Oct 6, 2026 |
More than 22 million measurements collected in the Bazaruto Archipelago since 2017 are available in open access to the international scientific community.
The Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies (BCSS) brings together eight years of continuous monitoring in 21 registered datasets, each with a DOI identifier and its own documentation, which can be downloaded or requested through the BCSS public portal.
According to information disclosed to KAMBAKU, the network covers around 6,850 square kilometres between Inhassoro and the São Sebastião Sanctuary, with 14 fixed stations distributed across six interconnected ecosystems, ranging from mangroves and seagrass meadows to coral reefs, lagoons, seamounts and the open ocean.
According to the technical paper published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, the sensors track more than 30 variables, among them temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, carbon chemistry, nutrients, metals and chlorophyll a. Added to the archive are more than 200,000 minutes of underwater acoustic recordings, more than 100,000 biodiversity records and observations relating to more than ten tonnes of marine litter.
The work combines hydrophones, smart buoys that estimate biomass through acoustics, vessel-based surveys and scientific dives. Samples of water, plankton and organisms are analysed in partner laboratories such as GEOMAR, in Germany, and the universities of Pisa, A Coruña and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The observatory also follows threatened species that frequent the archipelago. As reported by BCSS, in August this year eight orcas were sighted, which made it possible to obtain the first photo-identification data for the species in this seascape. The team also monitors the last viable dugong population in East Africa, which the companion paper published in the same journal estimates at between 250 and 350 animals.
This population has also been studied by African Parks, which manages the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park. According to African Parks, satellite transmitters were fitted to 11 dugongs, in a project unprecedented in Africa, and the team involved was behind the reclassification of East African dugongs as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, in 2022.
The authors stress that the Western Indian Ocean remains poorly covered by observation instruments, unlike the Atlantic and the Pacific, where historical series such as those of Bermuda and Hawaii have fed climate models for decades. Bazaruto thus comes to offer the region a long-term baseline for comparison.
Photos: BCSS
