Katya is an accomplished non-for-profit professional and biologist with over 13 years of managerial experience in East Africa. She brings to BCSS a wealth of knowledge on legal and institutional compliance, operational and administrative management, and financial controls.
Besides her managerial skills, Katya has a strong conservation background possessing MSc in biology. Her professional aspiration is cetaceans research, and she has been collecting data on humpback whales’ ecology in Tanzania since 2017.
A BCSS research expedition recently encountered a group of ten orcas (Orcinus orca) in the Bazaruto seascape, an exceptional orca sighting in Mozambique and the tropical Southwest Indian Ocean. An Unusual Start to the Survey At the beginning of the
On 11 September 2026, BCSS researchers and participants in our Scientific Training Program (STP) travelled south for one of our weekly oceanic expeditions, conducting spatial mapping of marine megafauna across the Greater Bazaruto Seascape. The survey took the team into
Each year, humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) migrate thousands of kilometres from their Antarctic feeding grounds to the warmer waters of East Africa, where they breed, give birth and care for their calves. As the 2026 whale season begins in the
Long-term marine monitoring, biodiversity research, and conservation impact in the Bazaruto Archipelago and Mozambique Channel. The Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies (BCSS), in partnership with Kisawa Sanctuary, has released its 2025 Annual Impact Report, documenting another year of long-term ocean
A recent observation of a reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) within the lagoonal waters of Benguerra Island, filmed by Kisawa Sanctuary’s Community Officer and Activities Manager Querino Huo, in the Bazaruto Archipelago represents an unusual and ecologically significant record. While
Unusual encounters during BCSS’s long-term spatial mapping monitoring reveal the extraordinary ecology—and mounting vulnerability—of whale sharks in Mozambique and the broader Western Indian Ocean. In September and again in November 2025, researchers from the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies (BCSS)
In 1979, the Indian Ocean was designated a whale sanctuary by the International Whaling Commission. It was a critical and timely decision—by then, many populations of great whales had been hunted to near extinction, with some subpopulations reduced to less
Explore the opportunity to conduct your own research using the exceptional facilities of BCSS as your ground handler. Our station, driven by sustainability principles, provides visiting researchers with everything needed to advance marine science. Services include access to labs and
The beauty of Bazaruto Archipelago embraces diverse wildlife and its multi ecosystem habitat. Our visitors are privileged to see not only vast array of marine animals, monitoring of which is at the core of the BCSS operations, but also a
The BCSS Ocean Observatory is excited to share a new collaboration with Ifremer (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea) to enhance the understanding of the Yellow-edged Lyretail Grouper ecology (Variola louti) through advanced genetic sampling and analysis. This