Our Research

Love The Oceans works with Instituto Oceanográfico de Moçambique, the oceanographic institute of Mozambique, which is the marine science arm of Mozambique government. All our research is conducted in conjunction with the Oceanographic Institute and we’re proud to work with them. Our research is critical to our conservation strategy as it informs our conservation and outreach work and is a core pillar of our evidence-based holistic approach.

Read our recent paper on marine protected area effectiveness in the Journal of environmental Management here.

Below you’ll find a brief outline of our current research.

If you join one of our Marine Professional Development expeditions you will receive training in most of our research areas.

FISHERIES

Love The Oceans collects artisanal fisheries data collection across Jangamo Bay and has one of the longest standing and most comprehensive artisanal fisheries data sets in the country. Baseline data indicates that the current fisheries are unsustainable and food security (measured through catch per unit effort) has drastically dropped in the last decade. This data is now being prepared for publication and will be an important component in developing the rules and regulations around Love The Oceans' proposed Marine Protected Area for Jangamo. Data collectors monitor the beaches daily and engage directly with local fishermen helping collect data on everything that is caught. For each catch, the size, species, catch size, effort and fishing methods are recorded and photographically documented.

REEF BIODIVERSITY

Love The Oceans conducts biodiversity and coral reef assessments on the coral reefs in Jangamo. Whilst many would expect Jangamo to host healthy coral reefs with a high biodiversity and biomass this is unfortunately not the case. Our initial research shows an alarming low biomass of reef fish, verging on ecosystem collapse, which when coupled with our fisheries research shines a light on unsustainable ecosystem exploitation. The benthic data from these same surveys show algae cover has doubled between 2018 and 2024. These ecosystem shifts are worrying and emphasise the urgency of Love The Oceans' work. This data, combined with the fisheries data has informed our Sustainable Fishing Project, working to shift fishermen away from unsustainable fishing practises like monofilament netting, to more sustainable practises like rod and line by kayak. These biodiversity surveys are the first conducted in the area, and this information is critical to understanding what is happening in the living ecosystem and informing protection policy and our conservation intervention measures.

HARD CORAL TAGS

Love The Oceans is pioneering the first long-term coral demographics study in Jangamo Bay, establishing permanent monitoring plots to track the growth, survival, and mortality of hard corals over time. Despite Jangamo’s reputation as a biodiversity hotspot, our early findings suggest historic stress events have reshaped the reef, with more tolerant genera now dominating large areas. By tagging and photographing over 1,000 individual coral colonies over the last 4 years, our team is building a significant dataset to understand how climate change, bleaching, storms and local pressures affect coral population dynamics. This project forms part of a global coral demographics research programme led by the University of Leeds, comparing how demographic rates differ across tropical and subtropical reefs worldwide. The data underpin evidence-based reef management by identifying which species are most resilient, which are most vulnerable, and whether local recruitment is strong enough to support natural recovery. These insights guide future interventions like our project BEAM and help determine future mitigation strategies. This work provides essential baseline information to understand reef health trajectories and what can be done to protect them.

CORAL DISEASE

Love The Oceans is conducting the first-ever coral disease assessments in Jangamo Bay, establishing a critical baseline for understanding reef health in this understudied region. Our initial surveys documented 16 coral diseases across 14 coral families, revealing widespread infections affecting both hard and soft corals. White syndromes, particularly white pox, dominated disease patterns, and biotic stressors such as boreholes, burrows and predation scars showed strong associations with disease occurrence. These findings highlight that disease is an emerging and urgent threat to Jangamo’s reefs, compounding existing stress from warming seas and ecosystem imbalance. Establishing this baseline allows Love The Oceans to integrate disease monitoring into long-term conservation strategy, inform future management actions, and ensure our protection measures remain resilient in the face of rapidly changing ocean conditions. Due to lack of funding, this project is currently paused.

PROJECT BEAM

Project BEAM (Biodiversity Enhancement and Algae Management) is Love The Oceans’ pilot ecosystem intervention initiative to restore reef health by tackling one of Jangamo’s most pressing ecological threats according to our research: overgrown macroalgae. Years of ecosystem imbalance and declining herbivore fish populations have allowed algae to smother corals, reducing coral cover and limiting new coral recruitment. Healthy coral reefs underpin biodiversity, fisheries, and local livelihoods, making intervention essential. Through Project BEAM, our team clears macroalgae from designated reef plots, creating open substrate where corals can settle and grow. Each plot is maintained and monitored over time, tracking coral recruitment, growth, and changes in reef biodiversity. By combining hands-on restoration with rigorous scientific monitoring, this project provides the first evidence base for macroalgae management in Jangamo and evaluates whether targeted algae removal can accelerate reef recovery. As results emerge, this pilot will form a scalable framework for algae management in other degraded reefs across Mozambique and beyond, offering practical solutions that unite science, community engagement, and long-term ecosystem resilience.

