A leopard catshark gives the BRUV the curious once-over…

Cameras for Conservation:
Baited remote underwater video cameras (we like to call them BRUVS) were developed in Australia, and have subsequently been used from New Zealand to Hawaii, Belize and the Maldives (to mention but a few!) For South Africa, they represent a cost-effective, time-efficient method of monitoring our underwater world. In order to correctly protect and manage our fish stocks, we have to adequately monitor their populations. Monitoring also has to take place in our Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to assess how they are working, inform future design and regulate their enforcement.

Our current repertoire of techniques used to monitor fish populations throw some logistical obstacles in the way of sustainable, long-term monitoring ... SCUBA assessments are expensive, labour intensive and limited by the depths we can safely access, the amount of time that can safely be spent underwater and the ocean conditions suitable for dive surveys. Controlled angling surveys also rely on skilled labour, and may prove more difficult to justify in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and for species of particular conservation concern. In a country where the funds and skilled labour available for monitoring are limited, innovative solutions need to be added to our arsenal of conservation tools.

A red steenbras, species of great conservation concern, checks the BRUV out

An Underwater Eye:
BRUVs are deployed from a boat, lowered to the seafloor by means of a rope and remain connected to the surface by means of a buoy. They are left out for one hour to film all the fish that are attracted within the camera’s field of view. The footage is recorded on a memory disc and brought ashore for analysis later in the lab.

Why are we excited?
BRUVs have been shown to be more cost-effective than traditional monitoring techniques, with a lower environmental impact and modest requirements for skilled labour. Most excitingly, they have been shown to be important in assessing shark and ray species usually not detected by other monitoring techniques. This is really important for False Bay, where shyer shark species such as the Smooth-hound (Mustelus mustelus), Spotted gully (Triakis megalopterus) and the catshark species form an important part of the ecosystem (indeed, many shark and ray species form an important part of the fishery). BRUVs are useful for assessing reef fish species, which are particularly vulnerable to overfishing because they tend to be long-lived, slow-growing species and form a large component of South Africa’s recreational and commercial catch ...

Sevengill sharks come to investigate the BRUV

False Bay on Film ...

So this year’s project will conduct the first underwater video assessment of False Bay’s fishes, including its shark and ray species. Bringing cameras to the conservation equation marks an important step in the future of monitoring along our coastline ... Watch this space for updates from the field, lots of videos and some exciting findings!

And Emmett Duffy embarks on a flight on fancy as he chooses our Critter of the Month.

As always you can listen to the latest episode of the Naked Oceans podcast for free at our website and at the iTunes music store, along with the entire back catalogue of Naked Oceans shows.

Since our preliminary data collection trips, Misool Eco Resort, who’s generous support has made it logistically possible for us to reach the remote study site in Southern Raja Ampat, have established the Misool Manta Project to assist with data collection in the region.

Understanding movement patterns and habitat use is crucial in order for conservation initiatives and management plans to be implemented effectively, and acoustic tags are valuable tools that help us depict these aspects of a manta rays life. Each acoustic tag transmits an individualized code and when the tagged manta swims within range of a receiver station the code is detected and logged along with the time and date. After a year or so the receivers will be bought up and all the stored data is downloaded onto a computer, revealing exactly when the tagged mantas were visiting specific sites.

So, with a mission to tag up to 10 mantas and deploy 6 receivers strategically around the area, and only 8 whole days to do it we didn’t waste any time getting all the equipment set up and ready to go. By day three we were all set; tags were prepared, receivers deployed and research boat prepped with everything we would need to photograph, collect DNA samples and tag, now all we needed were the mantas to show up so we could fit them with their new accessory.

Worryingly, very few mantas had been seen in the area for the couple of months prior to our visit, but with enthusiasm and hope we spent each day waiting patiently at the cleaning station. However, as the days slipped slowly by with no sign of any mantas, the chances of deploying the tags were getting slim, and our hope was diminishing.

Unfortunately, luck, and the mantas were not on our side this time, and we didn’t see a single manta ray during our time in Southern Raja Ampat. Leaving the equipment in the capable hands of Calvin and Becky, founders of the Misool Manta Project, Guy and myself left Misool Eco Resort feeling a little frustrated but hopeful that the mantas would be back soon so Calvin and Becky could start tagging.

Sure enough, a couple of days after leaving we get reports that the mantas are back…typical! Relieved that our beloved mantas had returned but a little frustrated with the unfortunate timing of our trip, we are now left pondering over the reason for the mantas disappearance. Data from this time last year, and reports from previous years, had revealed relatively abundant manta sightings during this time of year. So what factors had changed this year that had altered the mantas movements and site use? And where are they when they are not in this area? Initially it was thought that the presence of a large school of false killer whales, one of mantas few natural predators, were keeping them away, however, it seems unlikely that this factor would keep them away for so long. Changes in environmental conditions affecting their planktonic food source are also possible explanations that we are exploring.

