The field trips/expeditions are one of the strategies adopted by the Marine Ecology department to improve and familiarize the teachers and students with methods and techniques used in the survey of aquatic and coastal biodiversity and prospection of new themes or lines of research. In addition, these outings are considered an essential mechanism to raise students’ interest in the conservation of the marine, coastal, estuarine, and freshwater environments and the interaction of the professors in several research areas developed in the department.

It is in this context during the field trip held from June 20 to 24, 2021, the various activities including:

1. The sampling of seagrass in the intertidal zone: where the methodology used was introduced to the students, consisting of a transect perpendicular to the coastline, where 50 cm x 50 cm squares were made, subdivided into 25 sub-squares of 10 cm x 10 cm each. The separation of the grid cells was 10 m along the transect. Seagrass species, number of individuals, dominant species, length of the species with the longest stalk, and associated fauna (macroinvertebrates) were identified in each grid.

Sampling was carried out from the infralittoral zone to the supratidal zone. The technique allowed sampling for more time and consequently greater coverage of the transect by an exclusively tide-dependent.

2. After sampling the intertidal zone, data on sea turtles were collected through surveys administered to local communities, especially fishermen and invertebrate collectors, using smartphones. This survey is part of the research on the role of religion and cultural values in protecting sea turtles in Mozambique. Specifically, to understand the cultural and religious significance of sea turtles to the communities to analyze the impact of significance for the conservation of sea turtles and identify the primary cultural and religious practices that contribute to the conservation of turtles, as well as to identify the cultural and religious practices that threaten these animals.

At each landing, each vessel’s total catch (in kg) was recorded, then a 10% representative sample of the total catch was taken. The number of individuals was recorded in the sample, the specific composition identified, the individual biometric data measured (total weight – g and total length – cm), and finally, the fishing effort was estimated (time spent, number of fishers) from the total catch obtained.

Samplings used the applications based on the Open Data Kit (ODK) platform for data collection via Smartphones, which allow attaching species photos for further identification but also adding the GPS points of the sampling site.