Say hi to Kate and Janosch 👋
They joined us in March… and clearly weren’t ready to leave, so they stayed on through April too.
From time on the water to hands-on fieldwork, they’ve been right in the middle of it all. Hear what their experience at Oceans Research Institute has been like 🌊🦈
The seal session hit hard: real cases, rabies risks, and how to stay safe. Not the “cute seal” version people expect.
Hands-on practice made it clear — handling matters, and getting it wrong isn’t an option.
Not all marine science happens in the ocean 🌊
Our students spent time at Hartenbos Animal Hospital learning what actually goes into handling strandings — turtles, seals, injuries, and the reality of working with wildlife.
🦈🌙 Night shore fishing = unexpected gems
Our students landed a lesser guitarfish (Rhinobatos annulatus) — a ray with a shark-like body, built for life on sandy seafloors.
We collect small fin clips for genetic work to better understand populations and connectivity.
All safely released.
🦈 A tagged white shark.
A full year of movement data.
And a clear spatial overlap with active fishing effort.
This isn’t just about one individual — it’s about what happens when shark movement and fisheries intersect.
We break it down here:
www.linkedin.com/posts/enrico...
Shifts in Great white shark presence aren’t driven by one factor.
Yes, Orca predation plays a role.
But as highlighted by Enrico Gennari, we need to focus on what we can control: shark nets, longlining, and human impact.
🎥 youtu.be/3nQvcTYxVi8?...
At the Oceans Research Institute, we’re learning responsible fishing techniques for research 🎣🌊 From tying rigs to using circle hooks and flattening barbs, it’s all about reducing harm while collecting solid data 🐟📊
#MarineResearch #EthicalFishing #OceanScience #CatchAndRelease
Finally back at sea after a week on land 🌊 Today we encountered two great white sharks 🦈 Numbers remain lower than expected, making every sighting a valuable reminder of why conservation efforts for this species are critical 💙
Wave energy is mixing the water column, redistributing nutrients, and reshaping nearshore habitats—often increasing turbidity and influencing where prey and predators move.
So while we’re stuck on land, the system is anything but still.
We’ll wait it out… eyes on the horizon for dolphins 🌊
Big swells this week mean no launches for now.
It might feel like a pause for us, but for the ocean this is all part of the process that keeps things functioning.
Your home above the bay 🌅🌊
Welcome to Twin Palms, a historic home in Mossel Bay built in 1902—now the base for Oceans Research. Today, it’s where future marine professionals start their journey: early mornings, fieldwork, and a community that feels like home.
Between shifting tides, unpredictable weather, and constantly moving organisms, no two sampling events ever look the same—and that variability is exactly what makes this work meaningful.
Fieldwork isn’t always perfectly framed—it’s often a mosaic of movement, teamwork, and controlled chaos 🌊
Somewhere in here: data collection, species identification, and at least one person trying not to slip on a rock.
It stores their stinging cells in its own tissues — a process called kleptocnidae — and can deliver a defensive sting if handled.
Strandings like this usually happen when strong onshore winds push surface-dwelling communities toward the coast.
Spotted on the beach in Infanta: the blue dragon, Glaucus atlanticus 🌊🐉
This tiny pelagic nudibranch spends its life drifting at the ocean surface, where it preys on venomous organisms like the Portuguese man o’ war.
They’ve had the weekend to explore — now it’s time for two full days of shifts discovering what this newly unlocked field site has to offer. 🌊🐟📍
Stay tuned for scenes from the shoreline, the water, and everything in between.
This week our students are exploring a place very close to our hearts — Infanta.
Where the Breede River meets the ocean, this small coastal town is packed with wild coastline, fynbos, and more marine life than you’d expect from such a quiet corner of South Africa.
From rocky shore creatures to the communities who depend on them, everything is linked in ways we often don’t stop to think about.
Seeing young learners begin to understand that they are part of nature — not separate from it — is always a powerful reminder of why this kind of outreach matters. 🌍🌊
Through ocean stories, shared experiences, and a lot of curiosity, we explored how this idea of connectedness doesn’t just apply to people, but to the natural world around us too.
This week we had the privilege of joining Erika Primary School alongside former Oceans Research student Pier Veller for a workshop centered around Ubuntu — “I am because we are.”
www.instagram.com/p/DWcEj27jUj...
Oceans Research has been involved in long-term field studies on white sharks for over a decade, and it is rewarding to see this work contributing to the growing global body of knowledge supporting their conservation.
Read the collection here: connectsci.au/wr/collectio...
The resulting peer-reviewed collection now serves as a consolidated reference for the latest scientific advances on this iconic apex predator.
This international symposium brought together experts from across the globe to present new findings on white shark ecology, movement patterns, and conservation challenges.
We’re proud to share that research led by our director, has been included in the White Sharks Global: Proceedings and Recent Advances in White Shark Ecology and Conservation, a special collection in Wildlife Research following the 2023 White Sharks Global Symposium in Port Lincoln, Australia.
Intertidal surprise this week 🌊⭐ We recorded a rare six-armed cushion star during our surveys. Cushion stars usually have five arms, but extra limbs can form when a damaged arm regenerates in an unusual way,a reminder of how resilient echinoderms are in these harsh, ever-changing habitats.
New study co-authored by Oceans Research director Dr. Enrico Gennari documents post-prandial visceral warming in free-swimming sharks using stomach-temperature biologging tags 🦈🌡️
Read the paper in Wildlife Research:
connectsci.au/wr/article/5...
This week at Oceans is flying by — we’ve been BUSY.
When we weren’t out on the water, we were analysing shark egg cases and found something special 👀 A rare biscuit skate (Raja straeleni) egg case.
Every “mermaid’s purse” helps us understand distribution and reproduction 🌊
Bringing together experts from across South Africa is a key step toward strengthening conservation planning for this vulnerable coastal species. 🌊
Oceans Research Institute was represented by Dr. Enrico Gennari at a recent conservation planning workshop focused on the endangered Indian Ocean humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea).
Marine research isn’t only done from a boat or underwater. 🌊
Aerial drones (UAVs) allow scientists to survey coastlines, monitor marine wildlife, and collect high-resolution imagery for species identification and habitat mapping.
Technology is expanding how we study the ocean.
