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Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies (BCSS)

@bcssmz

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Ocean Observatory in Africa & the Indian Ocean 🌊
🔬 Research Station
📊 Data sharing
🤿 PADI 5* Dive Center
🌍 Environmental management

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22 million measurements. 200,000+ minutes of underwater sound. 100,000+ biodiversity records. None of them, on its own, explains the ocean.

As a marine engineer, I know the temptation: better sensors, better answers. This work reinforced something else for me: the answers come from what you connect, across ecosystems and over years.

That is what the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies (BCSS) Ocean Observatory in Mozambiques Bazaruto Archipelago has been building since 2017: 14 long-term stations, six interconnected ecosystems, and 30+ variables.

I’m proud to be a co-author of the new Frontiers in Marine Science paper and to have contributed through the marine-plastics program, including polymer-class time series and size spectra linked to surrounding environmental conditions.

The 10,000+ kg of marine debris recovered became part of a much wider scientific record. The information is organized into 21 open-access datasets covering physical-chemical parameters, biogeochemistry, biodiversity, acoustics and pollution.

Together, they provide a long-term baseline for studying climate variability, carbon cycling, biodiversity, fisheries, marine pollution and human impacts.
That is what long-term observation makes possible, moving beyond snapshots to understand what is actually changing.

Thank you to Dr. Mario Lebrato and all co-authors. Special mention to the Benguerra Island Community also recognized as a collective author.

Read the paper:

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2026.1821923/full

#BlueResilience #OceanObservation #Plasticdata #MarineResearch

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Moray eels spend most of the time tucked away into crevices, caves and well-hidden places. They remind us that it is sometimes necessary to retreat from the world into a private sanctuary to recharge.

You can also recharge by taking part in my “Ocean Mind, Ocean Life” retreat co-hosted by the Bazaruto Centre for Scientific Studies in their stunningly located base in the renowned Bazaruto Archipelago.

In this unique retreat, we focus on a gentle introduction to mindfulness practice and how our thoughts often get in our way. Our worries, judgments and opinions obscure the beauty of the present moment, so you will explore the nature of our mind with gentle mindfulness practices and embody all of this in daily diving sessions.

Not only that, but you will be assisting BCSS in their great work in conserving and protecting this unique marine environment. You might even be able to help with some of their research!

DM for more information #mindfulness #meditation #retreat #diving #bazaruto

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God’s plans > my plans. 🩵 
A few years ago I was not sure I would ever feel well again. Chronic Lyme has a way of making you question everything. Your body. Your future. The life you had mapped out for yourself. 
This year I dove with tiger sharks 🦈 in the Maldives. Swam with turtles 🐢 in Mauritius. Watched dolphins 🐬 hunt on the sardine run.

Two years out the other side and I still cannot quite believe it. 🤯

Living with a chronic illness is not linear and I get reminded of that every now and again. But what I have learned is this, trust. Even when you cannot see the plan 👀. Especially then.

Because the Big Man always has something better in mind than what I was holding onto.

I don’t know what 2027 has in store. But I cannot wait!

