This year, SOS have come to our aid once again with a $20,000 grant for a major restructure within the visitor centre, by breaking down the boundary between the visitor centre and the hatchery itself. A viewing area will be built so that visitors can get up close and personal with our thousands of baby lobsters and towering filtration systems in the hatchery.
Comments (0)9 September 2010
8 September 2010
Treasure Island
Dozens of giant manta rays were flying over head!
While no one actually knows for sure where Robert Louis Stevensons’s famed Treasure Island really is, I am pretty sure that I have now found mine. The scenery on land may not be as bold or dramatic as some of the descriptions of the real Treasure Island, but Isla de la Plata has far more to offer than a rusty box of old doubloons. This tiny gem of an island, nestled along the coast of Ecuador, is a veritable diamond in the rough. And as sure as “X marks the spot”, buried just beneath the spray of bluish grey waves, Project Elasmo’s captain, Mark Harding, stealthily lead the way to my bountiful treasure…
Me and Mark Harding (Project Elasmo) in the field!
I could not have been more surprised or thrilled with my first diving experience in Ecuador. With so many manta rays to choose from, I was like a pirate in a peg-leg store, I just didn’t know where to start. Within minutes I was surrounded by giant mantas (although Mark later told me that he considered this a slow day at the office) and I was grinning from ear to ear. The water was cloudy with plankton and the mantas drifted slowly in and out of our range of vision. Confident that I could successfully satellite tag Ecuador’s first manta ray I prepared my tagging equipment and eagerly jumped back in to the murky water for a second dive.
The mantas seemed to gain confidence as the day progressed, lingering closer to us than on the previous dive. After an initial attempt on a somewhat suspicious male ray, I found my manta. It was a giant female and she was a queen amongst males (at this stage she was the only female that I had seen on either dive!). She was just beautiful. As she approached, I locked eyes with her and I knew that she was the one.
Tagging Silvia!
The tag went in easily and she barely reacted, hovering almost motionless in front of me for what seemed like an eternity. The tag looked secure and the location was perfect. In the hopes that she, like many of the other giant mantas, would not only be a great ocean explorer but would also venture into the unknown depths of the Pacific, I christened her Silvia, after the beloved Dr. Silva Earle (who’s repeated and record-breaking exploratory adventures to the depths of the world’s oceans earned her the title of “Her Deepness”). And just like that, we made history again, and another milestone in this expedition was reached. As Silvia caught a draft and coasted over the edge of a deep wall, I gave her a little wave, knowing that it would probably be 160 days before I heard from her again. (more…)
Comments (4)24 August 2010
The Oceans Get Naked
Cambridge University based The Naked Scientists have just launched Naked Oceans, a great new podcast devoted to marine science sponsored by Save Our Seas. They’re off to a strong start, with episodes focusing on climate change and oil spills already available for free online and through iTunes:
The problem of oil spills
To launch this brand new podcast series, Naked Oceans ventures beneath the waves to investigate the impacts of oil spills on the marine environment. We hunt down the hidden world of microbes in Louisiana wetlands, trace the fingerprint of oil in the open oceans, and discuss the likely fallout from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And 14 years on, we meet some of the survivors of the Sea Empress Oil Spill in the Welsh coast. And we invite Carl Safina to choose our first Critter of the Month.
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Climate change and the Oceans
Join us as we dive into the science of climate change in the oceans. What changes are we already seeing, what affects are they having on marine life, and what are the prospects for the future? We call in on the Arctic and the Antarctic to find out what’s going on in some of the most vulnerable parts of the oceans, and we meet some extraordinary critters from the bottom of the sea at the bottom of the world.
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You can easily stay up to date with the latest episodes by subscribing (for free!) here. Click here to learn more about Naked Oceans, or download the full press release.
Image credit: Cedric Guigand, University of Miami RSMAS Marine Photobank
Comments (0)22 August 2010
White shark fin-printing project
Over 20 years ago scientists started using the unique shapes and patterning on white sharks’ dorsal fins to recognize individuals and help them catalogue and re-identify sharks. However, in many cases there are hundreds of photos to go through and doing this by eye alone is extremely time-consuming and open to errors. Fast forward to 2008 where Mike Meyer, representing the Department of Environmental Affairs, Branch: Oceans and Coasts, approached Dr. Tilo Burghardt from the University of Bristol to develop software that will automatically recognize individual white sharks by the shape of their dorsal fins through the use of digital photographs. The project’s vision is to foster collaboration between scientists researching white sharks from around the globe, and create a programme whereby tourists on cage diving boats or anyone else that manages to take a photograph of a white shark can contribute to the project. Read more about the project in a UK Telegraph article and local South African paper.
Individual white sharks can be reliably recognised by their dorsal fins
Save Our Seas Sevengill Research Project, South Africa
Effective conservation of wildlife populations is best managed from a strong ecological foundation. As human awareness of environmental issues grows and the need to understand ecosystems intensifies, there is an increasing need for further research into population demographics and life history of organisms.
Filming sevengill sharks at Millers Point, False Bay
Last year saw the initialization of the Save Our Seas Sevengill Research Project, looking into the population demography and behavioural ecology of the broadnose sevengill shark, Notorynchus cepedianus. The study aims to investigate aspects of the biology of the sevengill shark using in-water observations made by SCUBA divers. The project will form the basis of my MSc thesis, and is being supervised by Prof. Charles Griffiths (UCT) and Alison Kock (SOSSC). The project is being made possible through support and funding of SOSSC and Shark Explorers, and supported by diving companies Animal Ocean and Pisces Divers. (more…)
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