ASSISTANT CO-ORDINATOR MARINE & EDUCATION VOLUNTEER PROJECT TOFO BEACH, MOZAMBIQUE

A Co-ordinator position is available with All Out Africa as a 1 year contract starting in March 2025.

Remuneration

The pay will be a basic salary of MZN30,000 per month.

Requirements

Applicants should be Mozambican Nationals or permanent residents comfortable living and working in Tofo, Mozambique. A passion for marine life and dedication to marine conservation are essential as well as a passion for community development and education. You should be willing to work sometimes long hours with limited on-site supervision. You should have an engaging personality for organising and motivating young international volunteers and should be an excellent communicator in English. You should be impeccably honest and hard working. You should be a practical problem solver capable of maintaining underwater research equipment with the capacity to get things done in challenging conditions.

Criteria:

  • A minimum of PADI Advanced Open Water (or equivalent) SCUBA diving qualification and 100 logged dives
  • Experience and skill in organising and training international citizen scientists & students
  • A passion for marine life with excellent field knowledge
  • Experience with & skill in organising education & community projects
  • Fluent in English
  • Fluent in Portuguese

Preferable:

  • A degree in Marine biology
  • PADI Divemaster (or equivalent)
  • Experience with whale shark, humpback whale, manta ray, turtle & coral fish field research
  • Experience of ecological field work in Africa
  • A valid driving license

 Application

Please send a motivation letter and resume/CV as an application to jobs@alloutafrica.com by 10th January 2024.

Job Description

The main focus of the assistant co-ordinator will be to support the organization and delivery of prescribed training to volunteers and students in multiple data collection techniques. You will assist in arranging their logistical needs and daily activities, while contributing to the ongoing work built on 13+ years of data. It is compulsory for all volunteers to receive the consistent and replicated guidance, training and scheduling on a monthly basis provided by the research co-ordinator and assistant co-ordinator. You will also be responsible for overseeing the general wellbeing of the volunteers including liaising with our partner organisations regarding their food & accommodation.

This is a citizen-science based project, where the assistant co-ordinator will support the provision of consistent and replicable training to volunteers and students who allow for the long-term collection of observational, non-invasive data collection on some of the rarest and most critically endangered species in the ocean. Our datasets span 13+ years, with both traditional and cutting-edge techniques in marine research. The position of assistant co-ordinator primarily holds the responsibility to provide and maintain these prescribed consistent and replicable training to volunteers to ensure data validity for use in sound scientific projects. Ultimately, these data are used for in-house, collaborative and student projects for publication and dissemination to inform ecosystem-led management decisions both locally and nationally.

The main components of the field data collection include:

  • Continuing 13+ year datasets of marine species behavioural observations, distribution and individual identification (including whale shark, seahorses, humpback whale manta ray, turtle, dolphin, nudibranch and many more). This is done during SCUBA dives, snorkeling, from the boat and from shore.
  • Reef health assessments by way of coral and reef fish video transects and identification. Training volunteers in these techniques, analysing this data and disseminating information to the local fishing communities to inform local conservation actions
  • Support the research co-ordinator in maintaining and advancing our ongoing research projects and collaborations. These include cetacean acoustics, remote underwater video systems and more.
  • Assist students in project development and provide field-supervision
  • Help maintain collaborative unions in the East African region for data collection and contribute as agreed, e.g., synchronized whale watch day, Happy Whale etc.

Other globally recognised and collaborative projects that you will provide training to volunteers and conduct on a monthly basis include microplastic surveys and tourism economic surveys. We would welcome any additional projects that you might feel are of importance for research, education and conservation in the area.

We also intend to establish an educational project aimed at children in the local primary schools with the goal of improving their English proficiency and assisting in general with improving their education as a sustainable development project. You would be responsible for establishing and overseeing this project collaborating with staff at the local primary schools and engaging international volunteers in daily activities associated and supervising their daily activities. We also hope to engage the children in understanding more about the marine environment in the area with the aim of providing linkages between the marine project and the education project.

Organization

ALL OUT AFRICA operates across southern Africa with offices in Eswatini (Swaziland), South Africa and Mozambique. All Out Africa implements a range of environmental and social projects through offering responsible travel experiences largely for the youth market. Many of the travel experiences are service orientated (e.g. volunteering) or educational (e.g. school group tours) but also include more typical tours (e.g. Kruger safaris, beach tours, hiking tours). There are two main divisions to the organization: a responsible travel business, and a non-profit focused on social and environmental impact.

The Marine Research and Conservation Project in Tofo, Mozambique is focused on field research, education and conservation action. The project has been operational since 2007 and includes a marine research centre on Tofo beach in Mozambique. Field research and monitoring activities include work on threatened mega-fauna (whale sharks, humpback whales, manta rays, dolphins, turtles and other sharks & rays) and coral reefs (indicator species of coral fish). The data is collected via scuba diving and snorkeling as well as shore-based observations.