It takes a single person…

You meet many, many people throughout your life, most of which come and go, but sometimes you meet one person that can really change the trajectory of your life. This happened to me.

As a third year ichthyology student, I was on the hunt for an Honours project. Our lecturer at the time mentioned a project with former SOSF Project Leader Prof. Paul Cowley looking at illegal fishing in the Tsitsikamma National Park Marine Protected Area in South Africa. Honestly, a dream project, and a fantastic collaboration with Kyle Smith of the South African National Parks. Could you possibly top walking the most scenic 5km of the infamous Otter Trail every day for one week per month for an entire year? Difficult to beat, for sure. However, for safety reasons, Paul had earmarked this project for a male student. Given I was part of a male-dominated class, I thought I didn’t stand a chance. However, I had nothing to lose, so approached Paul sharing my eagerness to be a part of this project despite me being a girl. A short discussion later, he agreed to take me on. And so started a wonderful working relationship, one for which I am forever grateful.

Prof Paul Cowley with a juvenile leervis (Lichia amia) caught in the Kowie Estuary, July 2013. Photo © Paul Cowley

A successful honours project was followed by an MSc on a South African endemic reef fish species, black musselcracker (Cymatoceps nasutus). This was my first taste of movement ecology research, as one aspect of the project involved analysing the conventional dart tagging data of this species collected by the Oceanographic Research Institute’s Cooperative Fish Tagging Project, a successful citizen science project that have been running for 40 years! However, I had barely completed my Honours year before Paul started planting the PhD seed, because he was always a degree ahead of where I actually was. So, when it came time to making decisions at the end of my MSc, it was a no-brainer for me; it had to be a PhD.

Taryn Murray and Paul Cowley testing some equipment in the Kowie Estuary. Photo © Paul Cowley

Enter acoustic telemetry! I started my PhD in 2012, and Paul and his student team were largely looking at the movement behaviour of estuary-dependent species in some of our Eastern Cape estuaries. But, the most exciting thing happened six months prior to me starting my PhD; the Acoustic Tracking Array Platform (ATAP) was formalised, which saw a backbone of acoustic telemetry equipment being deployed at key sites along the South African coastline, including False Bay, Mossel Bay, Algoa Bay, Port Alfred, Port St Johns, Sodwana and the border with Mozambique. Thus began the age of long-term, large-scale movement studies! To say that this marine research platform has only grown from strength the strength would be an understatement, going from roughly 100 deployed receivers to currently more than 350 (!!!), and this is mostly due to Paul’s extraordinary efforts. Paul had, and still has a pure knack for telling a story. You have a ‘boring’ research project? Well, with Paul, that was impossible, because he made you see the wonder of it! Through his tenacity and unmatched persuasion, he entered into what has arguably become the ATAP’s most valuable and valued relationship – becoming a long-term project partner of the Save Our Seas Foundation! A 12-year relationship with financial support for the platform’s running expenses has been nothing short of a blessing, and is largely the reason we’re still able to maintain the receiver network spanning approximately 2200 km (1370 miles) of the South African coastline.

Matt Parkinson, current ATAP Instrument Technician, and Paul Cowley with a common smoothhound (Mustelus mustelus) at a competitive angling event along South Africa’s south coast. Photo © Paul Cowley

Paul and I continued to stick together throughout my PhD, which was followed by a one-year postdoctoral fellowship, which eventually became the position in which I still find myself – Instrument Scientist working with the ATAP at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity. I mean, could life get any better where you get to focus solely on the movements of important fishery species along South Africa’s coastline? I think not. We ventured to conferences across the globe together, he allowed me to visit unbelievably beautiful places with sights yet to be beaten, including seeing the world’s largest giant trevally aggregation in southern Mozambique in a sea with visibility of 40m, and always provided so much opportunity. I now have the absolute privilege of managing the ATAP; it is an honour to continue Paul’s important work and to keep the ATAP alive! Long story short, a supervisor became a colleague, and finally became a life-long friend. Stick with those people that impact your life for the better. You won’t regret it!

Paul Cowley and Taryn Murray prepping a largemouth bass (Micropterus nigrins) for surgery where it was tagged with an acoustic transmitter and monitored for at least six months in the upper reaches of the Kowie Estuary. Photo © Dylan Howell

Taryn Murray, Paul Cowley and Rob Nettleton waiting for an acoustic receiver to resurface at Port St Johns on South Africa’s Wild Coast (the mouth to the Mzimvubu Estuary is in the background). Photo © Paul Cowley