Mozambique · Since 2015
Sustainable Seas
Helping fishing communities on Mozambique's Inhambane coast manage their own fishing grounds and protect threatened marine life.
Sustainable Seas helps fishing communities on Mozambique’s Inhambane coast manage their own fishing grounds. Since 2015, we have worked with community fisheries councils, local leaders, and government partners so that families can keep fishing while threatened marine life is protected.
Inhambane Province is a global hotspot for more than 30 threatened species of sharks and rays, including manta rays and whale sharks. Fishing supplies around 40% of the animal protein Mozambicans eat, and many coastal families depend on it; the communities themselves have raised concerns about gill nets set on reefs and in fish breeding areas. We train local conservation leaders, support community fisheries councils, work with the fisheries authorities, and help fishing families develop other sources of income. Today the program concentrates on community education, on helping fishers bring their concerns to government, and on supporting fisheries enforcement. Our Ocean Guardians program teaches the children of the same communities.
What we've done
- Trained 90 Ocean Ambassadors, local conservation leaders working in seven communities across four coastal districts: Tofo, Barra, and Rocha (Inhambane), Morrungulo (Massinga), Vuca and Fequete (Inhassoro), and, since 2025, Závora (Inharrime). In 2025 they gave 140 community talks, reaching 5,867 people, about 40% of them fishers, and collected 1,114.7 kilograms (2,457.5 pounds) of plastic waste from the beaches.
- Brought communities and government around one table. The Ocean Ambassadors’ 2025 annual advocacy meeting in Inhambane City brought together more than 100 people, including provincial government partners, fishers, and community leaders, to discuss putting the rules for community-managed fishing areas into practice.
- Supported the accreditation of 15 community fisheries inspectors in 2025, from the Community Fisheries Councils of Tofo, Barra, and Rocha, in partnership with the Maritime Administration, the District Services for Economic Activities, and the Coastal Police. They trained alongside 30 Coastal Police officers in identifying protected marine species and applying fisheries law, and by the end of 2025 inspectors and police were patrolling the beaches together.
- Equipped the Coastal Police and the community inspectors, and donated an all-terrain quad bike, with fuel, to the Tofo Coastal Police. In 2025, signs showing protected marine species were installed at the landing sites on Tofo, Barra, and Rocha beaches, in partnership with the Maritime Administration and the National Fisheries Administration.
- Led a water safety and rescue course in Inhambane in September 2026 for the Coastal Police and the community fisheries councils, training ten Coastal Police inspectors and six council members, and donated rescue equipment, from life jackets and buoyancy aids to waterproof flashlights and ropes, to the Tofo Coastal Police unit.
- Began community catch monitoring for sharks and rays in 2026, in the whale shark hotspots identified by our aerial survey of the Inhambane coast. Nine meetings with fishing councils and Ocean Ambassador groups reached about 50 fishers, and six fishers at Praia da Rocha, close to the hotspot south of Tofinho, have committed to recording their catches. Nineteen Ocean Ambassadors completed a refresher course in catch monitoring, with government fisheries staff attending as observers.
- Created new livelihoods for 33 fishing families. In 2025 we set up an aquaponic garden in Tofo, which raises fish and vegetables together in a single system; it is the first of its kind in Inhambane District and supports 11 families. An 800-square-meter (8,600-square-foot) greenhouse in Rocha supports 12 families, and an egg cooperative in Barra supports ten, with its hens laying more than 10,800 eggs in the last three months of 2025.
- Helped 206 people, 67% of them women, save together in 10 village savings and loan groups, whose cumulative savings reached 1,237,265 meticais (Mozambique’s currency) in 2025.
- Supported the Barra Community Fisheries Council, with government backing, in closing a reef to fishing for six months, from August 2021 to February 2022.
- Supported construction of a community center in Morrungulo, which was nearing completion at the end of 2025 and will host Ocean Ambassador talks, Ocean Guardians activities, and community meetings.
Support our work with fishing communities
Your gift supports the Ocean Ambassadors' community talks, the training and equipment behind joint beach patrols, and the livelihood projects and savings groups that help fishing families build other sources of income.
How the program works
Community-managed fishing areas
We work with Community Fisheries Councils, which represent local fishers, advise the provincial and national government, and help manage local fishing grounds. Mozambique’s 2020 fisheries regulations created a framework for community-managed fishing areas, including areas closed to fishing. We support the councils with training and meetings, have helped them with legal registration and exchange visits to other fishing communities, and help them work with district and provincial authorities. In Barra, the council closed a reef to fishing for six months in 2021 and 2022. From 2019 to 2022, WCS Mozambique provided technical support for monitoring and enforcement in the community-managed areas.
Ocean Ambassadors
Ocean Ambassadors are local conservation leaders, including fishers and council members. The program began with 12 ambassadors in 2017 and had trained 90 by the end of 2025. They give talks in local languages, lead beach cleanups, take part in local radio programs, and bring community concerns to government meetings. Across our community programs, we aim for half of participants to be women.
Ocean Ambassadors in the community
Enforcement, with the authorities
We support training and provide equipment for community fisheries inspectors and Coastal Police officers. The inspectors were accredited in partnership with the Maritime Administration, the District Services for Economic Activities, and the Coastal Police. By the end of 2025, inspectors and police were patrolling together in Tofo, Barra, and Rocha. Our government partners also include the National Fisheries Administration, with which we installed the protected-species signs at the landing beaches.
New livelihoods
Alternative livelihoods are intended to reduce families’ dependence on fishing, while village savings and loan groups give families a way to save and borrow. The aquaponic garden in Tofo, a greenhouse in Rocha, and an egg cooperative in Barra provide food and income, and we help young adults find vocational training for jobs beyond fishing.
Where we work
The program works in seven communities in four districts of Inhambane Province: Tofo, Barra, and Rocha (Inhambane District), Morrungulo (Massinga), Vuca and Fequete (Inhassoro), and, since 2025, Závora (Inharrime), where MMF also runs a research center. Our Ocean Guardians education program runs in several of the same communities. Our shark and ray research works in the same coastal waters, from the Elasmobranch Census, a survey of the province’s sharks and rays, to the acoustic tracking network that follows tagged animals along the coast.
Read more in Genaye Domenico’s 2022 Ocean Giants article, Creating Ocean Ambassadors.
With thanks to the Embassy of Ireland for supporting this work. We also thank the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Fondation Ensemble, the Turing Foundation, and the European Outdoor Conservation Association for supporting earlier phases. The Born Free Foundation funded the program’s first years.
Martinho Saide Pedro
Elton Tivane
Joaquim dos Santos
Gina Alface
Mozambique Ocean Guardians Education Program
Mozambique Manta & Devil Ray Research Project
Mozambique Whale Shark Project