Having learned to dive, identify fish and collect data on the beautiful coral reefs and stunning marine life that I have always loved while in Tofo, a latent passion for field biology was ignited. I was absolutely heartbroken when at the end of three amazing months, I had to leave Tofo. However, I fully intended to return to Tofo equipped with more skills and knowledge. So, when an opportunity presented itself to participate in an overseas research internship as part of my studies in Australia, Tofo and All Out Africa immediately sprung to mind.

I seized the opportunity to return to Tofo and the amazing staff at All Out and I was not disappointed. Being familiar with the responsibilities and skills involved in volunteering I was excited to be given more responsibility and learn more about Katies many projects. Katie expertly balanced explaining details and concepts to me with giving me tasks that allowed me to independently develop my skills as a scientist and researcher. Katie gave me the opportunity to collect and process data towards ongoing data sets in new and exciting areas of marine biology. She also allowed me to collaborate with her on the experimental design and data collection of new projects.

The opportunity to work and collaborate so closely with an experienced research scientist on such fascinating projects was extremely humbling and informative. I came to Tofo as an intern eager to gain field research skills and experience that would set me apart from my peers while allowing me to grow as a biologist. I can comfortably say that I gained more in confidence and practical skills in my time as an intern than in a whole year of study at university and I feel so enriched by the experience.

My only regret about my time at All Out as both a volunteer and as an intern is that I wasn’t able to stay longer.

Heidi van der Watt, managing director of Better Tourism Africa, pinpointed what makes the Award winners the leaders in responsible tourism in Africa:
“Our winners have a vision that extends beyond the commercial – linking business success with the wellbeing of local communities and the longevity of their environments. They want to make profits with principles, communicate balance sheets alongside beliefs, and won’t undermine passion in the pursuit of professionalism. They are resilient, determined, humanising advocates for their destinations. They are the future of tourism in Africa.”

All Out Africa are proud to have been selected for this award and want to thank all our partners over the years including universities (Eswatini, Florida, East Anglia, Louisiana, Auburn and Alberta) and also the sending organisations who facilitate placement of students and volunteers with us.

The Judges’ reasons for choosing All Out Africa as the Gold Winner were:
“With references from universities in Eswatini and Florida attesting to All Out Africa’s contribution to both research and education on habitats and species the judges were particularly impressed by All Out Africa’s social-entrepreneur approach to solving the problem of insufficient ecological information and capacity to enable successful conservation. Over the last 12 years All Out Africa has enabled 500 international volunteers to contribute meaningfully to conservation through data collection and supported and trained over 100 local students in field-based conservation and ecological research, With activities in Eswatini, Mozambique and South Africa they have supported the education of 15 local students at MSc level and more than 1000 undergraduate students from both local and international universities.”

Once I finished my course, and went back home in Italy, I felt like I left a piece of my heart back in Tofo, in the ocean so full of life and mystery, I still had a lot of questions about the marine life, so I decided to start my master’s degree in Marine Biology. So here I am, back in Tofo. I couldn’t wait any longer to go back in the ocean!

Finally! After waiting for so long, the day arrived! On a splendid sunny morning, with a perfect calm and flat sea, we went for a dive at one of the best places to spot Mantas, Manta Reef. The boat ride was smooth and on the way to the reef we got the chance to get a quick tan and chat a bit. For some of volunteers it was their first deep dive so they were excited, of course! On our way we were also looking for whale sharks, dolphins, or tunas jumping out of the water. But unfortunately, we weren’t lucky enough to see any megafauna – the ocean is a big, big place after all. When we arrived at Manta Reef, we geared up, completed our safety check, and into the water we went!

As soon as we arrived to the bottom, we were surrounded with a massive school of Yellow Snappers and with 5 Potato Bass, as big as me! The dive proceeded well – we saw a Green Turtle, a Mantis Shrimp, a Dragon moray eel and hundreds of butterfly and surgeon fishes. Manta Reef was like an aquarium that day! But, unfortunately, no Mantas! But hey! We know the Mantas are around. I’m sure they had an appointment somewhere else that day!

Once on the way back, we looked over the edge of the boat for big Whale Shark shadows in the water. We didn’t give up searching the water for Whale Sharks until we returned to the beach, but our search was not fruitful.

We were so determined to find megafauna that day that, we went back out on the water on an ocean safari. As soon as we turned around the end of the point that bounds Tofo Bay, we found a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins! YAY!! We slipped into the water to swim with the dolphins. As you may already know, dolphins tend to tease you by swimming by and saying “look at me!”, then disappear as soon as they arrived. But not this group! This pod gave us an amazing encounter! The dolphins swam with us for more than 20 minutes! We took a few pictures, and then continued on our safari. The safari was pretty quiet after we spotted the dolphins. We saw a few tunas jumping, a few flying fishes, and then had a brief snorkeling stop at Praia de Rocha. On our way back to the beach, we took a water sample and enjoyed a beautiful sunset from the boat. We had a very nice day and I am thrilled to finally be back in the ocean!

