The discovery in Mozambique of what is being investigated as possible plane debris from MH370 was predicted by an expert at the University of Western Australia (UWA).

The piece of debris, due to be assessed by Australian authorities, was found by a solo MH370 hunter, Blaine Gibson, on a beach in the African country.

This possible latest discovery comes after a piece of wreckage found on a beach on Reunion Island last July was confirmed to have come from the missing aircraft.

Mr Gibson, an American, was led to search along the African coastline by UWA Professor of Coastal Oceanography Charitha Pattiaratchi, whom he met in September.

"He was going around the Indian Ocean in search for answers," Dr Pattiaratchi said.

"We met and talked about where in WA he should be going in terms of where the ... debris could be coming up.

"I told him the western Indian Ocean is more likely. Places like Madagascar and Mozambique, and that's where he has been looking since."

Dr Pattiaratchi had been modelling the possible path of debris based on ocean currents and predictions of where it is believed the plane went down.

"In our modelling we assume that there was 100,000 pieces of debris in the water and then see where that goes," he said.

Dr Pattiaratchi said the area currently being searched in the Indian Ocean was chosen based on the last known transmissions of the flight.

The plane is thought to be somewhere within what has been called the seventh arc, an area in the Indian Ocean around 2,500 kilometres long.

The potential crash site is much closer to the coast of WA than it is to where debris has been located.

UWA oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi said he hoped the search for MH370 would be extended beyond mid-2016. ( ABC News: Laura Gartry )

But Dr Pattiaratchi said it was more likely debris would be found on the African coastline.

"It's to do with currents," he said.

"The currents would have been taking the debris initially northwards, and then they could have met a very strong current called the South Equatorial Current.

"That current goes from east to west very rapidly and once the debris gets entrenched there that's where it will end up, in the western Indian Ocean."

Dr Pattiaratchi said eventually debris could come full circle and start washing up on the coastline of Western Australia.

"Now you know it is Reunion, then it is Mozambique, so the next country down the track could possibly be South Africa," he said.

"And then after South Africa it basically comes along the Southern Ocean, what we call the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, and then it could possibly come to WA as well."

Support group aid modern-day 'Indiana Jones' in discovery

The Aircrash Support Group of Australia (ASGA) is a not-for-profit organisation supporting and representing victims, and families of victims, of aviation tragedies.

Chairwoman Sheryl Keen said she contacted Mr Gibson through an MH370 Facebook group.

"It's an International think tank, with about 4,000 members from all around the world," she said.

"Blaine was drawn to the group because he wanted to be involved in a great search.

"He had all the resources but didn't necessarily have all of the information that he needed or felt was essential in heading to a purposeful direction."

Ms Keen said she invited Mr Gibson to come to Australia to meet with various people including Dr Pattiaratchi, Alec Duncan — an expert in underwater acoustics at Curtin University — and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

"He came over at his own expense," she said.

"We told these people 'we've got this guy coming over here, he's legitimate, we would like you to give him the time of day'.

"To their credit, they did."

Ms Keen called Mr Gibson a modern-day Indiana Jones, and said he undertook what he referred to as "quests".

She said she did not know how he came to be able to afford to take on the search by himself, but she understood he had enough resources to be doing it alone.

A map shows the MH370 search area off the West Australian coast. ( Supplied: ATSB )

Ms Keen said the piece he had found had a bolt head with numbers engraved into it, and she said this would help identify where it came from.

Dr Pattiaratchi said it could take a year or two before any debris washes up on Australian shores and by then it may be too late.

"We have to remind ourselves that this is only if there is any debris still left which is floating in the ocean," he said.

With the search for MH370 due to be concluded by mid-2016, the professor said he hoped the latest finding, if verified, meant the search would continue if the plane was still not located.

"Continuing the search would be the obvious thing," he said.

"But I'm not privy to what other information they might have; I only have the information from the oceanography."