Ocean Watch
Spotted!
How a surfer’s project turned the tide on shark fears
A brush with his own mortality stoked big wave rider and adventurer Greg Bertish into launching Shark Spotters – an internationally acclaimed bathing safety project that’s also doing wonders for shark conservation. He spoke to Rio Button
A shiver of sharks:
Old stories tell another truth
Indigenous cultures venerated sharks, with a rich mythology that aided their preservation. It’s a lesson we can draw from today, writes Lisa Cloete
How Old Oven Mitt capitalised on a famous exit (and came to the rescue of a struggling industry)
Did orcas frighten away False Bay’s cow sharks and what became of the great whites? Marine biologist Leigh de Necker and the Shark Spotters research team, play sleuths
In deep:
From barbel fishing to basking sharks
Young South Africans get little exposure to sea life, and that’s part of the reason sharks are demonised. Njabulo Mduli, tells about his journey from fear to fascination and shares a few facts about three big, but lesser-known, beasts.
Killer story: welcome twist to a tired old tale
Are South Africans warming to sharks? Roving Reporter, Natalie dos Santos, brings some heartening news from our chilly winter seas, even as fears grow for the future of these apex predators.
RAY TO GO: Aspiring science writers invited to explore sharky waters
Should we give a rat’s ass that many species of rays and sharks could be on the brink of extinction? Are people actually part of any “man-eating sharks” diet?
Starlight express: night adventures among the turtles of Bhanga Nek
Climate change may be shifting turtle sex ratios. But you’ve got to go the distance to prove it. Natalie dos Santos on the hard yards and sweet pleasures of research in a little piece of paradise. First published by Daily Maverick Watching a turtle dig her nest is always my favourite part of the evening. I sneak up behind one, nestle into the sand to get comfortable, and then watch mesmerized as the prehistoric animal prepares to lay her eggs.
Nurdle hunt maps pollution
A worldwide nurdle search spanning six continents is underway, write Jared Sumar and Fred Kockott
Green plan to turn dirty waste into walkways
Unrecyclable plastic waste collected from the Umgeni River could soon become part of paving networks, walkways and eco-landscapes in and around Durban, write Jared Sumar and Fred Kockott. This is one of several innovations from Green Corridors – a non-profit social-purpose organisation and incubator of various environmental initiatives. Green Corridors already has in place effective waste collecting litter booms along various tributaries of the Umgeni River, stretching from just above the Blue Lagoon area and into various informal settlement areas.
Headless sharks, scarce great whites and the danger of fish and chips Down Under
It was a bizarre and disturbing sight. About 100 sharks – beheaded, finned and gutted – dumped on Strandfontein beach along the False Bay coast. Why were they there? What was their intended destination before being illegally abandoned? Who was responsible? asks Donn Pinnock of the Conservation Action Trust First published by Daily Maverick The pile of dismembered bodies were mostly soupfin sharks. Word has it they were from either Gansbaai or Struisbaai, destined for a fish processing plant in
