ORCA TIMES- Quarterly report: January – March 2019

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RESEARCH & MONITORING Bumper breeding season for Robberg seals? Between January-March volunteers assisted biologists with six boat-based counts of Cape fur seals that haul out on Robberg Peninsula. Apart from routine counts of adult seals, which have levelled off since 2012 despite seasonal fluctuations in their numbers, our biologists were surprised by the large increase […]

EDUCATION- Overview!

Volunteer teaching young children at a local pre school

Education- Siyakula Pre-School Education Once a week, volunteers visit young children at the local crèche to give a lesson on basic English words based on the theme of the week. All teaching is done in English (translated by the teachers into their mother tongue of isiXhosa) so that kids can learn a second language. It […]

CONSERVATION Overview!

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Conservation- Beach Clean-Ups We regularly hike along Plettenberg Bay’s beaches to remove marine debris. Unfortunately we live in a world where people still expose of their rubbish from vessels, in rivers or on beaches. This often causes deadly entanglement in marine animals. Tiny plastic particles (micro-plastics) are also known to end up in the ocean […]

Endemic Red Roman

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Endemic red romans The red roman Chrysoblephus laticeps is a species of seabream endemic to southern Africa and found from Namibia to Port St. Johns in the Eastern Cape. The red roman is a striking orange to red fish with a robust build, it has a defined white bar on the gill cover and a white saddle. […]

July research blog

15.1 A microplastic found in a hake

July research blog Exciting news for the elasmobranch egg case project! Oceans Research (http://www.oceans-research.com/) in Mossel Bay will be collaborating with us on this project, and will be starting monthly egg case collections at a site in Mossel Bay. This is a wonderful opportunity to partner with a fantastic research organization and investigate what egg […]

Exciting times….. March Research Blog!!!

12.2 White chinned Petrel being released

Exciting times……. March research blog The elasmobranch egg case project has been progressing business as usual this month, although we are not able to process the egg cases fast enough to make up for the backlog of egg cases from the November to January period. In light of this, and that we have a year’s […]

Our first Research Blog for 2017!!!

10.3 Always taking photos

Our first research blog for 2017!!! The ORCA Foundation team has hit the ground running this year, busy both outdoors and in! Despite the volunteer program being closed for a number of weeks, ORCA staff maintained the elasmobranch egg case project. Surveys were continued, and egg cases were collected. Now with the volunteer program back […]

Our latest testimonies from our past volunteers!!!

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Our latest testimonies from our past volunteers!!! Simone Stadlbacher Austria (Aged 39 ) October 2016 “I spent a month in South Africa with the Orca Foundation and Ocean Blue Adventures. It was an amazing experience and I met so many great people. Thank you to the whole team for making me feel so welcome and teaching […]

October research blog!!

October Please remember to send in your Great White Shark sightings

October research blog. Well somehow October has passed us by and we are left with 3 weeks of the volunteer program. It has once again been a bit of a scramble to stay on top of the elasmobranch egg case project, which is currently sitting at 3918 egg cases. We have definitely seen an increase […]