As ocean temperatures warm, currents will move. Can we conserve the rich biodiversity in ocean fronts if these unique ecosystems shift?
Our mission is to develop scientific and management techniques that allow effective fisheries and conservation management at ocean fronts in low- to medium-data settings in tropical oceans.
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Funded by the Belmont Forum, the Scientists of the Ocean Front Change Project aim to document ocean fronts, and the fish that use them, within the Mozambique Channel.
The Mozambique Channel
In the Mozambique Channel, these ocean front and ocean front ecosystem processes are played out continually. As the South Equatorial Current sweeps past the northern tip of Madagascar, it breaks up into a series of fronts, eddies, and gyres that are carried down the Mozambique Channel.
This project works with conservation and fishing stakeholders in the Mozambique Channel to design research about ocean fronts, their use by marine species and fisheries, and how front variability will change in the future.
Our approach
We work with stakeholder communities to create conservation and sustainable fishing solutions for fronts. We use global remote sensing analysis to find other areas in which the conditions that make these solutions relevant apply.
The outcomes of this project fill critical gaps in information identified by stakeholder and planners, helping them to meet individual and collective responsibilities relating to the nature of the ocean and its sustainable use as climate change. This contribution comes at a critical time, as governments commit to Sustainable Development Goals, communities are struggling to understand how to adapt resource management to climate change and conservation groups look for ways to protect marine life at fronts that are moving in response to climate change.
Our team
Our project team is composed of scientists at the leading edge of ocean modeling, biogeochemsitry of fronts, marine life modeling, fisheries economics, and climate change science. Our team is a collaboration across a diverse set of countries, with scientists hailing from Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Germany, France, and the United States.
Our partners
The Ocean Front Change project is a multinational joint effort of four organizations, funded by the Belmont Forum.
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