Announcing the BCSS (Bazaruto Centre for Scientific Studies)
Announcing the Bazaruto Centre for Scientific Studies:The Bazaruto Centre for Scientific Studies was opened by Governor Dani Chapo of Inhambane Province in Mozambique, in December 2017.
Enjoy the following video clip…shot on site, in the Bazaruto Archipelago. By Dr. Mario Lebrato and his team.
The multi-faceted installation is a facility designed to facilitate all kinds of scientific studies and projects, including, but not limited to;
underwater observatory
sonic tagging of sharks
coral, water and plankton sampling and analysis
recycling of beach plastic
social improvement programs including swimming and ocean survival
gps mapping of sea life
PADI diving
Paying volunteers are invited to join in with these projects and the many more coming up. There are daily and weekly packages available on the newly launched BCSS website.
Prices are very reasonable from 75$/person/day including all (excluding some leisure items), and
include first-class cooking and catering by local Chef Fernando. Three meals a day are served.
Warm and cold drinks too. Don’t think it twice, this is a life-time experience.
Accommodation is in the real deal safari tents, or in single and double sharing rooms. The facility is built right on a beautiful beach and bay, on the north side of Benguerra Island. Views are over the channel to Bazaruto Island. A thousand shades of blue.
Volunteer activities will take up half your day, the other half you can swim, snorkel, hike, game view, fish…anything you please. There is a surcharge for activities involving boats or vehicles.
If you wanted to get on over to the very edge of the world, this is one very cool way of doing it. The prices are a fraction of what it would cost to stay on the highly exclusive Benguerra Island. And you get to do something and learn some cool things about how we can all help conserve the environment that we live in.
Bazaruto Centre for Scientific Studies
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Dr. Mario Lebrato and Callum Murie taking a small break from capturing and editing
Activities appeal to all ages really, but it’s the get-up and go type of volunteer we are looking for!
Bazaruto Centre for Scientific Studies Website
The BCSS website has recently been launched. Take a look at the following link:
BCSS Underwater Obervatory Project: The first ‘croc couta comes in for a real close look but turns away right the last second. There are two of the +-20kg class fish circling the live bait with piqued interest. In a flash the hapless bonito has its tail sliced off. Blood streams out. Another fish circles and bang! The couta comes from in from below and chomps into the bait. Vas! But somehow he misses the hooks and another guy comes in and finishes off.
This action is all part of the Bazaruto Centre for Scientific Studies’ (BCSS) Dr. Mario Lebrato’s long-term ocean observatory project. One of only a handful worldwide, Dr. Lebrato is set to deploy a multifaceted underwater monitoring system. Cameras, sensors and a myriad of other sampling equipment will be installed all over the Bazaruto Archipelago. For long-term data recording and analysis.
Luckily, part of these underwater observations includes predator fish kill behavior. Trolling tow cams on marlin dredges and teasers, and right in front of live baits, is opening a huge new three dimensional perspective of a mostly viewed in 2D wake and prop wash. What goes on down there is gob-smacking. So many fish come in interested, but then shy away at the last minute, and move on. In fact, the plentiful and ever-present Zambezi shark is far more careful than the aggressive king mackerel. Tuna seem to be the most suspicious so far. Cobia are also wily characters. Talang queenfish get super excited about a live bait, but will not touch it! Then it grabs a lure! Amazing revelations about fish learning and behaviour.
Wait ’til you see the Zambies following the boat!!!
The hours and hours of material recorded will go back to Europe for careful analysis and processing into data.
Are you looking for a Holiday Home in Tofo? Check out Casa Frenzy…
Outside kitchen
Casa Frenzy – your Holiday Home in Tofo
Casa Frenzy is a fantastic house to host parties in. Your favourite Holiday Home in Tofo
Another colourful sunset saturates the scene on the way to Casa Frenzy
Literally hidden behind the primary dune and in the bush
Another comfy seating area that doubles as a sleeper, with mozzie net. Casa Franzy
Shot by The Frenzy herself, from the backline way out off the front
Casa Frenzy is a super cool and big enough house for diving and surfing families – who want to take a relaxing break in a Holiday Home in Tofo
Ideally situated on the shoreline only a few clicks north of the marvelous Praia do Tofo beach and partying town. Casa Frenzy is set snugly into the indigenous vegetation directly behind the primary beach dune. It’s a 100 meter walk and you are in the warm clear Indian Ocean. Swimming or snorkeling your time away.
Then you might be prepared to hit the deep blue, and jump with the whale sharks, mantas, and dolphins that Tofo has become internationally known for. The reefs and ocean life in Tofo are rich and fascinating. There are heaps of reefs and dive spots between far Barra in the north, and Manta Reef, in the south. In between these two extremes, must be 20 named scuba spots.
Enjoy this cool video by ArtSurfer, shot by Renske Massing, with underwater companion Zito, a little while ago – in December 2017.
More about the enthralling town of Tofo…
Loads of dive centres to choose from
snorkelling or scuba
surf lessons for beginners and advanced
Island trips and dhow travels
Beachcombing
sport angling
vehicle and boat rental
Inhambane City visits
nightlife
local and international cuisine
fresh seafood daily
fresh foods grown right in Tofo
Coconuts and cashews
Tipo Tinto Rum and 2M cerveja
There are really so many things for everybody to do in and around the Praia do Tofo area. The Inhambane Bay allures with it’s enchanted islands and purple blue channels. Complete peace and quiet and accessible to everybody in the family or tour group. The swimming and snorkeling at Barra is terrific and you may even become a close acquaintance with a little seahorse or two.