HUMPBACK WHALES

Jangamo falls within an IUCN Important Marine Mammal Area and Love The Oceans collects an array of data on humpback whales as we're lucky enough to have these gentle giants migrate through our area every year from June to October in huge numbers. We record humpback whale sightings, IDs, surface behaviour, environmental conditions and vocalisations, from land, boat and air. Vocalisation studies can be used to identify groups and subpopulations, song evolution over time, and migration routes around southern Africa. By linking surface behaviour and environmental conditions we hope to understand what drives different types of surface behaviour and the purpose of each type of behaviour. Humpback whales are a flagship marine species and collecting ID data to understand population numbers, and sightings data, it will help us promote responsible ecotourism around this species as a viable sustainable alternative source of income to practises like unsustainable fishing and habitat exploitation.

WHALE SHARKS AND MANTA RAYS

The Inhambane Province has historically been a hotspot for whale shark and manta ray activity, and one of the few places in the world where sightings of these animals are year-round, with both species of manta ray co-existing in our area. Jangamo is an IUCN Important Shark and Ray Area, but in recent years there has been a huge decline in manta ray sightings. We document whale shark and manta ray sightings and collect ID photos to estimate population size, study habitat use and regional migrations. The sightings and ID photos are reported to citizen science databases ensuring international collaboration between research organisations in other megafauna hotspots around the world. As with humpback whales, whale sharks and manta rays are flagship marine species and the protection of them can benefit many other species that inhabit the same waters. Proving high sighting numbers can support sustainable ecotourism as an alternative livelihood for local communities.

APEX PREDATORS

Love The Oceans uses stereo Baited Remote Underwater Videos (BRUVs) to assess the status of meso- and apex predators in Jangamo, species that are essential for maintaining healthy, functioning marine ecosystems. These surveys provide the first long-term predator dataset for the region, filling a critical knowledge gap in an area facing intense fishing pressure and declining biodiversity. Our BRUVs are deployed across the proposed MPA to non-invasively record sharks, rays, and large predatory fish. Each deployment captures species diversity, size and abundance. This work allows us to monitor predator populations and directly our other data sets to get a comprehensive picture of ecosystem health and populations on each trophic level. These data are essential for identifying ecological hotspots, understanding community collapse signals, and informing the design of Jangamo’s proposed Marine Protected Area.

OCEAN TRASH

Love The Oceans conducts regular beach cleans and sorts trash in order to upcycle it after collection. In conjunction with a past volunteer, we've developed an app to streamline data collection during beach cleans and more accurately and efficiently monitor the trash washing up on our beaches. We're on the edge of the Indian Ocean Garbage Patch - the third biggest in the world - so you can imagine that unfortunately trash washing up is a frequent event, with plastics making up the majority of the trash. The three most commonly collected items are plastic fragments, plastic bottle caps and discarded fishing gear. While some of this debris is local (especially flip-flops and cigarette butts), the vast majority is transported to the area via ocean currents, highlighting the need for international action against marine debris and plastic pollution. Once the trash has been collected, logged, weighed, cleaned and sorted, it's then transferred to our plastic machine which softens the plastic and mould it into other items which you can purchase on our etsy store and support this project! All proceeds go right back into this work.

TURTLES

Throughout nesting season Love The Oceans' Turtle Patrol Team carry out nightly surveys to locate and protect turtle nests on our beaches, increasing the likelihood of eggs successfully hatching and reducing poaching. To provide nesting turtles and hatchlings with the best possible conditions, Love The Oceans’ marine biologists deliver stakeholder workshops on Code of Conduct, environmental awareness and proper procedures when a nest is located. Once a nest is located the Turtle Patrol Team then post 24hr guards who stay with the nest from laying to hatching to give the turtles the best chance possible. Our turtle program is also an essential part of employment in the area. Each nesting season we provide employment for 15 - 30+ people as turtle guards, who support on average 10 family members each with their income and since unemployment rates are 70% in our area and poverty levels are high, this is an important revenue stream. Most of our guards used to be fishermen so this initiative has been particularly successful in transitioning people away from unsustainable fishing into conservation employment. If you'd like to sponsor our turtle work you can through our website by clicking on the 'Adopt' tab in the menu.