As part of their offerings, the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation’s education team often leads groups of students on exciting and interactive rockpool explorations. 🌊 This gives students a chance to see marine life in their natural environment and better understand what they’re being taught inside the classrooms. 💪🏽
Stingray under the sand
Did you know that stingrays often cover themselves with sand on the seafloor? 🪸
Many rays, like our short-tail stingray here, bury themselves in the sand to hide themselves from predators while resting or digesting a recent meal! 🩵
Sea for yourselves at the Aquarium this week! 🌊
African penguin feeding
Have you watched a penguin feeding lately? 🐧
Our African penguin colony is fed twice daily by our Penguin Keepers. This is always fascinating to watch!
Check out feeding times here: https://www.aquarium.co.za/daily-activities
Another check-in with Bob
Time for another check-in with Bob 🐢
This time, we're looking into Bob's diet and why he eats (and enjoys) what he does! 😀
Dietary requirements and preferences tend to vary among different turtles. Our amazing Turtle Conservation Centre team sees to it that Bob and the rest of the turtles in our care are provided with food that contains the appropriate nutrients and are similar to what the turtles eat in the wild 💪
Animal keeper, Shanet Rutgers emphasizes environmental awareness for Call To Earth Day
In keeping with the #CallToEarth Day celebrations, we heard from Two Oceans Aquarium animal keeper, Shanet Rutgers 🐧
Shanet, who works mostly with penguins housed at the Aquarium, believes that the correct way forward is to educate individuals about the effects that our actions have on our marine life, specifically our African penguins, who are endangered.
Come and get a feel of our oceans at the Touch Pool Exhibit 🤩. Whether it’s touching a starfish, grabbing hold of some kelp, or simply just getting your hands wet, the Touch Pool’s got you covered! 🌊
Meet the spotted gully shark
SPOTTED GULLY SHARK🌿🦈🌿
They might only be the "second biggest sharks at the Aquarium", but there's no denying that the spotted gully sharks of the Kelp Forest Exhibit are absolutely beautiful!
These sharks are active and tenacious, using their short but powerful bodies to follow slippery, fast-moving prey like octopuses and small fish through strong currents and surgy shallow waters. Their teeth are also uniquely shaped to allow them to successfully hunt a variety of prey - pointy cusps helping them grip slippery squid, and flat sections to crush the shells of rock crabs.
📸: Gage Powell
https://www.aquarium.co.za/
Severely entangled Cape fur seal finally caught and rescued
For many months, the seal welfare and monitor team of the Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation Marine Wildlife Management Programme in the V&A Waterfront have been trying to rescue a particularly elusive Cape fur seal, which had become entangled with multiple nooses of improperly discarded fishing line and other litter items. After nine months - we finally managed to save this seal in a pretty daring rescue!
"Working with the seals in the V&A Waterfront and the Cape Town Harbour is something that we are very passionate about. Sometimes, it is easy to assist the seals that are in distress. Sometimes, it can take months. The suffering of this seal has been haunting and taunting us for nine months! And the frustration associated with not being able to help this animal, has been unbelievable. Being able to finally get all of the entanglements off this animal is really such a great relief. It does however make me wonder about all of the other animals that are out there, suffering like this one had, without being seen, and without receiving any help," said Marine Wildlife Specialist Claire Taylor.
Grabbing seals out of the water is not our team's usual method - but this situation was quite unique! But, as time goes on, nooses of plastic and fishing lines tend to become tighter as they slide lower on the seal's neck, and the risk of death becomes greater due to infection or snagging on a submerged object. For the good of the animal, the team needed to act. As is quite clear in the video below, these entanglements had already cut very deeply into the seal's flesh, and although these resilient animals are able to heal from these wounds surprisingly quickly, the healing process cannot start until the entanglement has been removed.
Read more here: https://www.aquarium.co.za/blog/entry/elusive-seal-finally-rescued-after-months-of-perseverance
Choose the SASSI Green List
Head Chef Lucio Ricardo De Allende knows how to cook up a feast, but whether he's cooking for his family at home or for guests hiring out one of the Aquarium's venues, he knows the importance of making sustainable food choices.🐟
When choosing seafood, Chef Lucio refers to the WWF South Africa SASSI Green List - a catalogue of South African seafood options that are deemed to be sustainable, meaning that the species itself is not at risk and that the methods used to catch it are not detrimental to the local biosphere. By looking at the entire supply chain, SASSI enables chefs and home cooks to use the ocean's resources in a sustainable manner, ensuring that they are preserved for future generations too.
So, next time you're considering seafood, check the SASSI List first - an easy #WorldOceanDay action to add to your life!
P.S. You can find the SASSI List here: https://wwfsassi.co.za/sassi-list/#
Skip the balloons the next time you celebrate
🎈What goes up, must come down, and Teacher Kirshia Govender sees this first-hand when finding the remains of party balloons and ribbons littering the ocean - items that can easily kill marine life.
A simple action you can incorporate into your life for World Ocean Day is simply to stop using balloons. Dozens of equally festive options, from colourful paper lanterns and chains to celebratory tree planting, exist as alternatives to harmful balloons and plastic ribbons!
Shopping secondhand to help the ocean
Senior aquarist Deen Hill spends a lot of time in the ocean for work, but when he's at home Deen knows his decisions also have an impact on the ocean.
One way that Deen helps the ocean is by choosing to buy secondhand items rather than new ones when possible - a small way to reduce the environmental impact of his daily life, and a great World Ocean Day lesson!
