The All Out Wildlife Fund supports groundbreaking research into threatened species of birds, reptiles and small mammals.
Whale adventures in Mozambique
Even with bad weather October saw plenty of action in the water! Here is a firsthand account from one of our volunteers of an encounter with one of the Ocean’s giants – a humpback whale!
“Upon reaching the surface after my final dive in Tofo, which had already proven to be the best. My fellow divers and I celebrated with a high five. Just when we thought things couldn’t get any better, the boat came closer and the skipper mentioned that he had seen Humpback whales whilst we were under the sea. Moments later our instructor Lucas from Tofo Scuba shouted “look below, look below”. We all floated on the surface, face in the water, as a large female humpback with her newborn calf elegantly glided in front of us, about 10 meters away. She slowly turned towards us and before we knew it she was right upon us. She flipped her fin and brushed past two of the divers naturally we all swam in the opposite direction, not an easy task with inflated BCDs and full scuba equipment. We regrouped a short distance from the boat where we admired the humpback as she slapped her fin alongside the boat. We all floated in the water watching until she disappeared into the ocean. Reality kicked in as the group clambered back onto the boat, unharmed. We nervously burst into hysterics as we realized the uniqueness of this unbelievable humpback encounter.”
Although not every dive was as exciting as that one, the data collected this month was quite valuable to the project. In total 12 fish lists were carried out, 2 transects- with plans to do an official reef check early next month, 12 ocean safaris, 4 shore based humpback monitoring days and 3 beach clean-ups. October was a very productive month and November is shaping up to be even more exciting as we welcome our new turtle researcher to the All Out Africa Team. Hopefully we will see a few more nests this year!
