FAQs

Safety is the thing we never improvise. Every in-water activity is run to recognised dive-safety standards with trained staff, surface cover and first-aid-qualified team members on site. We brief you fully before you get in the water, and nothing about our fieldwork requires you to push past what you’re comfortable with. The nearest hospital and our emergency procedures are covered in your pre-departure pack.

It depends on the programme. Most of our fieldwork (megafauna ID, community work, beach and reef surveys) needs no certification. The 5-Week Marine Professional Development and Thesis programmes need a PADI Open Water (or equivalent) — you can certify before you travel, and we’ll tell you exactly what’s accepted. Several programmes offer a dive upgrade on arrival.

That’s most of the people who come. Week one is proper onboarding — training, safety, and getting to know the team and the bay before any real work starts. Cohorts are small (often eight or fewer) so no one gets lost in the group.

You’ll need standard travel vaccinations for Mozambique and anti-malarial cover; we send a checklist to take to your travel clinic. You’ll also need travel insurance that covers your activities. We’ll tell you precisely what “covers your activities” means for your programme.

Love The Oceans is a registered charity (no. 1184402). Your programme fee covers your stay and your training, and the surplus goes directly into the work you’re taking part in: local salaries, the school ocean-literacy and swimming programmes, and our long-term research and Marine Protected Area proposal for Jangamo Bay. You’re not a customer — you’re funding and doing the work.

The data you collect (reef surveys, megafauna sightings, fisheries catch records) goes into datasets Love The Oceans has been building for years, and into the evidence base for a proposed Marine Protected Area. It is real, long-running science — not busywork designed to fill a week.

Included: accommodation, three meals a day, all research training and equipment, in-water safety, programme activities and local transfers, and mentoring from marine biologists. Not included: international flights (to Inhambane INH or Maputo MPM), visa, travel insurance, any pre-trip dive certification, and personal spending money.

We know the cost is significant, and we’d always rather you asked than counted yourself out. Get in touch about staged payments and any bursary options for the current season.

Roughly: mornings on the water or shoreline collecting data (reef surveys, whale and whale-shark ID, fisheries monitoring), afternoons on community work — teaching ocean literacy and running swimming lessons in Jangamo — with training, talks and data entry woven through. It’s a working week, not a resort day.

No. Some programmes are aimed at marine-science students and career-changers, but several are open to anyone 18+ with no science background. We train you in the methods you’ll use.

For many people it has. The 5-Week programme is built around professional development, the Thesis Programme supports postgraduate dissertation fieldwork with supervision and data access, and alumni leave with reference letters, an alumni network and internship pathways.

Fly into Inhambane (INH) or Maputo (MPM), Mozambique; we’ll guide you through the connection and arrange your transfer from there. Full travel logistics are in your pre-departure pack.

Beachfront accommodation (shared or private depending on the programme) and three chef-prepared meals a day. Tell us your dietary requirements — vegetarian, gluten-free, allergies — and we cater for them.

It’s a rural stretch of the Mozambican coast, so connectivity is limited and part of the point. You’ll be able to check in with home, but don’t expect to be permanently online.

A real mix — students, career-changers, gap-year travellers, retired divers, groups and school parties on the bespoke trips. Most people arrive solo. The one thing everyone shares is caring about the ocean.

18+ for the standard open programmes. Bespoke school and group expeditions are arranged separately with the right supervision and safeguarding in place.

Cohorts are small and popular seasons fill up, so earlier is safer. Talk to us about dates and any flexibility you need — we reply to enquiries within three working days, even in peak season.

Tell us a bit about you — your experience, your goals, how long you’ve got — and we’ll match you to the programme that fits, or tell you honestly if now isn’t the right time. You can also compare all the programmes on the expeditions page.