Millions for regional programme in oceanography

The Nelson Mandela University in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province has a new programme on ecological connectivity and oceanography in the south-west Indian Ocean that is anchored on linking marine studies in Mozambique, Madagascar, the Seychelles, the Comoros and South Africa.

Aurélien Lechevallier, France’s ambassador to South Africa, said up to €10 million (about US$11.7 million) could be budgeted for this France-South Africa initiative, which was announced in September.

“Now we have to design it together in scientific terms, primarily, and then in policymaking action terms: what we need to do in the future,” Lechevallier said.

“So our level of ambition for this project is very high, not only because we are talking about several countries, but it involves many players,” he added.

Daan du Toit, the deputy director general, International Cooperation and Resources, of the South African Department of Science and Innovation, said the investment in science and innovation for societal benefit is a conviction South Africa shares with France, not only for development in South Africa, but at a regional and global level.

This was echoed by Professor Sibongile Muthwa, the vice-chancellor of Nelson Mandela University.

“Not only does this cooperation and friendship improve our capacity to respond to our nation’s development imperatives, but it also enables us to connect with our neighbours to improve the collective capacity of African countries to deliver solutions to African problems,” said Muthwa.

Oceanography and marine ecology

Dr Olivier Bousquet, the director of research in the French Ministry of Sustainable Development, and a research associate at the Institute for Coastal and Marine Research at Nelson Mandela University, said the main ideas of the initiative would be to focus on physical oceanography and on learning marine ecology.

Research objectives focus on eddies, or circular currents in the ocean, air-sea interaction, tropical currents as well as the ecology of emblematic marine species of the south-west Indian Ocean, he said.

“To do that we would use a number of tools and observations to supplement information that we could not obtain from just using satellite data from regional observation networks,” he added.

Extensive use of new record modelling would be done to study the properties of the ocean to support research work on ecology, Bousquet said.

Those components would be embedded within a global climate change action to evaluate the impact of climate change on ocean properties, such as, heatwaves, acidification, sea level and temperature rise, as well as the impact of the changes on marine ecosystems.

The plan is to use this new knowledge to support a national and regional marine spatial planning, or MSP, strategies with an emphasis on the ecological connectivity providing input to improve conversion strategies through a better knowledge of the interactions between the megafauna and its sonic environment, he said.

Another objective is to increase capacity building to do research and academic training in various fields in marine sciences.

“All this knowledge and new data could be used to support our research initiatives in … social sciences spatial observation, and the blue economy,” Bousquet said.

The programme could also lead to the creation of a regional network of marine protected areas of marine reserves that will be used to reinforce the interactions between researchers, as well as NGOs, marine protected areas governing bodies and large-scale international organisations such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, and create synergies between different research communities, to develop a consultative approach based on close collaboration between ecologists and marine spatial planning specialists.

“I must admit that this is not the easiest thing to do, but, I think it’s doable,” he said.

“We work across the social, ecological system, so when the word transdisciplinary comes along, this is sort of what we are trying to do; it is terribly difficult,” admitted Professor Amanda Lombard, the chair in marine spatial planning in the Institute for Coastal and Marine Research at Nelson Mandela University.

As a biophysical scientist, Lombard has to learn to work with social scientists and lawyers. “And it is very hard, because we all speak different languages,” she said.

Piggyback on networks and research

The new programme will build on research, development and networks, including satellites that are already in place.

It will also include monitoring the absolute variation of sea level … and there is research on new species such as whales, sharks, seabirds and dolphins.

“We can think of many users of this network,” said Bousquet.

“And to study these systems, you need a slew of high-powered scientific and technological skills. In Africa, as most of us know, we don’t have all these skills,” said Professor Michael Roberts from Nelson Mandela University.

He said a lot of marine robotics would be required to cater for the absence of many ships. Some research has been previously done using Norwegian and occasionally South African ships.

Dr Bernardino Malauene of the Instituto Nacional de Investigação Pesqueira in Mozambique, said the programme will benefit studies the institution is doing to understand fishermen and companies that fish and climate change. Mozambique has a long coastline that is rich in biodiversity.

Said Bousquet: “We would rely on existing results and networks tools to be able to quickly produce new and useful knowledge.”