On a sunny calm day in Tofo, Mozambique with two boats of volunteers, researchers and tourists we set off looking for sharks. The ocean was calm, the sun shining and the water warm…..already a perfect start. But the ocean is a very very big place, not just horizontally but vertically too resulting in huge volumes of space in which even the very largest shark in our ocean can manage to hide.

Researcher Volunteer Ankie, getting up close and personal with a Whale Shark

Leaving the shore behind we headed around the point of land protruding into the sea and began our search pattern in one of the most reliable areas of year-round whale shark occurrence on earth. But that said, we don’t find them every trip; this is the wild, not the zoo, which makes encounters less than certain, but all the more exciting. When we find and swim with animals in the ocean then they have the choice of whether to swim alongside you or not; both human and animal are choosing to be there.

After almost an hour on the water we spotted a shark! Small for this area at only around 4m in length, the whale shark can grow up to 20m and is the biggest fish in our ocean! Even this relatively little guy was easily half the length of our boat. Initially dropping into the water we noticed he was swimming through an area full of plankton resulting in bad visibility and not the best identification (ID) shots. Whale sharks have spot and stripe patterns which are as unique as your fingerprints and by taking clear images of their flanks we can work out which shark we have seen and, over time, track if, where and when we re-sight these individuals.

Checking out a boat propeller which had left a bubble trail.

Next time we got in the shark had swam to a considerably clearer less plankton-rich area and reduced in speed, resulting in fantastically clear ID shots and a great hour long swim alongside him! In fact, staying in the water with him while others got in and out, after a while some patterns in his behaviour started to emerge…..

As the boat approached he often chose to dive down for a short time, rising back up slowly once the boat had stopped. This makes sense as around the world myself and other whale sharks scientists are recording more and more injuries from boat propellers. If you want to stay in one piece then it makes sense to avoid large loud objects at the surface.
At the surface he started approaching some swimmers! Looping around in circles he was sometimes following them more than they were following him!!

Coming over to see what’s going on…

Occasionally he would swim away towards another boat and, staying and watching him through the unusually clear water I noticed he seemed to be swimming towards the bubble-trails created by the engines of the boats! In fact a couple of times he seemed to almost bunch up and jump like an excited puppy, launching himself through the water mouth-open into the stream of tiny bubbles created by the propellers and left hanging for a few moments near the surface. He was chasing bubbles!!

Heading towards some bubbles!

To test this I swam in the water off to the side of him, sometimes swimming normally, and sometimes twisting my fin to create bubbles…..every time I did this in his line of view he turned and started swimming towards me! Which then resulted in a hasty change to get out of the way of him as he used his mouth, evolved for filtering tiny zooplankton animals from the water column, to test my bubble for potential food.
This was the first time I had ever seen a whale shark chasing bubbles and been able to test the theory. After an amazing day on the water the AOA marine volunteers and I were able to return to the lab, upload the successful ID shots we had worked together to take and name this bubble-loving little guy as Whale shark MZ-688, a brand new shark to the global whale shark database!

sometimes Whale Sharks go up and down in the water column, we call it parabola diving.

As we change the oceans, so whale sharks need to adapt to the changes – our bubbles aren’t food and boat propellers can result in catastrophic injuries. The more we can discover about the biology and behaviour of the charismatic and enigmatic species the more we are able to protect them, preserve the areas important to their life history and manage sustainable interactions with them working towards ensuring their future. If you would like to help us, our All Out Africa Marine Research Centre door is always open….because we don’t have one!!

-Written by Katie Reeve-Arnold, Project Coordinator of the Marine Research & Whale Shark Conservation Project in Tofo, Mozambique

This teacher training initiative was to try to empower our volunteer teachers who work at the 6 neighbourhood care points (NCP’s) that we support. Our dream as All Out Africa is to turn these NCP’s into formal pre-schools, hence Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE) is a crucial stage in a child’s development. The training was not only to empower the teachers but also because the children deserve quality ECCE as the saying goes- Great teachers create great students!

These women persevere as they work against all odds under limited resources but because of the passion they have for the children they are still with us, so this training is to mentor and coach them in order to succeed in what they already do. I was joined by a volunteer in her 50’s from England her name is Cecilia. She made things so easy with her flamboyant character and loads of energy. She always brought this vava voom in the room while teaching us songs for music and movement. When the teachers lost focus she was quickly able to bring them back on track.
After 4 days of training the NCP teachers were awarded with certificates by the founder (Kim) they were so proud. Looking forward to 2017 and watching them further develop all that they have learnt whilst they were in the classroom!