Ironically, if we could deploy some tags it could help us to answer these questions. However, this is the nature of studying a wild animal, especially one that lives and roams the depths of the ocean, an element that is largely inaccessible to us, and no matter how well we think we understand and can predict their movements and behaviours it is never black and white.

So once again the mysterious mantas have left us asking more questions and are yet to reveal their secret lives. But piece-by-piece we are starting to paint a picture of this population, and so far we have identified over 200 individual reef manta rays (Manta alfredi) and over 50 giant manta rays (Manta birostris) from Raja Ampat.

Given that one of Lauren’s earliest childhood memories is of her tucked up in a tree with her fluffy toy leopard, instructing her younger brother below to play “Game Ranger, Game Ranger”, it was always a bit of a given that she’d end up in conservation. Fast-forward a few years, and Lauren had moved from the dusty Highveld of her childhood and completed her Honours in Zoology at UCT. She spent the year tracking Chacma baboons through the Tokai forest and Da Gama Park, followed by 4 months living and working in the Kruger National Park – but the pull of the ocean drew her back to Cape Town, where she completed her Masters in Conservation Biology.

Inspired by the challenges she saw faced by our marine realm, Lauren decided to dive into marine protected area (MPA) research for her Master’s thesis. Working with protected area managers in the Stilbaai MPA, Lauren decided that baited remote underwater video (BRUV) cameras were an exciting new solution to the problems the South African coastline faces.

After a few lessons learnt from her MSc thesis in Stilbaai, Lauren will be focusing this year on conducting the first underwater camera survey of False Bay’s fishes. Her research for this year is funded by Save our Seas Foundation and is conducted under the guidance of her project supervisor Associate Professor Colin Attwood from UCT and Dr. Albrecht Götz from the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON). It’s a project she’s passionate about, and convinced that this cost-effective, time-efficient solution will be a handy addition to the conservation tools our protected area managers currently use.

Always on the look-out for a challenge, Lauren is determined to bridge the gap between research and its communication to a wider audience. Driven by a lifelong love affair with Africa’s wildest places and its incredible wildlife heritage, she believes firmly in the value of sound scientific research that will contribute to innovative conservation solutions.

Lauren will be giving a free talk to the public on her project at the Save Our Seas Shark Centre in June. Follow us on http://www.facebook.com/sharkcentre to see the latest developments of her project.  Dates for her talk, and information on the other speakers will be released mid-May.

I was a little bit strange for them: divers clean windows and the bottom of the tank, the snorkelers swim only at the surface, but I could swim with them at their speed and snorkel down to interact with them, but still spent most of the time on the surface.

I liked the calm times when they were about one-two hours after feeding, they swam around slowly and seemingly content, calm. I noticed that they feel like interacting the most at these times. They often slowed down and even stopped at where I was, `posing` for photos, but more likely to find out what kind of strange thing I was who spent so many hours with them while obviously being interested about them.

There were days when they both started circling under me, I snorkeled down to them to keep eye contact but when my breath did not last long enough and had to surface again they still continued circling under me. I never touched them to avoid to possibly scare them, but we were often so close to each other that they could have hit me bad very easily with their enormous body. But they never did. 

Like they would have realized soon that this `poor thing` (me) is not doing well underwater for so long they often came up to me to the surface. I always tried to keep eye contact with them, but at this point they both were so close to me that taking photos and videos did not really make sense because I could get a shot of one patch of their skin or their eyeball…so I just started to concentrate on: what is going on???

I just stayed at the same spot on the surface trying not to move, but started to be concerned about their huge bodies and strong pectoral fins passing by only a few centimeters away. I have seen them before speeding across the tank and getting even the sidewaves of their rush pushed me to the side of the tank. But this time they managed to navigate their huge body without hitting me. At the next round when Athena came to the surface I was again right front of her pectoral fin while keeping eye contact. She turned to me and swam to stick her head even closer to mine: it was amazing how her look was following mine. I had only a second to wonder: there is no way I am not going to get hit this time when something strange happened. She slipped her pectoral fin under me gently while almost lifting me out of the water: I felt she was curious herself to get in contact with me. No fast movements, no fear, they continued cicling for a bit before they left,-probably I was a too boring thing just floating on the surface motionless. I was stunned and left wondering: What do they sense and perceive about the world around them? What do they think, how much they understand? How social they are when we, divers don`t see them at cleaning stations and feeding aggregations in the wild? How much more is in them than just a big, pretty fish???

They could have gone anywhere else, but they approached me, they could have swam away if I disturb them since they are much faster than I could ever be but they slowed down or even stopped by me, they could have easily hurt me by a slight stroke of their fin, but they managed to navigate without hurting me and even gently touched me-seemingly intentionally.
If anybody would wonder this was an accident I have to tell this happened the next day and the next day again. Even more interesting that I have experienced almost exactly the same behavior in the wild too a couple years ago.
Trying to put together this extremely exciting puzzle in my head to give meaning to these experiences, to be able to explain magical moments based on our scientific knowledge.