What are you trusting Him with right now? 👇🏽

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- A window in the reef -

Exploring the reef with @bcssmz has been absolutely incredible 🤿

#mozambique #benguerraisland #scubadiving

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July 10, 2026

One of the best days of my life😫😫😫!!!! We woke up reallll early to go diving on the northern coast of Bazaruto. We did our first dive at site called 3 Trees! My first deep dive site in Mozambique, at around 28–35 meters. My first dive here, it was beautiful and full of cleaning stations, with hundreds of anthias. We got to see so many lion fish and eels, as well as large schools of trevallies. However the larger pelagic species that are often spotted there, were no where to be seen this time. We then started our surface interval after our dive. We spotted whales in the distance🥹🥹🥹 such gentle giants. We then saw some commotion on the surface in another direction - a bait ball. Terns diving down like fighter jets, breaching the surface tension to find their silvery treasures. Anyone with knowledge of a food web will know or anyone that has seen those documentaries recording the marvels of South Africa’s sardine run, that where there’s activity on the surface, likely mackerel or tuna predating on smaller fish, with birds shooting like rockets, that maybe something else is underneath the surface. The windy air was cold on our wetsuits and skin. However if you know me, you know I’m always hungry for adventure and more, and that any opportunity to jump into the water, I’ll take it. No one else wanted to get cold or wet again before our second dive of the day. I said “you never know” and of course I was fresh into Mozambique with an excitement that never faded thankfully. Anyways I’m swimming towards the bait ball looking to see if I could see the schools of fish. Being in the marvelous endless expanse of ocean btw is enough to light my soul on my fire with gratitude and joy. So I’m there swimming with my eyes peeled behind my mask, trying to keep up with the fish, when all of a sudden I spot a massive shark. I remember being confused thinking it was a shark with a fish in its mouth horizontally. I looked out and yelled to my compadres on the boat “shaaaaark!” I looked back at the shark and realize the unimaginable, a sighting I never expected, a hammerhead shark!!!!!! First and only time I’ve ever seen one in my life. So grateful!

At the end of

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How life feels like when you decide to stay at @bcssmz 💙🪸🔬🦈

#BCSS #mozambique #benguerraisland #bazarutoarchipelago

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🌊 Beach clean-up! 🧤

Every week scientific trainees of Bazaruto Centre for Scientific Studies (BCSS) come together for a beach clean-up, in which they clean up the shoreline, one piece of trash at a time. But here’s the thing, this isn’t just a random cleanup. Every bit of debris that is collected gets sorted, weighed, and logged 📊

Why bother with all that extra work? Because that data actually goes somewhere. Scientists use it to figure out where all this trash is coming from, what types of debris show up most, and how things change over time.

Fun fact: Back in 1992, around 29,000 plastic bath toys (yes, rubber ducks included 🦆) fell overboard from a cargo ship in the Pacific. Oceanographers tracked them for years as they drifted, some washed up in Alaska, others even made it all the way to the Atlantic. It became one of the most famous real-life studies of ocean currents.

Doing this weekly, across different sites, is what makes it useful! One cleanup is nice, but consistent tracking is what actually moves the needle.

#BeachCleanup #MarineDebris #OceanConservation #ProtectOurOcean #marinebiology

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For the second consecutive year, Kisawa has been awarded Two Keys in the MICHELIN Guide.

On the eve of our 5th anniversary, we send special congratulations to the entire Kisawi & @bcssmz teams. Maintaining this exceptional recognition requires a huge amount of dedication, focus & our signature; service from the heart.

Thank you @michelinguide for visiting our home on Benguerra Island, Mozambique.

📷 Teo on the Baracca dune, by @tanveerbadal

#twomichelinkeys #michelinkey #michelinguide

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Days 2-3 🥹🥹🥹 literally on my first spatial mapping (ie marine megafauna surveys) we got to snorkel (and try to keep up with) a pod of ~15-20 dolphins!!!!!! Truly life changing.
So PSA, bottlenose dolphins are reaaaally fast swimmers!!!!! Fr though it was so magical to see them underwater, that was my first time and I am so grateful. It was quite strange to see them looking up at us while we looked down to them. They were equally curious and again the eye contact was real!!! All of this amidst the sandy seabed, which I love gazing upon, seeing the serene and seeming effortless artistry with which the ocean impeccably resets the sand dunes, with their graceful dunes. Sometimes snorkeling over sand can be equally rewarding and remarkable as over a reef! Of course the ultra turquoise and jade water equally conquers my heart and fills me with relief. It was the greatest start to my marine adventure I could ever ask for. The excitement and jitters I got (here and in all the future encounters), generated by the chance of spotting megafauna, and the dance between “can we and can we not enter the water”, awaiting the safe go ahead from our skipper, was mystical, and undoubtedly and incessantly brings out the inner child, whose soul you are feeding. That innate connection with nature that resides in all of us, ironically enabled by capitalism’s gains, spoken through the language of privilege that allowed me to witness nature from a young age within classrooms, endless novels and atlases and field guides, and mostly travel, that capitalism later attempts to stamp out of teenagers and adults, al hamdulilah thrives within me and shall never give in. Inshallah, no luxury or asset should ever trump out the joy of marveling in nature’s evolutionary gifts. I desire a world in which our global and local connection with nature triumphs and ofc the irony is that to travel and witness all these treasures is inherently a privileged life under our the system currently ruling and consuming the world.

