Love the Oceans

Love the Oceans is a non-profit marine conservation organisation working in Guinjata Bay, Mozambique since 2014. Guinjata Bay, whilst home to a huge host of marine life, has never been studied in depth for any prolonged amount of time. Love The Oceans hopes to protect and study the diverse marine life found here, including many species of sharks, rays and the famous humpback whales. We use research, education and diving to drive action towards a more sustainable future. Our ultimate goal is to establish a Marine Protected Area for the Inhambane Province in Mozambique, achieving higher biodiversity whilst protecting endangered species.

We offer a cutting edge, ethically sound, volunteer program that gives individuals the chance to work along side our marine biologists and the local community, helping with conservation, through research, education and diving over a 2 – 6 week period at our beautiful beach front base. Whether you are an early career scientist, need a break from your desk job, a gap year student or just passionate about marine conservation, volunteering with Love The Oceans will be a life changing experience.

We focus on coral reefs, fisheries and humpback whales, which means you will gain a range of field research skills that will carry you forward in your career and build your CV. The research we carry out is new and exciting as no data has ever been collected in Guinjata Bay before. All of the data that Love the Oceans volunteers collect is used to lobby for a marine protected area, a shift towards more sustainable fisheries and for the recognition of humpback whales as a valuable marine ecotourism resource for the area. Furthermore, we offer university students the opportunity to use the data they collect and our historic data sets for their final year dissertations.

Love the Oceans is a small, young organisation based in one location. As a volunteer this provides the opportunity to work alongside the founder and managing director, Francesca Trotman and the local community in a rural, third word country. This also means we have a closer relationship with the community we work with.

Here’s what some of our past volunteers say about their experiences on the Love The Oceans volunteer program:

“Volunteering for Love The Oceans (LTO) has been one of the best experiences of my life. The passion of everyone in the organisation is inspiring and creates a great atmosphere in a wonderful part of the world. The programme gives you opportunities to gain a wealth of skills and experience in a wide range of fields associated with conservation biology that I have used innumerable times since and whilst working with the local community it is easy to see the positive impact that LTO has. LTO gave me the opportunity to form friendships with people from all around the world that share the same passion for the oceans that I do and helped me encounter marine life that I never thought I would. The first time I volunteered with LTO in 2015 I had such a great time and met so many good people that it was inevitable that I would return and it was inspiring to see the amount of work that had taken place in my absence and help achieve future goals. I couldn’t recommend LTO highly enough to anyone.”

“If you are sitting on the fence about whether LTO is for you, I stood in your position wondering if I should take the chance and honestly taking that chance has been the biggest pay-off of my life. It’s an indispensable experience where you get to meet amazing people in an equally amazing environment. At the end you’ll be sad to leave but when you get on that plane you’ll feel that you have made a real impact to the cause and that you played an active and important role in LTO.”

“My time with LTO was undoubtedly one of the best experiences of my life. An incredible place to learn to dive and really see some of the beauty of the ocean; a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the wonders it has to offer. The practical skills and hands on experience have been invaluable in setting me apart from other students applying for university, helping me secure my offers. The program also helped me to grow and mature by allowing me to discover a passion and convinced me to go into a career in conservation. I met some great people, making some friends for life; the benefits of the programme are numerous and have had a hugely profound effect on my life, and I am sure it will on yours too. LTO is a wonderful organisation doing truly good work with the local community setting them far above and beyond any other similar organisations, and I cannot recommend them enough, especially for anyone interested in biology or conservation, or simply to broaden their horizons and do something new and amazing. I cannot wait to go back and do the Divemaster Internship!”