Adopt a Humpback Whale

Why adopt a humpback whale?

Every winter, humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) visit Mozambique's Bazaruto Seascape, and they can be seen breaching on the horizon. When you adopt a humpback whale through the Marine Megafauna Foundation (MMF), you support the team protecting the waters these whales pass through.

Humpbacks are also proof of what protection can do. After fieldwork in Australia in 2024, where he watched thousands of humpback whales migrate past, MMF co-founder Dr. Simon Pierce wrote that the whales, almost wiped out by the 1960s, are nearly back to pre-whaling numbers. In his words: "Turns out, we just needed to stop killing them."

The whales' winter waters are shared with threatened sharks, rays, sea turtles, and dugongs. Fishing along Mozambique's Inhambane coast has increased sharply, much of it with non-selective gillnets, and has contributed to steep declines in manta and devil rays, whale sharks, sea turtles, and dugongs. Humpbacks are caught in those nets too: a 2022 review of the western Indian Ocean notes that information is limited, but that stranding reports and bycatch records show humpback whales entangled in gillnets off Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa, and Mayotte. Substantial areas of the province remain unprotected and unmonitored.

About humpback whales

MMF does not run a humpback whale research project. Humpback whales are mammals, and they reach lengths similar to whale sharks, the largest fish, but are far heavier.

Mozambique's Inhambane Province is used by numerous species of cetaceans. Besides the winter visitors to the Bazaruto Seascape, humpback whales visit Závora Bay, MMF's southernmost site, in season, and Závora is an important habitat for them.

How your humpback whale adoption helps

MMF does not run a humpback whale project. Your humpback whale adoption supports MMF's work as a whole, including our Migratory Species Program and our work in the Bazaruto Seascape in Mozambique, where MMF scientists have worked since 2013 and Dr. Clare Prebble leads the program today. Reducing gillnet use in critical habitat, the focus of our work with local fishers, can also benefit the whales that winter along this coast.

In the Bazaruto Seascape, that work includes:

• Marine protected areas. We work with the managers and rangers of Bazaruto Archipelago National Park, created in 1971 as one of Mozambique's first marine protected areas, and its neighbor, The Sanctuary (Santuário Bravio de Vilanculos). In 2023, MMF data helped secure two IUCN Important Shark and Ray Areas covering both.
• Monitoring. A network of acoustic receivers runs roughly 400 km (250 miles) along the coast, from Závora to Bazaruto Island, following tagged sharks and rays. In 2025 the team also completed 158 baited camera deployments in the seascape.
• Working with fishers. With The Sanctuary and the local community fishing council, we are working to establish a protected no-netting area, supported by patrol boats, trained rangers, and a ranger camp, and since late 2025 local fishers have been training in selective handline fishing. Through Sustainable Seas, 90 Ocean Ambassadors work in seven fishing communities.
• Education. Ocean Guardians, our UNESCO-recognized program, teaches marine conservation, swimming, and water safety. Since 2012, 6,220 children have graduated from its curriculum.