FREEDIVING & SNORKELING ARTICLES

Starfish or to use the correct, up-to-date, name ‘Sea stars’ are much loved star-shaped echinoderms. Like most people we use the two names interchangeably. There are about 1900 species of sea stars in the world’s oceans ranging from the tropics to the polar regions. They are found between the intertidal zone down to 6000m deep.

South Africa has five species of abalone which is locally referred to as perlemoen. Haliotis midae is the biggest of the South African abalone and most commonly seen. The others are Haliotis parva, Haliotis spadicea, Haliotis queketti and Haliotis speciosa. Abalone are marine gastropod molluscs or in simpler terms a large marine snail. The name

As far as worms go, the Feather duster worm also known as the Giant fanworm is one of the prettiest you’ll find in Cape Town’s kelp forests. The Feather duster worm (Pseudobranchiomma longa) is found between the intertidal zone and as deep as 200m. These beautiful feathery worms stand out even when surrounded by feather

Sea urchins are round, spiny echinoderms which roughly resemble a hedgehog rolled up into a ball. The word urchin is in fact derived from old French meaning hedgehog. There are about 950 types of sea urchin found around the world from the intertidal zone down to 5000 metres below. They also range from tropical waters

Feather stars, also known as crinoids, fall under the echinoderm group of marine animals. Echinoderm means ‘spiny skin’ in Greek and feather stars definitely have this despite their flowery appearance. In fact, it’s very easy for novice freedivers and snorkelers to mistake these animals for seaweed due to their stationary, flower-like appearance and their tendency

Whenever we take customers kelp forest snorkeling, their reaction on seeing sea anemones, starfish and urchins for the first time reminds us of how beautiful these creatures, which we tend to take for granted, really are. There are numerous species of these fascinating marine animals in the kelp forests and they seem to come in

We love all sharks, but small, inquisitive ones ‘dressed in pyjamas’ definitely get a bit more love from us. Pyjama sharks, also known as striped catsharks, are a common sight during our Cape Town snorkeling experiences and adventure freedives in the kelp forests. They are fairly abundant in the Western Cape’s intertidal zone and are

The Ocean sunfish is also commonly called the Mola or Mola mola. The Latin word ‘mola’ means millstone and is in reference to this fish’s peculiar round, grey shape which looks like a millstone. Its name in many other languages either translates to ‘sun’ or ‘moon’, while the funniest is one of its German names

Windmill Beach is without a doubt our top dive site and an amazing little beach. It is very sheltered and year round provides the best conditions for snorkeling in Cape Town. In terms of entry level freediving courses, only Long Beach in Simon’s Town offers better freediving conditions. The entire area is packed with marine