It’s been an interesting past 6 months for the team as we still remain land bound in the southern most reaches of Mozambique. You can listen to our founder Angie Gullen discuss the lockdown here.
We anticipate to start launching again in the first week of October and hope to get the end of the humpback whale migration and start collecting data on our local dolphins of Ponta again!
Our stranding project was kept busy during this time with two spotted dolphins stranded together on July 21, one deceased pregnant female and a juvenile male who sadly passed away on an attempt to re-float. On August 6, a deceased spinner dolphin was brought in. All individuals were measured up, sampled and buried for later reconstruction.
September 19th marked the International Coastal Clean-Up Day. This is an annual event which works in partnership with the Ocean Conservancy, Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve and the Peace Parks Foundation. It was attended by members of the local community, experts and operators as well as the Keep Ponta Clean team initiative. Volunteers collected almost 1500kg of debris off the beach, covering roughly 40km. Nearly 10,000 items were recorded with plastic caps and lids leading the haul (3346 pieces), followed by pieces of plastic (1819 pieces) and plastic beverage bottles (820). Amongst other items, plastic lighters, pieces of rope and glass bottles were also found.
Going forwards we anticipate travel to be open in the coming month and we will start taking placements for volunteers and interns from November, as well as small group retreats to meet and engage with our local dolphins!
To get in touch, please contact connect@dolphinencountours.org
