Despite being known most affectionately as puppies of the sea, there is more to seals than their playful demeanour and charismatic presence. In oceans across the globe, seals are a vital component of the food web and contribute to essential roles as keystone species within marine environments. Seals are grouped into three distinct families, namely: […]
Sea sponges are a curious group of organisms that have long since raised questions regarding their classification as either plants or animals. Originally thought to be plants due to their sessile nature, sponges have subsequently been reclassified as animals due to their lack of plant vascular systems or ability to create their own food through
Basket stars (Astrocladus euryale) are an intricately beautiful type of brittle star, mostly seen on sea fans and sometimes clinging to rocky outcrops. Basket stars and brittle stars are closely related to starfish and have a similar shape with a central disc and arms extending from it. Basket stars have 10 arms with numerous tiny
The Cape knifejaw (Oplegnathus conwayi) is the cold water equivalent of the tropical Parrotfish. While adult Cape knifejaws are dark grey, nothing close to a rainbow coloured Parrotfish, their juveniles are bright yellow with black vertical bands. Their teeth fuse together to form beak-like structures much like parrotfish. Its ‘beak’ has no doubt been the
The spotted gully shark (Triakis megalopterus), also referred to as the sharptooth houndshark, is a shark we are always excited to find in the kelp forests around Cape Town. We mostly encounter these houndsharks in shallow inshore areas particularly around Waters Edge, Shark Alley and Millers Point and around Buffels Bay in Cape Point Nature
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One of the top Cape Town tourist attractions is the penguin colony at Boulders Beach in Simons Town. We spend a lot of time in this area with our snorkelers and freediving students, especially at Windmill Beach which flanks the penguin colony on the southern side and Waters Edge which flanks it on the northern
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.
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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
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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
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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
