Akashinga Science, Coutada 5, Mozambique.
In October 2025, Akashinga’s scientific team completed the first aerial baseline survey of the Save Seascape, covering ~ 2800 square kilometers of the shallow continental shelf, in Mozambique’s Sofala Province – one of the Western Indian Ocean’s least-studied coastal regions. The survey forms part of a growing effort to strengthen community-led marine protection between the Save and Gorongosi rivers—an emerging conservation landscape north-adjacent to Bazaruto Archipelago National Park (BANP).
Systematic coastal transects to 20 nautical miles offshore recorded leatherback turtles, rays, sharks, dolphins, and—most notably—a group of five dugongs north of the Save River mouth. The team also identified potential seagrass meadows requiring ground-truthing as critical habitats for dugongs, turtles, and blue-carbon ecosystems, raising important questions about connectivity, habitat use and potential recovery pathways for the region’s Critically Endangered dugongs.
Human activity (fishing boats, nets and fish traps) was also recorded to identify fisheries hotspots and overlay them with megafauna sightings to highlight high risk areas for threatened species.
Baseline results will inform annual aerial surveys adopting an improved camera-count methodology, whilst contributing to regional understanding of marine megafauna distribution and highlighting the Save Seascape’s importance within the WIO marine conservation network.