Luckily Rabi (Rabindranath Sahu, founder of Rushikulya Sea Turtle Protection Committee) encouraged the community members of Podampeta Village and their children to be incredibly helpful. That is the good news. We look forward to working with them all again in the coming seasons. 

Well, here goes.

April 20 2012
The hour is late— some time after 11:00 p.m.. The location is a beach just below Podampeta Village. Other than my broad oval of flashlight illuminating a sandy slope, all is moonless void.
The light reveals movement— flippers flailing. Some two hundred hatchlings are emerging from the earth!
Only something seems wrong as we draw closer. The newly hatched turtles are crawling in one spot— making no progress. Several are positioned in strange, twisted angles, flippers in the air.
“Look what’s happened on their first day alive,” Rabi complains.
Instinct brings me to my knees below them.  All are trapped in monofilament netting—fishing gear. My first conscious thought is that each disentanglement has to be completed with utmost care and deliberation. My second thought is there may not be enough time to free them all before dawn. Juxtaposed, the two thoughts make for mild panic.
Freeing the first hatchling is easy. The inch-long flippers are highly flexible, soft, about as thin as mango peel.
Now a dozen, now fifteen have been freed without scissors—barring a hopelessly tangled one. Rita joins in. She is equipped with scissors to snip the fiber from the one I could not extricate. We work quietly. The multitude of squirming hatchlings overwhelms the mind. I stop counting freed ones. The minutes crawl.
When it looks like over fifty hatchlings are on the loose, we split. There is a danger of them roaming back into the tangle. Rita walks down-slope, closer to sea, and shines her flashlight low to attract them. Instantly they are crawling towards her light with flippers like floppy feet, heads bobbing.
Rabi and I continue snipping the tight lines. This is all waste netting, trash. Stringy fiber is wrapped around necks, front flippers, rear flippers. Freeing each, I set it down to face Rita’s flashlight and the sea.
The batch of over two hundred is done. They have entered the ocean. There are more. Everywhere we walk—  netting with strangling new-borns.

Morning of April 21
We rest in the rented car between 4 and 5, then walk back out to the sand. Rabi rounds up several adults and children of Podampeta Village (it’s not too difficult—our work in the pale of dawn has attracted a crowd already).

We all turn over nets, rescuing hatchlings for a few hours. Someone brings a bucket, someone else a mug. Released in a safe zone, the hatchlings plod away from the blond sand, now lit with peachy-pink highlights. They enter the crash and sizzle of foam, swim, roll, right themselves and swim again.

We all share packets of cream cookies. And watch today’s sunrise throwing a million chips of light into the sea.

From the summary of the book: Fish marking and tracking is a fundamental tool for fisheries management and research. In recent years the technologies and analytical procedures available for marking and monitoring fisheries have evolved. The 31 chapters in this volume include papers on integrated approaches, conventional tagging, acoustic tags and arrays, radio telemetry, chemical and biological markers, and archival and pop-up satellite tags. This book will be appreciated by both fisheries scientists and managers for its coverage of many of the important advances in fish tagging technologies of the last two decades, the methods used to analyze data generated by these technologies, and the underlying management needs and objectives that only fish-marking and tagging can fulfill.

The symposium also contains our paper Diel oscillations in whale shark vertical movements associated with meso- and bathypelagic diving.

We headed out on Day 1 to Dangerous Reef, of Jaws fame, and began the hunt for the stations. We found them surprisingly easily and, with a short 10m swim top each one from the cage, were able to get floats onto them and lift them to the surface for downloading, after which we re-deployed them in the same spots. Interestingly, these stations recorded only one white shark in the last 5 months.

We then travelled to Liguanea Island, the least “sharkey” of the three areas we had chosen for survey, and put the cage down to find the first receiver…. and almost immediately were circled by a white shark! So, for safety reasons, locating the receivers was abandoned for this site and we instead focussed on tagging. After less than an hour, we had 4 white sharks around the cage, and were able to tag three of these sharks, so a successful day after all. And of course, now we know this area to be visited by white sharks, and so should have some very interesting data on the receivers when we are able to get back to download them in the coming months.

The next day at North Neptune Islands, we first assisted the CSIRO to put their newly serviced VR4 back into the water, and then were able to tag a further two white sharks at this location, and two sharks the following day at South Neptunes.

We will be lifting the receivers at South Neptunes in the next month or so, and so will be excited to uncover the movement patterns of white sharks between the northern and southern island groups, and to determine if our Liguanea Island sharks have made the journey to the Neptunes too!

Check back soon for updates and for a short video of the research trip to be uploaded in the next blog!