Aug 11, 2026 |
The research vessel Dr. Fridtjof Nansen is sailing along the Mozambican coast on a 42 day scientific mission with 18 international and Mozambican scientists.
The Norwegian vessel is surveying the shoreline of Maputo National Park under a partnership with the Oceanographic Institute of Mozambique (InOM), and the park management has informed fishers, visitors and local communities along the coastal zone of this scientific work.
The Mozambican scientists on board the Dr. Fridtjof Nansen are joining the resident body of international scientists carrying out an expedition that also passes through the waters of other East African countries.
The central objective of the mission is to assess fisheries resources and marine ecosystems along the entire Mozambican coast, reported the National Institute of the Sea (INAMAR) , the body that exercises maritime authority in Mozambique.
According to INAMAR, Tommy Seeffensen, the captain of the research vessel, said "I am very happy to be back in the country. It is always good to return to Mozambique to do research. We will take very good care of the Mozambican scientists joining us. We will be back here in 40 days and then we will continue with the research".
The current mission is the vessel's third visit to Mozambican waters in less than two years. In March 2025, KAMBAKU reported the presence of the Dr. Fridtjof Nansen off Ponta do Ouro, on a mission that recorded 1009 distinct groups of fish and invertebrates. On another mission, in November of that same year, it left Maputo for a three week scientific mission in the south west Indian Ocean, where 17 scientists from eleven countries studied deep sea sharks and coral and sponge ecosystems on a seamount situated about 270 nautical miles south of Madagascar.
The data collected on these successive missions have already produced published scientific results. According to the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA), a special issue of the Western Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Science was recently published based entirely on data collected by the Dr. Fridtjof Nansen in surveys carried out in Mozambique, Madagascar and South Africa, devoted to the biodiversity of the region's soft sediment seabeds.
According to the Institute of Marine Research of Norway, the Nansen programme, today known as EAF-Nansen, has been running since 1975 and is the oldest marine science development project in the world, with missions carried out in some 60 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas. The current vessel, the third to bear the name of the Norwegian explorer and scientist Fridtjof Nansen, was delivered in January 2017 and made its maiden voyage in May of the same year, from Casablanca. It belongs to the Norwegian development cooperation agency, is operated by the Norwegian institute and is the only research vessel in the world flying the United Nations flag. The mission is currently supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The information gathered on these expeditions contributes directly, according to INAMAR, to sustainable fisheries management policies and to the protection of marine biodiversity, allowing Mozambique and other countries to gauge the state of their ocean species and the sustainability of their fisheries resources.
Photos: Institute of Marine Research of Norway
