Team Cassava completed our week of teaching at the schools! We had the opportunity to assist Pascoal in teaching some of the ocean syllabus to the Guinjata Primary School. This week was coral reefs, we showed them the formation of coral reefs and taught them the main species that are present in the local Mozambique waters. We used some of the footage that was filmed during our transect dives, Showing this was really special as it was some of their first time seeing what’s in their local coastal waters.

We also included teaching them the Dive signals for each of the species. We witnessed their progression in learning as they would come up to us and do those dive signals and say the name of the species, this was really special as there is a communication barrier in terms of speaking the local language. It was lovely to see them try and communicate while using the signals that we had taught them.

Waking up every morning to the red sunrise and sound of the crashing waves here is so lush! This week has been the best to date, last Saturday we embarked upon a fish tagging activity and succeeded in seeing a spinning mobula ray, dolphins metres from the boat, humpback whales, a spinner shark in the sunlight and catching multiple fish including a blacktip reef shark! Sunday we spent diving with dragon eels in the morning and then laxing with the palm trees on the doorstep of our houses made of woven leaves and wood.

We’ve spent this week doing predominantly research which entails going to the local fisheries where we sample, document and ID organisms – including shark tissue sampling which is then sent off to the lab in Maputo to be analysed. This is hugely educational for all of us and key experience for our future careers as marine biologists! Additionally, learning about coral reef transects and surveys measuring benthic, cryptic and non-cryptic species is fascinating. The fishes here are so colourful and mesmerising, of all colours and puzzling patterns. FYI, there has also been a whale shark here which some saw. My favourite time of day is simply dinner time where we all congregate, chat and have yummy food, my favourite being Matapa – a national dish, this is also the name of our team (cassava is muito bon too).