Subsea dolphin birdies courtesy of @louis_pattyn

#benguerra #mozambique #bcss #bcssmz #dolphins

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Alllll of these are from my first day in paradise. 😩😩😩I miss it so much. The wind, the still air, the soft kiss of the low sun, the warmth on my cheeks, the salt on my back, the salty hair, the turquoise lagoon, the seagrass peaking through the ripples, the deep blue ocean, the boat rides that sometimes felt like rollercoasters and other times like front row seats to god, los delfines saltando, y las ballenas majestuosas, the bush, the daily gazing upon flocks of cormorants and darters, the chorus of bee eaters, sunbirds, and bulbuls, I miss Donna Ana’s cooking, the xiboubous😩 and the matapas, I miss post dive showers, I miss the banter, the long walks through the hills, I miss the crocodiles, the endless abundance of herons and egrets, I miss the black kites, I miss the joy of being in the heart of it, I miss the mangroves, the kingfishers, the mud on my feet, I miss the reef, I miss the diving (duh) and the sharks, all 6 species I was lucky enough to see, the manta rays, the hornbills, the little lizards and the geckos. But most of all, I miss the adventure, the routine, the exercise, and the friends I made, the community, their laughs, their smiles, their shared amazement at all our wildlife encounters and blessings. I miss the long walks on the beach on my own and with the habibis. I miss the totally surrounding music created by the crashing waves that envelop me with peace and feed my eyes with endless blue and my soul with excitement and fear, that light a fire under my bum to do more for the ocean and all those who really on it in a natural and non exploitative way. Inshallah I will get the privilege to return to Benguerra one day, and equally, I hope to visit many more islands and scuba dive in new environments with more friends and critters.

Getting on the plane in Joburg!

Scenes over the mudflat outside VK.

Probably the prettiest landing of my life.

Touchdown in Mozambique!!!

Immediately in love with the seascape.

My first cormieeee🥹!

Big smileeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Room tour

Suni

Olive bee eater

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Aaaaaa!!! Im so excited to share that I am officially a certified @paditv Divemaster!!! This summer, I did my Divemaster training at Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies @bcssmz, on the Mozambican island of Benguerra. I spent two months doing the challenging course, whilst contributing to BCSS’s research through fish, bird, and megafauna surveys, coral lab work, and weekly beach clean-ups and pollution sampling. Out there, I wrote prolifically, however now, It is overwhelming to think of the conveying the mammoth diversity of emotions and beauty I got to gaze upon, in text. I am beyond thankful.

I laughed till I cried countless times with George and @dercio_maoze . I cried from the serene beauty and heavenly encounters I was graced with. I cried from heartache and healing, from growth, and from divinity. I bled from wee cuts and scrapes and I am adorned with new scars to tell of my adventures. I sweat from lifting tanks, bird surveying at noon with my habibti sister master birder @meredith.rohn , doing abs, and trying to keep up with @louis_pattyn while running down beaches in Mozambique. I sweat (a crap ton) from mistakenly exercising after taking Sudafed and thinking I was going to die (I’m never dramatic). I was rendered speechless many times, especially with our last humpback whale encounter, which was exhilarating, and epic to share with @nyangumiznz ! I was so lucky to be joined by another divemaster candidate on my last week @anne.m_kl , who made those final memories all the more special, and proved to be a terrific snorkeling & diving buddy, and fellow adventurer!

I am massively grateful for having two remarkable instructors @sea_lion_nelson and Sinda, for delivering the course spectacularly and for involving us in the day-to-day running of the dive center. They showed me the challenges and solutions that arise in areas ranging from equipment maintenance to customer service.

I’ll take all the wildlife encounters, marine and terrestrial, into the warmth of my heart and the depth of my soul, forever. I’ll always cherish the eye contact with bull sharks and humpbacks. I am proud for pulling through, for asking for it, for doing it. 🥹🫶🏼🥰🐳

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