Sharks are the most threatened group of fishes in our oceans. Reef sharks are commonly highly site attached, this feature rendering them highly susceptible to extirpation. Grey reef shark of the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) are currently threatened by direct exploitation for fins and meat. Neptunes - Quirimbas archipelago, Northern Mozambique - represents one of the few sites in the WIO where large numbers of shark’s aggregate and young specimen are present. This project aims to use telemetry technology, coupled with a well-established local community project, to better understand the residency and movements of these sharks and to educate local regional partners on the value of shark conservation. In specifics we pretend to:

(i) elucidate the residency and movement patterns of grey reef sharks, giant and potato grouper and napoleon wrass; at Neptunes through passive acoustic telemetry tracking;

(ii) provide capacity building to two local residents on acoustic telemetry methods, equipment maintenance and shark tagging procedures;

(iii) engage a Mozambican student to directly interact with the local co-fisheries management program in order to educate on the economic benefits of endangered species, tourism and the biology and role of top predators in maintaining ecosystem health and to further develop monitoring of fish endangered species by-catch, in regional fisheries within the co-management program;

(vi) produce a video in Swahili/Portuguese to document the research, namely the economic and ecological value of fish endangered species, that will be used both, regionally and nationally, to reduce the existing conflict over human-shark resource use in Mozambique;

(v) hold a regional workshop with local government officials to highlight shark-human-endangered species issues and update on project activities.