This report presents the results from field-based research on the environmental and social impacts of a shallow water marine seismic program which took place in April and May of 2009 along the northern coast of Mozambique. The team conducted interviews with fishermen, community leaders and tour operators working and living within the area covered by the shallow water seismic operation to assess the impacts of the seismic program on coastal livelihoods and the coastal marine ecosystem. This information was triangulated where possible with interviews with tour operators, marine biologists familiar with the region, and what scientific literature was available for the region.

The starkest results of this study were not merely the impacts that were reported by coastal communities during and after the shallow water seismic program in May 2009, but also the fact that any necessarily detailed ecological and socioeconomic study of potential impacts before the program should have predicted them.