Whale Shark Conservation

We left the west coast (Namibia), arrived on the other coast at Inhambane, Mozambique and then drove to the small nearby village of Tofo. From the sky we could easily tell things were going to be different - we could see palm trees everywhere and lush tropical vegetation. Most of where we had been had been so far the vegetation had been sparse, with large patches of land uncultivated and/or without weeds, and generally vegetation that was low-lying. We are now in a classic tropical paradise, where in the late afternoon you can find the locals playing soccer on the beach.


We are in Tofo as part of a conservation volunteer program. The main thrust is whale sharks, but we are also involved in other marine conservation efforts. We are going out on the water each day to either scuba dive or go snorkeling. The snorkel trips are where the majority of our whale shark efforts occur. The boat drives around until we spot a whale shark. Then we slip into the water and swim alongside it, which is just awesome. These fish are 15' and larger- the biggest we've seen is 24'. Although they eat plankton, and nothing larger, they have mouths big enough that either one of us could fit into it. It is a bit of a shock (in a very good way) when the shark first comes into view, and more so if their mouth is open and they are swimming towards you. It is so big, you find yourself just starring in awe of its size and beauty. It has been a lifelong dream of mine (Betsy) to swim with whale sharks, and it's absolutely just as amazing as hoped. As volunteers, one of our jobs is to take photos of the whale sharks. Researchers have discovered each whale shark has a unique spot pattern on the side of it's body, kind of like a fingerprint. A large part of the conservation work being done here includes tracking individuals in the whale shark population and observing their behavior, in order to learn about the population seen on the Mozambique coast, and elsewhere. There is a database being kept that is actually part of an international whale shark conservation program with people around the world taking ID photos of whale sharks and entering them into the database. It is a pretty cool system. Additionally, the researchers are trying is to establish a marine protection area in this region. If you are interested in swimming with whale sharks, there is a place off Cancun, Mexico that predictably has a population of whale sharks visit each July and August, due to the food source available at that time. Or you could come to Mozambique, but just don't come on the same program we did. We could easily fill a whole blog telling you how unorganized this program is, how unhelpful the volunteer coordinators are and what a shithole of a place we are living in. But the beach, the whale sharks and the diving are outstanding, and so we are still here. However, we are quite glad this is only a two week stint! It is unfortunate that the volunteer program run by All Out Africa sucks, because the cause is so good, and we like Marine Megafauna Association, the research organization that they work with. While going out to see the whale sharks on the Ocean Safaris, we also get to see some other stuff. We have seen dolphins, juvenile hammerhead sharks, and some other fish, including these fish called cobias that are often near the whale sharks, but from a distance look a lot like other kinds of sharks that we would rather not be in the water with. In addition, we did not realize that we would be here during humpback whale season - which is also amazing. We have never had such a great whale watching experience anywhere before. From shore and in the boats, we see whales all the time. The best part is when an adult and a calf are swimming together and the adult appears to teach the juvenile some typical whale behaviors. The adult will slap the water with the pectoral fins over and over again, while the juvenile tries to do it as well. This can last for over 10 minutes. The best viewing we had was on our ocean safari yesterday when the young whale was breaching over and over again, about 50 ft from our boat, sometimes closer, and the adult spent most of her time on her side or back slapping her fins. We were with them for about 15 minutes. It was spectacular. The scuba diving here is also pretty good. When we arrived, our coordinator told us that I (Hugh) may not be able to dive on this trip because I was taking Lariam, which is an anti-malarial drug. This is one of the many things that pissed us off, as we received plenty of material for this project, but many key items like that particular fact was never given. Fortunately, Betsy is taking a different anti-malarial, and so I stopped taking my medicine and switched to hers. Of course, there is no where nearby for us to get any malaria medicine, so at some point we will have to try and find some elsewhere (Dar Es Salaam? Nairobi?) Anyway, we have been scuba diving and there are tons of fishes. We studied the different fishes and are able to identify the "indicator" species which indicate the health of the reef ecosystem. We occasionally carry a clipboard and check off the fishes we see. We also got certified to dive deeper, as many of the dives are at a level past what the basic scuba course covers. We have seen many types of eels, a turtle, several rays, a white tip reef shark, and more. We have particularly enjoyed hearing the song of the humpback whales while underwater. We are looking forward to hopefully seeing a manta ray, as this is also a great place to see them. We don't have too many pictures as it is just not safe to bring the camera on the boat. There are not too many places to put it to keep it dry and with these boats there is constant water spraying. There is a waterproof camera that we occasionally use for the research, and we should have some photos for the blog from that for next time. I do have one picture of Betsy scuba diving from that camera.


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Location:Tofo, Mozambique