Ocean News

After 15 years of using trained observers (spotters) to successfully reduce the risk of shark bites in Cape Town, the Shark Spotters program is launching a new research project aimed at creating an automated shark spotting system that…

When living in an archipelago, it is common to think that all people visit the beach frequently, that they swim or that they snorkel as many of the people who visit the islands to get to know one…

It’s safe to say, each of us were equally as excited to be part of an all-female team representing women in science. Our international research team consisted of myself (Grace), a visiting master’s student from the University of…

Coral reefs around the world are in serious trouble. Scientists are worried that coastal development, climate change and overfishing are going to drive corals to the brink. In particular, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has suffered massive declines in its coral reef cover over the past 27 years. The reason for…

Bronze whalers (Carcharhinus brachyurus), or bronzies as they are known locally, are a common species in the coastal and shelf waters around South Africa. They are relatively large, reaching a maximum length of just over 3 metres, and…

In December 2018 I teamed up with Isabel Ender (Manta Trust’s Head of Conservation Strategy) to attend the latest meeting of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) Sharks MoS – an important conservation policy conference, held this year in the beautiful…

Growing up in downtown Guayaquil, the biggest city in Ecuador, my days were spent surrounded by colorful buses, honking cars, and taxis screeching to a stop. I remember how I wanted the weekend to start, so I would…

What is a blue-green algal bloom? A bloom is used to describe an event where millions of microscopic, single-celled plants called algae, normally present in waterbodies, reach concentrations high enough to discolour the water (read more). In the case of blue-green algae,  the cells that are usually present in aquatic…

We were out in the waters of the Mitchell River, near the Indigenous community of Kowanyama. Every day we would wake at 3am ready for a 4am start of setting nets on the river. After a 7hr sampling…

The impact of our actions on the oceans has consequences for how well they’re able to provide us with the food, climate systems, oxygen and other life supporting resources we need to survive. The gravity of our impacts, from overfishing, pollution, coastal development and climate change, has scientists scrambling to…

  There is nothing false about the sense of security provided by the Fish Hoek beach shark exclusion net. The term “shark net” is used loosely to describe many mesh-based shark attack mitigation measures in place around the…

Now that the winter months are upon us, we are making preparations in South Florida for our annual visitors, the blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus). With these magnificent marine megafauna aggregating just off the coastline, our lab utilizes underwater…