May research blog!

13.1 Puffadder shyshark egg case partially covered by sand

May research blog: The elasmobranch egg case project continues to progress smoothly. Despite having dropped our surveys to only once a month, we still haven’t been able to totally process through our backlog, though we are steadily moving through it. There will be a big celebration once we have conquered the mountain of egg cases! […]

August research Blog!!

August Our 7th species collected a Munchkin Skate e1472889523618

August research blog We have exciting news on the elasmobranch egg case project! After 7 months of surveying beaches we have finally collected a different egg case! Generally, we will collect egg cases from 6 different species: Dark Shyshark, Leopard Catshark, Puffadder Shyshark, Pyjama Shyshark, St Josephs Shark, and the Twineyed Skate. Finally, we can […]

Not one, but three, abalone species in Plettenberg Bay!

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Not one, but three, abalone species in Plettenberg Bay! If someone mentions abalone, it brings to mind one specific marine gastropod mollusk (sea snail) species Haliotis midae, also known as perlemoen. In fact, in Plettenberg Bay, there are 3 abalone species living in intertidal and subtidal waters. The most well-known abalone species is perlemoen, while […]

June Research Blog!

June Two macroinvertebrate species found this month1 e1467356730462

June research blog Winter is well underway and the ORCA team is feeling the chill – even our beach surveys for elasmobranch egg cases are now accompanied by a jersey each! With the project 5 months in we have collected 2176 egg cases of 6 different species, with Puffadder Shysharks by far the most common […]

Great White Sharks in Plettenberg Bay!!!

Great White shark Plett

There are roughly 100 shark species in southern Africa, and while most of them are very rarely seen and are harmless, Great White Sharks Carcharodon carcharias are of the more infamous of these species particularly due to its perceived aggressive nature. This shark species is one you will recognize on sight. It has a blue-grey […]

Farewell to our recent volunteers!

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Although we are always sad to say farewell to our wonderful volunteers – we do encourage them to share with us their experiences and feelings about the programme. We think it is important to share those feelings with you so when you are deciding whether to become an ORCA Volunteer or not you can browse […]

Farewell to Rachel Izzo!!

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We would like to say farewell to Rachel Izzo who has been with the ORCA Foundation for the past 4 weeks… She was one awesome person who always had a smile on her face and we wish you all the best for the future. This is what she had to say about the ORCA Foundation: […]