Looking for Marine Scientists...

After many discussions with local people and visitors, I've come to the conclusion that the best course of action to improve the survival chances of the seahorses in the area is to get the specie we have here (Hippocampus Camelopardalis) on the CITES list of endangered species.
The way to do that is to have a study published by scientists that shows the decrease in population.
So I'm appealing all that read this blog and their friends, who would like to come to Bilene to study the seahorse population?

This is a job that would be most appealing to someone doing honors, a masters or a phD thesis. Speak around you, let's make things happen...

Swimming and diving with Whales!

It's been a long time since I posted an update. There are two reasons for my scarce writing. The first is that TDM (Telecomunicações de Moçambique) cannot deliver a decent Internet service. At least to me. Maybe they don't like French people. Or maybe they're picking on me for no reason. They claim to be the leaders in telecommunications, and to satisfy clients. It must be me.
The second reason is that I've been hectically busy organizing everything for the groups visiting us, exploring new venues, trying new adventures...
Life is tough in Afrika!

One of the new adventures is Whales Expeditions. We depart from the beach, launch through the mouth as usual, but instead of going to a specific spot, we cruise in the 20-30m depth range while looking for whales. When we spot them, we go in their general direction until we're about 500m away from them. Then we drop a line in the deep blue, dive to 10-15m and wait.

At first, there isn't much to see, just the blue emptiness around. After a while though, you start paying attention to a lot of small stuff drifting past. Nature dislikes the void. The sea is actually full of plancton, larvae and other creatures, some over twenty centimeters long.

Sure enough, after a while, big stuff comes to check out what's going on. Only once have we seen nothing much. Every other time, we've had big sharks (Bronze Whalers, Bronzies) or whales (Southern Right and Humpback) come to check us out.

This is not for the beginner diver. Hanging at the end of the line, sometimes not seeing the surface or the bottom, and nothing on either side, makes for eerie feelings. The wait can be a little unnerving. From time to time, there are jellyfish-like creatures floating past, their iridescent colours flickering along their body. However, the thrill when big fish or whales come out of the gloom to check us is just indescribable.

Then, as we were climbing back on the boat, our non-divers colleagues told us there were up to six whales on the surface at one time. We didn't actually make it back on the boat: a whale with a calf swam past and enticed us back to swim on the surface with them.

What an experience!

Stay tuned for more diving news, don't hold your breath,

Daniel     ;-)