Bazaruto Archipelago

Marine National Park

Mozambique · Southern Africa (Indian Ocean)

Southern Africa (Indian Ocean)Declared in 19711,430 km²

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One of the last viable refuges of the dugong on Africa's Indian Ocean coast, nicknamed the Pearl of the Indian Ocean

Area

1,430 km²

Protection category

UICN II

Parque nacional — what the IUCN categories mean

Declared in

1971

Region

Southern Africa (Indian Ocean)

Climate

Tropical, Templado, Montañoso

Plan your visit

Area: 1,430 km²

Highlight

One of the last viable refuges of the dugong on Africa's Indian Ocean coast, nicknamed the Pearl of the Indian Ocean

Declared in 1971, the Bazaruto Archipelago — nicknamed the Pearl of the Indian Ocean — protects one of the last viable coastal populations of dugong along the African shore of the Indian Ocean, a grazing marine mammal whose regional numbers have been cut down across most of its former range by hunting and by the loss of seagrass meadows. Its sand-dune islands, some over 100 metres high, were built up from sediment carried down over millennia from the delta of the Save River.

Location

See on the interactive map

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2 dive sites within 300 km are also shown.

68 species documented in Bazaruto Archipelago

8 Mammals1 Birds2 Reptiles10 Cartilaginous fish21 Fish2 Bivalvia6 Anthozoa2 Cephalopoda4 Gastropoda5 Malacostraca2 Asteroidea2 Polychaeta1 Turbellaria2 Holothuroidea

At conservation risk:Dugongo,Delfín jorobado del Indo-Pacífico,Tiburón ballena,Tortuga carey,Tortuga verde,Almeja gigante,Caballito de mar amarillo,Chucho pintado,Manta de arrecife,Manta gigante oceánica,Pepino de mar (sandfish),Tiburón gris de arrecifeand 4 more