Shark Centre visits Langa

Last week we spent a day at Moshesh Primary School, in Langa, Cape Town. It’s not an area we’ve worked in before, but being a township relatively far from the sea, our guess was that most of the grade sixes we were to meet would not have too many pre-conceived ideas about sharks. Wrong! They knew an interesting mix of accurate facts and misleading myths, but everyone had something to say about these ocean predators.

Basking sharks have huge mouths!

One point on which there was general agreement amongst the kids that these are creatures best avoided! And given that only five of the fifty grade six participants claim to have ever swum in the sea, it seems that these children are being successful in avoiding any chance of meeting a friendly elasmobranch in the surf. Not by choice, however – as always, the children’s interest in the ocean and its inhabitants was evident in their thoughtful questions and attentive listening. So next time we work with Moshesh, we’ll just have to get our feet wet and go rockpooling!