So click on over to our newly updated Casa Frenzy page and connect through the easy as form…
Tofo Beach, Inhambane, Southern Mozambique: Well it’s always great to be invited to ZanziBeach right on Tofo Beach. Especially on days when master creative in the kitchen and restaurant owner Rui, is working on a new dish.
Açorda de Camarão
Well prawns are prawns are prawns. Or are they?
Well the prawns that Rui and the team in the Zanzi kitchen produced this day were certainly different.
ZanziBeach is right on Tofo Beach
The different angles of ZanziBeach
Tofo Zombies can often be spotted at ZanziBeach
Praia do Tofo
Cold, cold beer, remember that I’m right here…by The Roosta
Without divulging the secret recipe to all…the healthy serving of prawns is served in a delicious stock infused prawn sauce. And comes with a raw egg right smack bang in the middle of it. Which cooks into the hot meal as it is stirred right in.
Rich and filling. Tasty and colourful.
Zanzi serves a handsome bowl for 400 Mets. Or does a three-person serving for 1000 Mets.
The beer is always cold down at Zanzi. And all the really good wines we get around here, are available. Some great Portuguese imported flavours. And the ever tasty South African styles. The smoothies and cocktail variations thereof will keep you refreshed and full of bounce.
The views of Tofo Beach right from your table are the best in town. And the Tofo Mercado is a short walk away. It’s a great spot to take your family, when on holiday, and treat them to some real Portuguese table fare.
Fresh in from Bazaruto Island: Captain Duarte Rato has been hard at all February, and rounds it all off with a fantastic trip he got together with his Dad and his son. Spanning three generations, the effort was serious enough, but with the help of Duarte Jnr’s mom Gretha, those yellowfin were really in deep trouble!
“As all who fish with us know my Dad, Jose Duarte, is a true salt, a real old man of the sea who spent his life in the Ocean, mostly on commercial vessels. He took me to sea from a very young age and, from a very early stage in my life, when my friends wanted to be Doctors, or fireman, or engineers, I knew I wanted to be a charter Captain. My oldest son, Duarte, who just turned 5, as definitely inherited the passion of the sea from us. Or should I say obsession! The boy dreams fishing, watches fishing videos as opposed to cartoons, spends huge amounts of time looking at my BlueWater, Ski-boat and Marlin Magazines and, at five, can easily identify between a Blue, a Black and a Striped!”
The yellowfin tuna have also made an appearance of Tofo recently. Acres of birds enjoying the feast of small sardine-like fishies all over the place right now. Judging by some of the smashes going on, visible over a few kilometres even, there were some big fish on the hunt. Voracious attacks on the surface!
In the backline at Tofinho were the bonefish again. They looked like they could have been spawning as every now and then one lolled over another and a flash of underbelly was occasionally seen. Very cool to see them all so tightly knit and floating along just shy of the waves. If they were not spawning, then I am not sure what they were getting up to?! And no, they were not lemonfish!
Along the beach at Fatimas the bonefish pros were baiting up with prawn and squid and getting a handful of foot longs each. These guys just seem to know exactly when and where these fish decide to show up. This was a few days ago, as a front came through.
The markets are overloaded with lovely gamefish like couta, kingfish and tuna. The weather has been crappy, but aytime the row boats get themselves out there, they bring back nice fish.
Catching Yellowfin Tuna in Mozambique
Well the biggest one caught up in these tropical waters here so far, has to be this 72kg monster, by Duarte and crew, taken on a marlin rig, a few years ago. This fish caused quite a stir, as on this same day, they were all over the place. These huge yellowfin tuna, out of nowhere! And on a mission to smash into everything they could. Luckily this fish held on right to the end. Quite a few got away!
This is the biggest Yellowfin Tuna caught in mozambique by anyone we know. Yes Captain Duarte Rato again!
At around the same time, bigger class yellowfin tuna were being encountered up and down the East Coast seaboard of Southern Africa. Even Durban got a fish over 50kg’s. A new club record for all the years of that clubs existence.
Traditionally, yellowfin tuna just don’t hang in these tropical and warmer waters at all. Once they reach sexual maturity, which is 35 to 40kgs, they shoot over the horizon and into the “tuna lanes”.
But, tuna, all of the species, are well known for their feeding patterns. They can stick to a regimen like clockwork, often traversing hundreds of kilometres in a day as they migrate between feeding spots. Feeding spots that these highly intelligent fish know are going to produce at those times. And they can change feeding habits and patterns, completely.
Bluefin tuna used to use False Bay as one of their spots. These fish were most likely Southern Bluefin, which we still get in quite prolific numbers, right off our coast. The Transkei Wild Coast regularly sees legal longliners from Japan, there are two of them, catching Southern Bluefin Tuna, within cellphone signal distance from shore. These ships are based out of Durban and can be monitored on any AIS app, anytime. They catch serious fish. Billfish and Southern Bluefin. but the Bluefin that vacated False Bay in the seventies – have never come back!
Weirdly enough, Bluefin started pitching up off Ireland a while back. After a very long absence. Local anglers were amazed to see these huge fish coming right up to them, as they plied their regular fishing techniques right offshore. Soon, these guys were posting online, questions on how to catch Bluefin Tuna. And sure enough, they caught quite a few!
So the influx of bigger tuna to these shallower and more tropical waters, could be seen as an adjustment to their feeding patterns. An adjustment to the adjustments made as so many variables have to line up for natural events like sardine runs to occur.
So tackle up this next season. Keep that heavy duty popper at the ready!
