This September, Azura’s marine scientists studied the marine megafauna in deep waters off Angola for Creocean as part of an Environmental Baseline Study (EBS) for Total Exploration & Production (E&P) Angola. Total is the 5th biggest energy producer in the world.

The goal of this EBS was to characterize the habitat and biodiversity of an area of oil and gas exploration 400 km northwest of Luanda, Angola. The biological and physio-chemical characteristics of the sediment and seawater were assessed during offshore surveys.

During these surveys, Azura recorded opportunistic sightings of marine mammal, sea turtle, seabird, and fish species during daytime visual observations. We also conducted passive acoustic monitoring at night to record vocalizing marine mammals. A variety of wildlife were recorded, including humpback whales, sperm whales, common dolphins, striped dolphins, olive ridley turtles, sooty terns, mahi mahi, and southern right whales which are extremely rare in Angolan waters.