids have definitely warmed up to the discussions we’re having and it’s a great note to leave it on. We then finished our mural of the national holidays and whale sharks in the afternoon, which was a great achievement and turned out better than we could have expected (with none of us having huge faith in our artistic skills). We again had a few hours to ourselves before dinner, and we were treated to loads of really close up humpbacks because of the rough weather! This came to our attention when we heard a low thumping sound travelling across the wind and realised that it was actually coming from two tail slapping whales close up in the bay! Kaush managed to get the drone out to capture some footage, so we watched him using the equipment before dinner.
