In 2006, Dr Erwan Sola put a SCUBA tank on his back for the very first time and set off in search of a shipwreck. What he found in those waters off the coast of Senegal would change his life forever. “That ship had been there for a while,” he explains. “All sorts of organisms had colonized the wreck – I saw big grouper peeking out of the portholes…it made me realize just how amazing and resilient the ocean can be.”
Ever since, Erwan has dedicated himself to studying the ocean and working to share its wonders with the world. After becoming the first Mozambican to hold a PhD in Coral Biology, he went on to specialize in coral reef reproduction and reproductive ecology, contributing his knowledge to coral monitoring surveys and research into fisheries and conservation. He currently works as a coral specialist with WCS Mozambique, where he has played a key role in developing MERMAID’s use in the country.
A safe, clean, and standardized data repository
“Having MERMAID opens up a lot of doors for collaboration,” explains Erwan, noting the platform’s capacity to help coral reef researchers share their knowledge and coordinate their work. “This ensures data is safe, clean, and standardized. Different projects, people and research groups using MERMAID in Mozambique are able to migrate and import data from different projects,” he says. “This makes things easier and more streamlined.”
Data collection in MERMAID helps establish baselines for biomass, coral cover, and biodiversity that can be used in establishing protected areas, setting conservation targets, and monitoring progress. Over time, as more monitoring projects are completed, MERMAID builds up a more complete picture of coral reef health. As Erwan puts it, “we’ll have a series of sites that are all monitored using MERMAID year after year, making it easy to compare data from one year to the next.”
The MERMAID dashboard helps researchers share results and progress with project partners and collaborators. According to Erwan, this feature is “a great way to visualize data, even for people who are not necessarily specialists.” Having used MERMAID in the field, and played an active role in its development, he is convinced of its practical value to researchers. “Whether it’s decline or improvements to the reef, it’s a very good way to illustrate results.”
The game changer that lets you do ‘virtually anything’ with data
Several years ago, Erwan and the Mozambique teams began looking for ways to transfer their photo monitoring data into MERMAID. As an archive of monitoring, “we believe in photo quadrats, because they allow us to revisit the data if needed” explains Erwan. “It creates a record...there was a lot of photo quadrat data in Mozambique, so we wanted to keep that continuity.” Ever since, Erwan has advocated the development of photo quadrat functionality in MERMAID and worked with the development team to fine-tune the user experience.
Now, using the ‘mermaidR’ package, users can easily export and import image classification results from the CoralNet platform into MERMAID. Erwan encourages all scientists – especially those just setting out on their careers – to develop an interest in coding. MermaidR offers an easy first step on this journey. “If you take a little bit of time getting used to it, it will save you a lot of time, especially with large amounts of data,” he says, before adding that, when it comes to data manipulation, “what you can do in Excel, you will do ten times faster in mermaidR.”
MERMAID in Mozambique: The Numbers
Team members
Transects
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Coral surveyed (m2)
‘A privilege and a duty’
Looking to the future, Erwan hopes humanity will reverse global heating and return coral reefs to their natural state. He believes effective data can be the key: “Our actions in the field can help to improve fisheries management, by establishing permanent and temporary closures that will help replenish the reefs. I think that monitoring is essential to that process,” he says.
Most of all, Erwan wants to participate in positive developments that change the narrative surrounding coral reefs. “I hope I won’t only be documenting the decline of coral reefs,” he says. “As we keep working and monitoring, I hope in the long term the data stored in MERMAID will be able to tell a story of reef recovery in many key biodiversity areas, across Mozambique and around the world.”
Since that first, formative dive in Senegal almost 20 years ago, Erwan Sola has been drawn back to the ocean more times than he can count; each visit continues to amaze him, in new and different ways. “The world is rich and vibrant below the waves,” he says. “Being able to go there and come back with a lot of images and stories – being able to bring to the general public what isn’t always easy to witness – it is both a privilege and a duty to keep inspiring people about what I see there.
…to bring a little bit of the underwater world, in all its beauty, to the surface.”
About Erwan
Dr Erwan Sola is a Mozambican marine scientist who has studied in both France and South Africa. His specialties include coral reef reproduction and reproductive ecology, with a focus on marine research into conservation and fisheries, particularly in the Western Indian Ocean. He has a PhD in Coral Biology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. His work focuses on promoting marine science as an integral part of decision making in the management of marine and coastal areas, while also training the next generation of marine scientists. Erwan has worked at WCS Mozambique since 2020.